The Eternal Maiden

fly in springtime?' she asked, simply. . . '

lked along a crevice in the lan

the last lane of open water-which writhed like a sable snake over the ice-to celebrate that period of mourning which precedes the dreadful night, and to give t

upon the earth. The forms of the mourning women were strangely magnified in the curious semi-luminance and, as their bodies moved to and fro i

d-the first herald of the aurora. To the south a gash of reddish orange, like the tip of a bloody-gleaming kn

rozen promontories loomed a majestic yet fearful shadowy shape-that of a giant thing,

ness in the gulches and crevices of the mountains, fil

silence p

a distance from the land that the sound of the waves was stilled. The birds had disap

bs rose softl

he hath gone to the south. And not until the birds sing in spring will he return. And Annadoah is left alone. Ookiah comes with the lash of wicked walrus thongs, and there is no blubber buried outside Annadoah's shelter. Neither is there oil.

n rose, and each, to her departed relatives and friends who had died in the sea, told about the

custom of the people, a fatherless defective child is doomed to death. So rigorous is their struggle to survive, so limited the means of existence, that a tribe cannot bear the burden of a single unnece

er chant to the departed. When she s

oice. "Yea, by her cajolery she persuaded our men to give unto the traders from the south our precious food.

unlimited good or ill. Believing they could persuade the dead to array themselves against Annadoah, the women took up Tongiguaq's denunciation and reviled Annadoah in their weird chant to the departed. Annadoah wrung her hands and wept. Bitter and jealous because the white chie

e opening of her ahttee and she clutched at a piece of old half-decayed skin. This was a remnant of her mother's father's clothing, a amulet given

h!" Annadoah

ndeed, the awful power of the disembodied. And to the dead in the cold shuddering sea they told how Annadoah had played with the men, how she had betrayed them to the white traders, cajoling the

l chanting malediction. In the weird gloom their vague forms leaped about, their arms writh

eir arms clawed the air. Through the dead curses were invoked upon Olafaksoah, the great trader, who had cowed them and robbed them. They begged of the tornarssuit that he might be rended by wolves, that his body might rot unburied, and that the spirits of his limbs might be severed and be compelled to wander in restless torment forever. They called anathemas upon his u

g her-all nature seemed to upbraid her. Tremblingly, with a last lingering hope, she crept on her knees to the edge of the lane of lapping black water. She whisper

lapping waves. "Thou art beautiful as the sun, but as Sukh-eh-nukh shall thou be eternally

n swinging ships. These mysterious jack o' lanterns of the arctic are cau

world beyond the gate of death filled her, and her blood ran cold. She felt utterly crushed, utterly helpless, and utterly deserted, both in the af

ce grown sad and wan. The women stood still, however, for a

pay-ava

ni-ako

ungah

o the one who utters them, came in the well known

d her eyes Ootah wa

byss . . . I lay asleep . . . for very long. It seemed like many moons. I could barely walk when I awoke. I had no food. I became very

and in the soft glimmer Annadoah saw that the face

e long night comes. Ootah heard thy cry

e face of the girl. She panted into full consciousness an

. She pointed to the gaunt, hollow-eyed shadow, empurpled-robed, a

"Thou wilt need shelter-I shall build thee an igloo. Thou wilt need food-I shall share all

urious perverse resentment for the yout

y. "My shadow yearns only to the

I all the more cherish thee. Thou art frail

t so sharp as the teeth in

r her-a pity and tendernes

ach thee to for

shelter dream of the summer sun, so my soul grows war

dly he caught her hands and pressed them. Annad

thee. It is against the custom of the tribe that

she shook

re for thee. I love t

. Thy hurt

ook her hea

o death in winter fly in sp

did no

el. He hurt me. Yet he gave my heart joy. My heart is dying-dyin

ning of their voices reached him as they

family. She was false at heart. The good mother bear protected her and gave her food. But yearning for her husband, she returned and to gain his favor betrayed the hiding place of the mother-bear and her young. Then the husband drove out with

bitter to the

would protect th

th of the wolves are in my heart,

ghtest of the stars-to the Eskimos an old man who waits by a blow-hole in the heavenly icefloes and liste

s being yearned for her. But Annadoah's hands were cold, her eyes were sullenly tur

"I shall wait. Perhaps he will come as he said when the spri

ice, he covered his face with his arms. The sound of his heartbroken sobbing was drowned in the fu

ite world. The ice floes glistened as with the dust of diamonds. The ice covered faces of the promontories glowed with the sheen of burnished metal. The clouds became tremulou

nlight filled his soul. Then the hopelessness and tragedy of all it symbolized were unfolded

moon! Oh, desolate an

nhappy is the

sanguaq laughing evilly. Of late Maisanguaq had gibed her with her desertion; he was bitter toward her. But nothing mattered to Annadoah. She thought of the

eeze to death in wint