ith mine. I thought of these
things day by day, and when I grew to a stripling I came to ask why
this should be so.

'And they answered, "We do not know, but that in such way your fathers
did." And I marveled that those which were to come should fight the
battles of those that were gone, and in it I could see no right. But
the people said it must be, and I was only a stripling.

'And they said I must hurry, that my blood might be the older and grow
strong before hers. This was easy, for I was head man, and the people
looked up to me because of the deeds and the laws of my fathers, and
the wealth which was mine. Any maiden would come to me, but I found
none to my liking. And the old men and the mothers of maidens told me
to hurry, for even then were the hunters bidding high to the mother of
Unga; and should her children grow strong before mine, mine would
surely die.

'Nor did I find a maiden till one night coming back from the fishing.
The sunlight was lying, so, low and full in the eyes, the wind free,
and the kayacks racing with the white seas. Of a sudden the kayak of
Unga came driving past me, and she looked upon me, so, with her black
hair flying like a cloud of night and the spray wet on her cheek. As I
say, the sunlight was full in the eyes, and I was a stripling; but
somehow it was all clear, and I knew it to be the call of kind to kind.

'As she whipped ahead she looked back within the space of two
strokes--looked as only the woman Unga could look--and again I knew it
as the call of kind. The people shouted as we ripped past the lazy
oomiaks and left them far behind. But she was quick at the paddle, and
my heart was like the belly of a sail, and I did not gain. The wind
freshened, the sea whitened, and, leaping like the seals on the
windward breech, we roared down the golden pathway of the sun.' Naass
was crouched half out of his stool, in the attitude of one driving a
paddle, as he ran the race anew. Somewhere across the stove he beheld
the tossing kayak and the flying hair of Unga. The voice of the wind
was in his ears, and its salt beat fresh upon his nostrils.

'But she made the shore, and ran up the sand, laughing, to the house of
her mother. And a great thought came to me that night--a thought worthy
of him that was chief over all the people of Akatan. So, when the moon
was up, I went down to the house of her mother, and looked upon the
goods of Yash-Noosh, which were piled by the door--the goods of