Allan and the Ice Gods (16 page)

fashion, a knowledge of the code and of what happened to those who

broke it grew by degrees. Thus, when Turi the Food-Hoarder managed to

secure more than his share of the spread of stockfish by arriving

earlier than the others, his hoard was raided and most of it

distributed among the poor, after which he was more careful in the

hiding of his ill-gotten gains.

Again, when Rahi, the rich trader, was proved to have supplied bad

bone-fish hooks, broken at the point or weak in the shank, in exchange

for skins which had been received by him in advance, Moananga went

with some men, and digging beneath the floor of his hut, found scores

of hooks wrapped up in hide, which they took and distributed amongst

those of the tripe who had none. Great was the outcry of Rahi, but in

this case few joined in it, for all loved to see who battened on the

poor in the hour of their necessity forced to disgorge some of his

gain.

Moreover, although he offended many who murdered and plotted against

him on the whole, Wi gained great credit for these good laws of his.

For now the people knew that he who dwelt in the cave was no murderer

or robber, as Henga and other chiefs had been, but a man who, taking

from them as little as might be, was honest, and although often, as

they thought, foolish, one who strove for the good of all. Therefore,

by degrees, they came to obey his laws—some more and some less—and,

although they abused him openly, in private they spoke well of him and

hoped that his rule would continue.

Yet at last trouble came. It chanced that a certain sour-natured woman

named Ejji bore a female child, and, not wishing to be troubled with

it, forced her husband to lay it on a stone at the edge of the forest

where the wolves came every night, that it might be devoured by them.

But this woman was watched by other women—set about the business by

Pag, who knew her heart and suspected her—as was her husband, who was

seized when he had laid the child upon the stone at nightfall even as

he told his wife Ejji what he had done and received her thanks.

Next morning, both of them were brought before Wi, who sat dealing out

justice at the mouth of the cave. He asked them what had become of the

girl child that was born to them within a moon. Ejji answered boldly

that it had died and its body had been cast away according to custom.

Thereon Wi made a sign and a foster mother was led from the cave

bearing the child in her arms, for thither it had been taken, as Wi

had promised should be done in such cases. The woman Ejji denied that

it was her child, but the husband, taking it in his arms, said

otherwise and, on being pressed, admitted that what he had done was

against his will and for the sake of peace in his home.

Then, when the finding of the child had been proved, Wi, after

reciting the law, ordered that these two, who were rich and not driven

by need, should be taken at sunset and tied to trees by that stone

upon which they had exposed the child, that the wolves might devour

them. At this stern sentence there was much trouble among the tribe,

most of whom had thrown out female infants in their time, and threats

were made against Wi.

Yet he would not change his judgment, and at nightfall, amidst

lamentations from their relatives and friends, the pair were taken out

and tied to the trees, whereon they were abandoned by all as evildoers

who had been unlucky enough to be found out.

During the night, growlings and cries were heard rising from the

direction of the trees, which told the tribe that Ejji and her husband

had been devoured by the wolves which always wandered there at a

distance from the huts where, unless they were very hungry, they dared

not come, because of the fires and the pitfalls. The death of these

two made the people very angry, so much so that many of them ran up to

the cave to revile Wi by whose order it had been brought about,

shouting out that the killing of men and women because they wished to

be rid of a useless brat was not to be borne. Greatly were they

astonished when, there in the mouth of the cave, they saw three dead

wolves, and standing behind them, bound hand and foot, Ejji and her

husband.

Then waddled forth Pag, holding a red spear in his hand, who said:

“Listen! This pair were justly condemned to die by the death that they

would have given to their child. Yet went forth Wi the chief, and

Moananga his brother, and I, Pag, with some dogs and waited in the

night close by but where they could not see us. Came the wolves, six

or eight of them, and flew at these two. Then we loosed the dogs and,

at risk to ourselves, attacked the brutes, killing three and wounding

others so that they ran away. Afterward we unbound Ejji and her

husband and carried them here, for they were so frightened that they

could scarcely walk. Now, by the command of Wi, I set them free to

tell all that, if another girl is cast forth, those who do the deed

will be left to die and none will come to save them.”

So Ejji and her husband were loosed and crept away, covered with

shame; but for his dealings in this matter Wi gained great honour, as

Moananga and even Pag did also.

After this, no more girl children were thrown out to die or to be

devoured, but, on the other hand, several were brought to Wi because

their parents said they could not support them. These infants, as he

had promised he would do, he took into the cave, setting aside a part

of it near to the light and fires for their use, which, as the place

was large, could be done easily. Here the mothers must come to feed

them till they were old enough to be given into the charge of certain

women whom he chose to nurse them.

Now, all these changes caused much talk in the tribe, so that two

parties were formed, one of which was in favour of them and one

against them. However, as yet no one quarrelled with Wi, whom all knew

to be better and wiser than any chief told of in their tradition.

Moreover, the people had other things to think of, since now, in the

summer months, was the time when food must be stored for the long

winter.

At this business Wi and his Council made everyone work according to

his strength, even the children being used to collect the eggs of

seabirds and to spread out the cod and other fishes, after cleaning

them, to dry in the sun in a place, watched day and night, where the

wolves and foxes could not come to steal them. A tithe of all this

food went to the chief for his support and for that of those dependent

on him. Then half of what remained was stored against days of want,

either in the cave or, to keep it fresh, buried deep in ice at the

foot of the glaciers with great stones piled upon the top to make it

safe from the wolves and other beasts of prey.

Thus did Wi work from dawn to dark, with Pag to help him, directing

all things, till often he was so tired that he fell asleep before he

could lie down; he who hitherto had spent most of his days hunting in

the open air. At night he would sometimes rest in Aaka’s hut, for she

kept her word and would not come into the cave while Pag was there.

Thus they lived in seeming agreement and talked together of small

matters of daily life, but no more of those over which they had

quarrelled.

The boy Foh, however, although he slept in his mother’s hut at night

as he was commanded to do, lived more and more with his father because

there he was so welcome. For Aaka was jealous even of Foh, and this

the lad knew—or felt.

The winter came on very early indeed that year; there was little

autumn. Of a sudden, on one calm day when a sun without heat shone,

Wi, who was walking on the shore with Urk the Aged, Moananga, and Pag,

for he was so busy that thus he was forced to take counsel with them,

heard a sound like thunder and saw the eiderduck rise in thousands,

wheel round, and fly off toward the south.

“What frightened them?” he asked, and Urk answered:

“Nothing, I think, but when I was a boy, over seventy summers gone, I

remember that they did just the same thing at about this time, after

which came the harshest and longest winter that had been known, when

it was so cold that many of the people died. Still, it may happen that

the fowl were frightened by something, such as a shaking of the earth

when the ice stirs farther north at the end of summer. If so, they

will return, but if not, we shall see them no more till next spring.”

The duck did not return, although they left so hurriedly that hundreds

of flappers which could scarcely fly remained behind and were hunted

down by the children of the tribe and stored in the ice for food. Also

the breeding seals that came up from the south and other creatures

went away with their young, as did most of the fish.

Next night there was a sharp frost, warned by which Wi set the tribe

to drag in firewood from the edge of the forest, where firs blown down

by storms lay in plenty. This was a slow and toilsome task, because

they had no saws with which to cut up the trees or rid them of the

branches, and could only hack them to pieces slowly with flint axes.

From long experience, they counted on a month of open weather for this

wood harvest before the snow began to fall, burying the dead trees so

that they could not come at them, for this fuel-dragging was their

last task ere winter set in.

That year, however, snow fell on the sixth day, although not thickly,

and the heavy sky showed that there was more to come. Noting this, Wi

set the whole tribe to work and, neglecting everything else, went out

with them to make sure that all did their share. Thus it came about

that, in fourteen more days, they had piled up a greater store of wood

than Urk had ever seen in all his life, and with it much moss for the

camp wicks and many heaps of seaweed left by the high tides, which, if

kept dry under earth, burned even better than did the wood.

The people grumbled at this incessant toil, carried on in sleet or

lightly falling snow. But Wi would not listen to their complaints, for

he was frightened of he knew not what, and made them work through all

the hours of the daylight, and even by that of the moon. Well was it

that he did so, for scarcely were the last trunks dragged home, the

boughs brought in and piled up by the boys and girls, and all the

heaps of seaweed earthed up, when a great snow began to fall which

continued for many days, burying the land several feet deep, so that

it would have been impossible to come to the fallen trees or to

collect the moss and seaweed. Then, after the snow, came frosts, great

frosts that continued for months.

Never had such a winter been known as that which began with this

snowfall, especially as the daylight seemed to be shorter than in the

past, though this they held was because of the continual snow clouds.

Before it was done, indeed, even the greatest grumbler in the tribe

blessed Wi, who had laid up such vast stores of food and fuel, without

which they must have perished. As it was, many who were old or weakly

died, as did some of the children; and because it was impossible to

bury them in the frozen earth, they were taken away and covered with

snow, whence presently the wolves dug them up.

As the months went on, these wolves became very terrible, for, being

unable to find food, they ravened boldly round the village, and even

rushed into the huts at night, dragging out some of their inmates,

while in the daytime they lay in wait to catch children. Then Wi

caused steep snow banks to be made as a protection, and at certain

places kept fires burning, doing all he could to scare the beasts.

Great white bears from the sea-borne ice appeared also, roaming round

and terrifying them, though these creatures seemed to be afraid of man

and did not kill any people. Drawn by its smell, however, they dug up

some of the buried stores of food and devoured them, which was a great

loss to the tribe.

At length the attacks of these wolves and other wild beasts grew so

fierce and constant that Wi, after consulting with Moananga and Pag,

determined that war must be waged against them before more people were

devoured. Now in the ice-topped hills behind the beach where the huts

stood was a certain high-cliffed hole from which there was no escape

and which could only be entered by a narrow gorge. This was the plan

of Wi, the cunning hunter—to drive all the wolves into that great

rock-surrounded hole, and to build a wall across its mouth over which

they could not climb and thus to be rid of them. First, however, he

must accustom them to enter that place, lest they should break back.

This he proposed to do in the following fashion.

At the beginning of the winter, a dying whale of which the tongue was

torn out by thresher sharks, had drifted ashore, or rather into

shallow water, and the tribe was set to work to cut it up when it was

dead for the sake of its blubber and meat. This they did, piling up