And he went away into the darkness, the blankets around him, and Jelchs nodding sleepily under his arm.

THE SUNLANDERS

Mandell is an obscure village on the rim of the polar sea.  It is not large, and the people are peaceable, more peaceable even than those of the adjacent tribes.  There are few men in Mandell, and many women; wherefore a wholesome and necessary polygamy is in practice; the women bear children with ardor, and the birth of a man-child is hailed with acclamation.  Then there is Aab-Waak, whose head rests always on one shoulder, as though at some time the neck had become very tired and refused forevermore its wonted duty.

The cause of all these things,—­the peaceableness, and the polygamy, and the tired neck of Aab-Waak,—­goes back among the years to the time when the schooner Search dropped anchor in Mandell Bay, and when Tyee, chief man of the tribe, conceived a scheme of sudden wealth.  To this day the story of things that happened is remembered and spoken of with bated breath by the people of Mandell, who are cousins to the Hungry Folk who live in the west.  Children draw closer when the tale is told, and marvel sagely to themselves at the madness of those who might have been their forebears had they not provoked the Sunlanders and come to bitter ends.

It began to happen when six men came ashore from the Search, with heavy outfits, as though they had come to stay, and quartered themselves in Neegah’s igloo.  Not but that they paid well in flour and sugar for the lodging, but Neegah was aggrieved because Mesahchie, his daughter, elected to cast her fortunes and seek food and blanket with Bill-Man, who was leader of the party of white men.

“She is worth a price,” Neegah complained to the gathering by the council-fire, when the six white men were asleep.  “She is worth a price, for we have more men than women, and the men be bidding high.  The hunter Ounenk offered me a kayak, new-made, and a gun which he got in trade from the Hungry Folk.  This was I offered, and behold, now she is gone and I have nothing!”

“I, too, did bid for Mesahchie,” grumbled a voice, in tones not altogether joyless, and Peelo shoved his broad-cheeked, jovial face for a moment into the light.

“Thou, too,” Neegah affirmed.  “And there were others.  Why is there such a restlessness upon the Sunlanders?” he demanded petulantly.  “Why do they not stay at home?  The Snow People do not wander to the lands of the Sunlanders.”

“Better were it to ask why they come,” cried a voice from the darkness, and Aab-Waak pushed his way to the front.

“Ay!  Why they come!” clamored many voices, and Aab-Waak waved his hand for silence.