In the Time That Was Part 3

[5] _North, East, South and West._

[6] _Witch Doctor._

"From each corner he took a stone and spat upon it and cast it over his shoulder, and in the dust drew the shapes of animals like unto rolled deer-thongs, animals with two tongues such as no man has seen upon earth.[7]

[7] _Snakes are unknown in Alaska._

"To the s.p.a.ce Yaeethl dragged logs and laid them end across end and bottom on top. As each tier was laid he sang words in a strange language, and as he sang, spat upon and cast pebbles over his shoulder as before.

"But toward Heenhadowa were the eyes and tongue of Yaeethl the eyes of the blind and the tongue of the dumb. Busily he worked and loudly sang his charms, but to the Thirst Spirit he gave neither look nor word.

"On Yaeethl were the eyes of Heenhadowa fastened, strained were his eyes, watching the doings of the Raven, wide his ears to catch the words of the songs and charms.

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"When the roof was on and the house finished to the last piece of moss between the logs, Yaeethl again circled it three times, bowed again to the guardians of the earth's ends, and without looking behind, entered the lodge and closed the door.

"Curiosity filled eyes and ears, heart and belly of Heenhadowa.

Though he had lived since the Beginning, never before had he seen what that day he had seen, never had his ears been greeted with such words and songs.

"And to Heenhadowa the inside of the lodge was the pack, as was the outside the lone wolf tail.

"Even so had Yaeethl planned, nor was that the end of the cunning of the Raven, who knew that no door can bar the going in of curiosity.

"Long sat Heenhadowa before the door of his well-house, gazing at the lodge of Yaeethl. And the longer he sat and the longer he gazed the keener grew his desire to see what was hidden from his eyes by the walls and closed door, grew until it tortured him as the thirsty are tortured, beyond endurance.

"And Heenhadowa rose from his seat by the well.

"From the place where he had sat for ages rose the Thirst Spirit and stepped softly. Toward the closed door he moved as moves one who is pulled at the end of a thong, for the fear of the unknown was upon him. But stronger than his fear was his desire to know what lay behind the door, stronger even than his fear of those strange animals that were drawn in the dust, dust pictures that made his blood ice.

"Before the door he stopped and glanced back the way he had come, at his well and well-house he looked, then pus.h.i.+ng against the door with his hand, stepped within the house builded by Yaeethl, made by Yaeethl the Raven, Yaeethl the Cunning.

"No man knows what Heenhadowa found within the lodge of the Raven.

Only this we know.

"When the time of the boiling of a salmon had pa.s.sed, from the door stepped Yaeethl walking as a man walks who has been carrying a heavy pack. Behind him he closed the door and against it rolled a heavy stone, a stone so heavy that not even K'hoots the Grizzly, the Strong One, could have moved it away again.

"Within the lodge was silence, silence big with unborn noise.

"To the well of Heenhadowa, the father of wells among the mountains, the well untasted of man or beast, flew Yaeethl, Yaeethl the Desirer of All Things.

"And when the Raven stood beside the well he bowed his head and drank.

"Some say that it took him many moons, some put it the length of a man's life, but, long time or short time, when the head of Yaeethl the Raven was lifted the well was dry.

"Of water there was none in the well of Heenhadowa.

"In the belly and mouth of the Raven was the water. All.

"Then did Yaeethl spread wide his wings of blackness and fly the way of his coming.

"As he flew over the bosom of Klingatona-Kla, the Earth Mother, in this place and in that he spat out some of the water. And where spat the Raven there sprang up streams, and rivers, and lakes.

"When he had flown so long and so far that the water was gone from his mouth, and in his belly was not fresh, then from his belly and his mouth he cast it, salt, and Athlch, the Ocean, was."

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I waited silently, for there was an uplift in Zachook's voice that made me think there was more to follow, but it was only:

"If you listen to the words of them that know not, they will tell you that Haechlt is a great bird the falling of whose eyelids makes thunder, the flas.h.i.+ng of whose eye is the lightning, but if my words be the words of truth, then is thunder the angry voice of Heenhadowa whom Yaeethl made prisoner, and lightning the cracks in the lodge walls when he throws himself against them, struggling to be free. Should he succeed----

"But, bird or Thirst Spirit, from Yaeethl is the gift of water. So say I again----when you drink, give thanks to the Raven that chewed roots are not the answer to thy dry lips,--give thanks, and pray that the rock rolls not away."

And I gave thanks, quoting to myself another of Zachook's sayings, "Better a wasted arrow than lost game."

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_Ta-ka the Mosquito and Khandatagoot the Woodp.e.c.k.e.r_

"As Foolish as One Who Shoots Arrows at Mosquitoes."

Zachook, with a half amused, half sympathetic smile at my futile efforts to slaughter a small percentage of the mosquito cloud that enveloped us, made a smudge of leaves, and I willingly exchanged the tortures of being eaten alive for those of slow strangulation in the acrid smoke.

My remarks had been neither calm nor patient, consisting mainly of my entire vocabulary of opprobrious adjectives and epithets several times repeated and diversified, aided by a wide, but wholly inadequate, range of profanity in the various languages at my command. And, to digress slightly, I would recommend the study of Arabic and Spanish to those feeling a similar need; they do not meet all requirements of forcible expression, but they add some wonderful flights of imagination to the more practical English expletives.

Zachook was apparently as unimpressed as the mosquitoes, but when I had recovered some portion of my breath and equanimity, remarked: "He who shoots with his tongue should be careful of his aim."

Choking with anger and smoke I could only splutter in reply, while Zachook continued:

"Ta-ka is Ta-ka, and Yaeethl is Yaeethl."

"What has the Raven to do with these insufferable pests? Has he not enough to answer for without linking his name with these suckers of blood? Yaeethl is Yaeethl, but Ta-ka is Ta-ka."

"Yaeethl or Ta-ka. The get of the Raven are ravens, and from Yaeethl comes Ta-ka the Biter.

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"When the selfishness of men had driven the G.o.ds from the earth, the Great Ones held a council in Tskekowani, a potlach in the World Beyond. All the G.o.ds were there. They talked of the sins of men and of the punishments that should be visited upon them. Long they talked.

"Then Theunghow, Chief of G.o.ds, called each by name, and bade him name his sending.