Edison Marshall

“ Famine could be endured—with that cold fatalism with which the Innuits, till they die, endure all misfortune—but it was the darkness that came with it that broke their hearts and their spirits. It was unspeakably terrible to meet famine in the darkness. The superstition that hounded them might have been grimly humorous before, but it was stark tragedy now. It is not bad to die, for death calls all the people in the end, but it is tragic to live under the scourge of fear. Already the lamps burned low and dim from the shortage of the precious seal-oil. ”

“ By the mercy of Tweegock's gods, the bear struck but once. But the same full stroke by any full-grown polar bear would have struck dead the mightiest musk-ox in the herd.
THERE is one spirit haunting these strange ice-deserts that is particularly well known to the Eskimos.
Only the priest, as a rule, can talk to the torno, that dwell in the great boulders and ice-mountains, or with the keyukut, that often haunt the bodies of beasts; but this one spirit, the most dreadful of all, shadows every igloo in the village. He came and stood that day before little Coonee, Tweegock's daughter. ”

“ Then thou wilt not wreak vengeance further on the people. Then thou wilt save them—thou wilt bring them the seal and the caribou—and break the famine. Kusiunek, for them I come to you, into thine own shadows!"
Little Coonee paused, shivering with terror. She wondered if Kusiunek would wait for her to come to him in the shadows, or whether he would reach into the Singing House, now that she had given herself, and take her now. Then the people would find only her lifeless form on the skin floor of the temple. ”

“ Kerallkuk waited a long time before he replied.
"I will pray to my spirits to intercede for us," he answered at last. "But ye know Kusiunek. An injury to him must often be repaid by destruction of all the people. Tweegock's spear stained the snow with his bright blood. Tweegock has already paid the price; how many more of us must pay I know not." He suddenly looked, with narrowing eyes, toward little Coonee. "Ye must not forget that his blood is among us still." ”

“ Shug-la-wina began.
"Wait, thou favored youth! It was Kusiunek we saw to-day, not merely Nenook, the bear. Why, ye ask me, did he then flee from Coonee, leaving his meat to us? My people, it was because Coonee also is blessed with powerful spirits." At the questioning grunts he heard on all sides he waved his fat hands. "I know it is not often that women are blessed with keyukut. When they are, they are thrice blessed. My people, she will grow to be great, to command the spirits of the air and the sea and the ice—even greater than I, Kerallkuk. ”

“ He can not only hound an individual to his destruction but he can lay a whole tribe down with fever, shatter them in their skin boats or destroy them by starvation.
The people did not doubt for an instant but that Kerallkuk told them true. It was wholly reasonable that Kusiunek; should take the form of a white bear. And now their childish hearts were choked with fear of what might come next.
"My people, when I heard this I seized Tweegock by the arm and told him what had just been told me," Kerallkuk went on solemnly. "Woe upon him, he did not heed me. 'It is only Nenook,' he told me. ”

“ It is not good to behold again one who has gone to an evil god. Even when common death takes any of the people, the Innuits have little wish to have them return. It is enough that they should sometimes cry softly in the darkness outside the igloo. Shug-la-wina remembered that he was betrothed to Coonee, and if she did return, after her dread surrender to Kusiunek, likely she would visit this very igloo. The thought was ice on the youth's heart. ”

“ ORPHAN girls are only a burden to the tribe, to begin with. And when one is not only a burden but a curse as well, it causes queer, creepy fancies to be born in the mind. Little Coonee, with her child's heart, could hardly give them admittance at first. Then there were long hours when she would lie awake in her robes, breathless and dry-eyed, letting them turn over and over in her brain. Old women, grandmothers of the people, often climbed to the high crags and leaped off into the Arsissut when they had become a burden to the tribe. ”

“ Love is one thing, a very important thing, even on these windy fields of ice, but a life of persecution by Kusiunek is quite another. Shug-la-wina looked with no pleasure on a marriage that would bring him under the curse of the evil one. It was really a tragic situation for little Coonee. ”

“ She knew vaguely that one of the tribe would adopt her, taking care of her until the time was ripe for her marriage to Shug-la-wina, the boy to whom her parents had promised her in infanthood. Yet she knew secretly that her position in the tribe would be less henceforth. Orphan girls are not in great demand among the Innuits. Where the very problem of existence is so hard to solve, the work of securing food and clothes so difficult, an additional mouth is a serious matter indeed to any family. Little Coonee would be given her food and clothes for the next few years because it was the tribe law ”

“ Because Nenook was growing to maturity in the same district that the tribe hunted, there was material in plenty to keep the tradition alive. Now and then one of the hunters caught sight of a fine young white bear that bore a scar, like a brand, across the bridge of his nose, thereupon losing interest in hunting and running all the way back to the shelter of his igloo. ”

“ Sometimes, when the ball-players that made the northern lights were resting in the sky, and when the moon's face was hidden, the night that pressed upon the village was black beyond any reach of thought. ”

“ It was a real crisis in the history of this little band of Eskimos. There were no other tribes to whom they could appeal for help. The failure of the hunt meant famine—and famine might easily mean death for all but the strongest and hardiest of the tribe. ”

“ The Eskimo nerve is an unstable thing, and even the best of human nerves are likely to become jumpy and uncertain when the ice-crags reecho with a bear's roars of rage and pain. Both Tweegock and his fellow hunter, Kerallkuk, the priest, had been cool enough before, stealthy and sure ”

“ And then Kusiunek will bring food to the tribe and harass them no more."
It was true that the white bear with the scarred muzzle had been seen several times of late, always in the region of the low hills that stood beside the sea, just to the north. It was Kusiunek, of course, and it was wholly reasonable that he had his igloo on the beach, back of those snowy hills. Of course, the hunters did not care to go near and determine its exact location. They had no wish to attract the attention of the evil god. ”