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The Sunlanders
by
“Bill-Man has been other times in the Snow Lands,” Aab-Waak answered, “else would he not speak the speech of the Bear People, which is like the speech of the Hungry Folk, which is very like the speech of the Mandells. For there have been many Sunlanders among the Bear People, few among the Hungry Folk, and none at all among the Mandells, save the Whale People and those who sleep now in the igloo of Neegah.”
“Their sugar is very good,” Neegah commented, “and their flour.”
“They have great wealth,” Ounenk added. “Yesterday I was to their ship, and beheld most cunning tools of iron, and knives, and guns, and flour, and sugar, and strange foods without end.”
“It is so, brothers!” Tyee stood up and exulted inwardly at the respect and silence his people accorded him. “They be very rich, these Sunlanders. Also, they be fools. For behold! They come among us boldly, blindly, and without thought for all of their great wealth. Even now they snore, and we are many and unafraid.”
“Mayhap they, too, are unafraid, being great fighters,” the weazened little old hunter objected.
But Tyee scowled upon him. “Nay, it would not seem so. They live to the south, under the path of the sun, and are soft as their dogs are soft. You remember the dog of the Whale People? Our dogs ate him the second day, for he was soft and could not fight. The sun is warm and life easy in the Sun Lands, and the men are as women, and the women as children.”
Heads nodded in approval, and the women craned their necks to listen.
“It is said they are good to their women, who do little work,” tittered Likeeta, a broad-hipped, healthy young woman, daughter to Tyee himself.
“Thou wouldst follow the feet of Mesahchie, eh?” he cried angrily. Then he turned swiftly to the tribesmen. “Look you, brothers, this is the way of the Sunlanders! They have eyes for our women, and take them one by one. As Mesahchie has gone, cheating Neegah of her price, so will Likeeta go, so will they all go, and we be cheated. I have talked with a hunter from the Bear People, and I know. There be Hungry Folk among us; let them speak if my words be true.”
The six hunters of the Hungry Folk attested the truth and fell each to telling his neighbor of the Sunlanders and their ways. There were mutterings from the younger men, who had wives to seek, and from the older men, who had daughters to fetch prices, and a low hum of rage rose higher and clearer.
“They are very rich, and have cunning tools of iron, and knives, and guns without end,” Tyee suggested craftily, his dream of sudden wealth beginning to take shape.
“I shall take the gun of Bill-Man for myself,” Aab-Waak suddenly proclaimed.
“Nay, it shall be mine!” shouted Neegah; “for there is the price of Mesahchie to be reckoned.”
“Peace! O brothers!” Tyee swept the assembly with his hands. “Let the women and children go to their igloos. This is the talk of men; let it be for the ears of men.”
“There be guns in plenty for all,” he said when the women had unwillingly withdrawn. “I doubt not there will be two guns for each man, without thought of the flour and sugar and other things. And it is easy. The six Sunlanders in Neegah’s igloo will we kill to-night while they sleep. To-morrow will we go in peace to the ship to trade, and there, when the time favors, kill all their brothers. And to-morrow night there shall be feasting and merriment and division of wealth. And the least man shall possess more than did ever the greatest before. Is it wise, that which I have spoken, brothers?”
A low growl of approval answered him, and preparation for the attack was begun. The six Hungry Folk, as became members of a wealthier tribe, were armed with rifles and plenteously supplied with ammunition. But it was only here and there that a Mandell possessed a gun, many of which were broken, and there was a general slackness of powder and shells. This poverty of war weapons, however, was relieved by myriads of bone-headed arrows and casting-spears for work at a distance, and for close quarters steel knives of Russian and Yankee make.