The Eternal Maiden

en over the thundering seas and through a frigid

floe rocked beneath them-they slipped to and fro on the ice . . . About them the frightful darkness roared; they felt the

horizon. In this brief spell of daily increasing twilight the desolate region took on a grey-blue hue; the natives, as

y the hurt in his heart remained. Annadoah had often visited him, and while he lay on his bed of furs she had boiled ahmingmah meat and made hot

very bra

she had said he had

He loved Annadoah more deeply than ever, and his greatest concern was for her. He might win her-yes, perhaps s

these things, Ootah espied in the sem

al. Lifting his harpoon, Ootah attacked the bear. It rose on its haunches and parried the thrusts. A half-dozen lean dogs came dashing from the shelters and jumped about the creature. The bear grunted viciously-the dogs howled. The bear was lean and faint from hunger, and its fight was brief-the

n the distance. The animal was making its direction seaward, and this indicate

ces to which the seal rise under the ice and come to the surface to breathe. For a long while the men waited. Standing near the holes, their weapons ready to strike, they imitated the call of seals. Finally there was a snorting noise beneath one of the holes. Ootah detected a slight rise of vapor. Attalaq's harpoon descended. A joyous c

e more and more dangerous. One day Attalaq and Ootah, while walking along th

the zest of the hunt

great-the ice spl

signal for preparations to depart. A selection had to be made of the best dogs for the dangerous trip. Few dogs remained in the village; many had been frozen by the bitter cold; others had to be killed as food for their

edges, each of which was drawn by a team of five lean, hungry dogs. Aft

orizon. As they sped northward past great promontories they saw several auks. Later two pt

along the sky-line, the atmosphere became perceptibly warmer, and

e marching, a very faint crackling noise vibrated through the ice under their feet. They ceased singing. Four of the party paused and would have turned back. Ootah urged them onward. They paced off

ge of the sea ice they passed great lakes of open water. The twilight still continued to thicken,

termittently for breath. In the deep gloom the hunters saw fountains of spray ascending as they breathed. Hitchi

escent green, appeared above the water. Maisanguaq struck, so did Arnaluk. They let out their harpoon lines-the savage beasts dove downward, then rose for breath. In their frantic struggle their heads beat against the ice about the edge of the space of open water. The natives fled backward-the ice broke into thousands of fragments. Each time the animal

s became alarmed. As they were drawing the first walrus to the ice a sound, like the discharge of a gun beneath the sea, startled them. Seizing their knives they dexterously fell upon the animal and lifted the meat and blubber in long slices from the b

m their feet. Not far away they heard the tumultuous crash of the rising waves. As they were lashing the blubber to Ootah's sledg

g sound of artillery. Whipped by the terrific gale the snow cut their faces like bits of steel. In the darknes

ow a dreadful question as to whether a return was possible. As he was hitching the dogs to the loaded sledge he suddenly gave a start. Was he dreaming? Was he hearin

. . . gathering substance as it approached over the ice. It moved unc

t?" he called

n of the elements, a voice

. . .

f the snow-driven blackness a f

ured, seizing the trem

ed about

ad surrendered to his arms; for the first time he held her close to him; death-for the moment-lost its terrors-he felt that he

almost drowned

. . . they invoked . . . of the dead . . . upon me . . . I was afraid." Ootah felt her shuddering in his arms. "The women came unto my igloo," she repeated wildly-"they desired that ravens peck my eyes-that I rest without a grave-that my body lie unburied and that my spirit never rest. And the curse of darkness-io-o-h-h!-they called the curse of darkness upon me. They trampled upon me with their feet, and they tore at my hair . . . They came unto my ig

dishevelled. Ootah felt her f

his heart bounding in the thought that she had

he wind held me back. But I knew thou wert here-my heart led me; my heart found thee as birds find grass in the mountains. Ootah! Ootah! I fear I shall die!" S

isanguaq, his head bent near so as

nd of his voice. Ootah felt

here?" she whispe

the waves imprisoned beneath them. It tre

r-stricken dogs. Their howls

k! Huk!"

g carried steadily and slowly seaward, but he had hopes that the ice field would swerve landward to

the snow-driven darkness and over the moving field of ice. Annadoah murmur

fore them a snaky space of water, blacker than the darkness about them, and capped with faintl

Ootah called. "L

isanguaq encou

nd near the glac

nt reply about the women who called upon t

g dizzy. The beloved burden in his arms became unsupportably heavy. They travelled in utter darkness, near them the desirous clamor of the waves. Seaward, at times, where the splitting floes crashed aga

e skin. Finally the dogs refused to move. "We can go no further," said Maisanguaq, in terror. "I am re

both men to reel. The ice field

ept against one of the many land-adhering

d dizzily in an eddy of the released foaming waters. On all sides the inky waves seethed up among the crevices of the sundering floes. To the south Ootah heard the brea

!" cried Maisanguaq in

of Nerrvik they

hose in the other world. His mind was occupied with a more im

ar upstander of the sled, which had begun to slid

Ootah, with his one free hand, lifted the axe and drove it into the ice. With the other hand he still gripped the unconscious woman. Her hair swished about his legs in the howling wind.

lled. Maisanguaq pass

ely pinioned. Very gently he placed Annadoah upon the mass of walrus meat and lashed her body in turn to the sled and about the stakes. With

usness pass away. On all sides the waves hissed. Torrents of water swept over the floe. Ootah felt his limbs freezing; he felt his arms becoming numb. He feared that at any moment he should lose his grip and be swept into the raging sea. Then he thought of Annadoah and conjured new courage. For a while the dogs whin

indicated an approach to land. The waves came in shorter, but quicker swells. The

he called. "We must bi

y were actually being carried to the sheltering harbor of the arm-like glacier south of the village. Ootah quickly began

ut to leap upon him. Maisanguaq's eyes dimly glowered in the dark. Ootah rose quickly. Maisanguaq drew back and uttered

lay bet

raced h

led jealousy and seething envy endured quietly for many seasons. He moved abo

t, Maisanguaq,"

aq was strong, he knew the ice was treac

therefore, thou or I must die." Maisanguaq'

t," Ootah repl

e, and with thee dead, my strength shall cow her. As men did

sen-her heart is in the so

e from thine own self to give oil to her; didst thou not fawn upon her and perform the services of a woma

oah," Ootah s

d thou h

perchance I

id she not greet thee as women greet their lovers when thou camest fro

nother-her heart

fell upon her with their curses? Her heart wings to thee, d

the south," Oot

," cried Maisanguaq. "The heart of

their feet. At times they reached, in their frightful struggle, the very edge of the floe, and seemed about to tumble into the seething sea. Ootah felt Maisanguaq trying to force him into the watery abyss-but he fought backward . . . time and time again . . . They constantly fell over the unconscious woman on the sledge. About them the darkness roared; they felt the heaving sea b

Ootah were engaged in a fight to the death. In the darkness she sensed them moving away from her. Straining her eyes she began, very dimly-as Eskimos can even in pitch darkness-to descry the black outlines of the two men wrestling as they shifted nearer and nearer the edge of the ice. Then it dawned upon Annadoah's mind that they were being carried, in the jeopardy of an awful storm, on a floe that was tossed hither and thither in a maelstrom of angry waters. A frantic desire to save Ootah surged up within her. Behind him she saw the swimming blackness of the heaving waves. She attempted to ris

h! Oo

did no

sts of mighty waves and being swiftly hurled into foaming troughs of water. Frigid spray bathed her face. Still the two vague shadows, darker than the night, slowly and labo

tainous wave . . . rising in the distance . . . She became cold with white fear-she felt her blood turn to ice . . . She screamed and struggled v

terrific pull, he drew one of the harpoons out of the ice and with his knife speedily cut it loose from the lashings. Ootah, stunned for a moment, turned

There was none. He moved over the floe cautiously, feeling the darkness. Creeping to the edge he saw something dimly white and blurred on the receding wave. "Maisanguaq," he called, softly. There was a pang at his heart,

sang

e waves

e loosened the dogs. Only three lived. Biding his time until the floe was ground securely among others, he then dragged his loa

name. Presentl

ark-very dark-I wonder . . . whether

d moment she nestled to him and

e is he?" She he

the long journ

lief and again floated into th

, blocked ice. Much as he regretted it, he was compelled to leave the precious load of walrus blubber behind, so as to carry Annadoah, who was unable to walk, on the sledge. He covered the blubber with cakes of

ind. The half-frozen dogs rose to their task nobly and pulled at the traces. Ootah pushed the sledge from behind. He trusted to the sure

Ootah heard Annadoah m

ed that two of his companions had gone to join Maisanguaq. The first party had safely reached the shore before the breaking away of the ice. The news of Ootah's a

well within her, that she was ill, ye she-wolves? She sees things that are n

Her face was flushed, and as she lay there Ootah thought she was very beautiful. She had become much

h," she said, essayin

ve of heart .

s soft as that of a woman; this was, indeed, to him reward fo

ah?" he asked softly, a world of pleading in hi

eamily, and her voice quavere

er eyes, and Ootah felt an

thou remember what the women told their dead? . . . They invoked the dead to curse me . . . as I stood by the open sea . . .

ell within thee," he said.

d in her disturbed dreams, as Ootah watched through the lon