Read Online Allan and the Ice Gods by H. Rider Haggard - Free Book Online

ask you what I must do after you
    are dead and I have killed your family, you do not say: ‘Why, follow
    me, of course, and look for me in the darkness, and if you find
    nothing it will be because there is nothing to find,’ as you would
    have done did you love me. No, you say, ‘Do as you will. What is it to
    me?’ Still, I shall come with Foh and Aaka, although, of course, I
    must be a little behind them, because it will take time to fulfil your
    orders, and afterward to do what is necessary to myself. Still, wait
    for me an hour, even if Aaka is angry, as she will be.”
    “So you think you would find me somewhere, you who do not believe in
    the gods,” said Wi, staring at him with his big, melancholy eyes.
    “Yes, Wi, I think that, though I don’t know why I think it. I think
    that the lover always finds the beloved, and that therefore you will
    find Fo-a and I shall find you. Also, I think that, if I am wrong, it
    doesn’t matter, for I shall never know that I was wrong. But as for
    those gods who dwell in the ice, piff! ” and again Pag snapped his
    fingers in the direction of the glacier and went on with the skinning
    of the wolf.
    Presently this was finished and he threw the gory hide, flesh side
    down, over his broad shoulders to keep it stretched, as he said, for a
    little blood did not trouble him. Then, without more talk, the pair
    walked down to the beach, the squat misshapen Pag waddling on his
    short legs after the burly, swift-moving Wi.
    Here, straggling over a great extent of shore, were a number of rough
    shelters not unlike the Indian wigwams of our own age, or those rude
    huts that are built by the Australian savages. Round these huts
    wandered or squatted some sharp-nosed, surly-looking, long-coated
    creatures, very powerful of build, that a modern man would have taken
    for wolves rather than dogs. Wolves their progenitors had been, though
    how long before it was impossible to say. Now, however, they were
    tamed, more or less, and the most valued possession of the tribe,
    which by their aid kept at bay the true wild wolves and the other
    savage beasts that haunted the beach and the woods.
    When these animals caught sight of Wi and Pag, they rushed at them,
    open-mouthed and growling fiercely till, getting their wind, of a
    sudden they became gentle and, for the most part, returned to the huts
    whence they had come. Two or three of them, however, which were his
    especial property and lived in his hut, leapt up at Wi, wagging their
    tails and striving to lick his hand or face. He patted one upon the
    head, the great hound Yow whom he loved, and who was his guard and
    companion when out hunting, whereon the other two, in their fierce
    jealousy, instantly flew at its throat, nor did Pag find it easy to
    separate them.
    The noise of the worrying attracted the tribe, many of whom appeared
    from out of the huts or elsewhere to discover its cause. They were
    wild-looking people, all dark-haired like Wi, though he was taller and
    bigger than most of them, very like each other in countenance,
    moreover, as a result of inbreeding for an unknown number of
    generations. Indeed, a stranger would have found difficulty in
    distinguishing them apart except by their ages, but as no stranger
    ever came to the home of the beach people, this did not matter.
    The most of them also were coarse-faced and crushed-looking as though
    they were well-acquainted with the extremities of cruelty and hardship
    —which was indeed the case; like Wi, however, some of them had fine
    eyes, though even these were furtive and terror-stricken. Of children
    there were not many, for reasons that have been told, and these hung
    together in a little group, perhaps to keep out of the way of blows
    when their elders appeared, or in some instances wandered round the
    fires of driftwood on which food was cooking, bits of seal meat, for
    the most part, toasting upon sticks—for the tribe were not advanced
    enough in the domestic arts to