Read Online Allan and the Ice Gods by H. Rider Haggard - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: H. Rider Haggard
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through a hole in the roof, though, the morning
being still, much hung about, making the air thick and pungent, but
this Wi, being accustomed to it, did not notice.
On the farther side of the fire, attending to the grilling of strips
of flesh set upon pointed sticks, stood Aaka, Wi’s wife, clothed in a
kirtle of sealskins fastened beneath her breast, for here, the place
being warm, she wore no cloak. She was a finely built woman of about
thirty years of age, with masses of black hair that hung to her
middle, clean and well-kept hair arranged in four tresses, each of
which was tied at the end with fibres of grass or sinew. Her skin was
whiter than that of most of her race; indeed, quite white, except
where it was tanned by exposure to the weather; her face, though
rather broad, was handsome and fine-featured, if somewhat querulous,
and, like the rest of her people, she had large and melancholy dark
eyes.
As Wi entered, she threw a curious, searching glance at him, as though
to read his mind, then smiled in rather a forced fashion and drew
forward a block of wood. Indeed, there was nothing else for him to sit
on, for furniture, even in its simplest forms, was not known in the
tribe. Sometimes a thick, flat stone was used as a table, or a divided
stick for a fork, but beyond such expedients the tribe had not
advanced. Thus their beds consisted of piles of dried seaweed thrown
upon the floor of the hut and covered with skins of one sort or
another, and their lamps were made of large shells filled with seal
oil in which floated a wick of moss.
Wi sat down on the log, and Aaka, taking one of the sticks on which
was spitted a great lump of frizzling seal meat, not too well cooked
and somewhat blackened by the smoke, handed it to him and stood by
dutifully while he devoured it in a fashion which we should not have
considered elegant. Then it was that Foh, rather shyly, draw out from
some hiding place a little parcel wrapped in a leaf, which he opened
and set upon the ground. It contained desiccated and somewhat sandy
brine, or rather its deposit, that the lad with much care had scraped
off the rocks of a pool from which the sea water had evaporated. Once
Wi by accident had mingled some of this dried brine with his food and
found that thereby its taste was enormously improved. Thus he became
the discoverer of salt among the People, the rest of whom, however,
looked on it as a luxurious innovation which it was scarcely right to
use. But Wi, being more advanced, did use it, and it was Foh’s
business to collect the stuff, as it had been that of his sister,
Fo-a. Indeed, it was while she was thus engaged, far away and alone,
that Henga the chief had kidnapped the poor child.
Remembering this, Wi thrust aside the leaf, then, noting the pained
expression of the boy’s face at the refusal of his gift, drew it back
again and dipped the meat into its contents. When Wi had consumed all
he wanted of the flesh, he signed to Aaka and Foh to eat the rest,
which they did hungrily, having touched nothing since yesterday, for
it was not lawful that the family should eat until its head had taken
his fill. Lastly, by way of dessert, Wi chewed a lump of sun-dried
stockfish upon which no modern teeth could have made a mark for it was
as hard as stone, and by way of a savoury a handful or so of prawns
that Foh had caught among the rocks and Aaka had cooked in the ashes.
The feast finished, Wi bid Foh bear the remnants to Pag in his shelter
without, and stay with him till he was called. Then he drank a
quantity of spring water, which Aaka kept stored in big shells and in
a stone, her most valued possession, hollowed to the shape of a pot by
the action of ice, or the constant grinding of other stones at the
bottom of the sea. This he did because there was nothing else, though
at certain times of the year Aaka made a kind of tea by boiling an
herb she knew of in a shell, a potion that all of them
being still, much hung about, making the air thick and pungent, but
this Wi, being accustomed to it, did not notice.
On the farther side of the fire, attending to the grilling of strips
of flesh set upon pointed sticks, stood Aaka, Wi’s wife, clothed in a
kirtle of sealskins fastened beneath her breast, for here, the place
being warm, she wore no cloak. She was a finely built woman of about
thirty years of age, with masses of black hair that hung to her
middle, clean and well-kept hair arranged in four tresses, each of
which was tied at the end with fibres of grass or sinew. Her skin was
whiter than that of most of her race; indeed, quite white, except
where it was tanned by exposure to the weather; her face, though
rather broad, was handsome and fine-featured, if somewhat querulous,
and, like the rest of her people, she had large and melancholy dark
eyes.
As Wi entered, she threw a curious, searching glance at him, as though
to read his mind, then smiled in rather a forced fashion and drew
forward a block of wood. Indeed, there was nothing else for him to sit
on, for furniture, even in its simplest forms, was not known in the
tribe. Sometimes a thick, flat stone was used as a table, or a divided
stick for a fork, but beyond such expedients the tribe had not
advanced. Thus their beds consisted of piles of dried seaweed thrown
upon the floor of the hut and covered with skins of one sort or
another, and their lamps were made of large shells filled with seal
oil in which floated a wick of moss.
Wi sat down on the log, and Aaka, taking one of the sticks on which
was spitted a great lump of frizzling seal meat, not too well cooked
and somewhat blackened by the smoke, handed it to him and stood by
dutifully while he devoured it in a fashion which we should not have
considered elegant. Then it was that Foh, rather shyly, draw out from
some hiding place a little parcel wrapped in a leaf, which he opened
and set upon the ground. It contained desiccated and somewhat sandy
brine, or rather its deposit, that the lad with much care had scraped
off the rocks of a pool from which the sea water had evaporated. Once
Wi by accident had mingled some of this dried brine with his food and
found that thereby its taste was enormously improved. Thus he became
the discoverer of salt among the People, the rest of whom, however,
looked on it as a luxurious innovation which it was scarcely right to
use. But Wi, being more advanced, did use it, and it was Foh’s
business to collect the stuff, as it had been that of his sister,
Fo-a. Indeed, it was while she was thus engaged, far away and alone,
that Henga the chief had kidnapped the poor child.
Remembering this, Wi thrust aside the leaf, then, noting the pained
expression of the boy’s face at the refusal of his gift, drew it back
again and dipped the meat into its contents. When Wi had consumed all
he wanted of the flesh, he signed to Aaka and Foh to eat the rest,
which they did hungrily, having touched nothing since yesterday, for
it was not lawful that the family should eat until its head had taken
his fill. Lastly, by way of dessert, Wi chewed a lump of sun-dried
stockfish upon which no modern teeth could have made a mark for it was
as hard as stone, and by way of a savoury a handful or so of prawns
that Foh had caught among the rocks and Aaka had cooked in the ashes.
The feast finished, Wi bid Foh bear the remnants to Pag in his shelter
without, and stay with him till he was called. Then he drank a
quantity of spring water, which Aaka kept stored in big shells and in
a stone, her most valued possession, hollowed to the shape of a pot by
the action of ice, or the constant grinding of other stones at the
bottom of the sea. This he did because there was nothing else, though
at certain times of the year Aaka made a kind of tea by boiling an
herb she knew of in a shell, a potion that all of them
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