Read Ebook: A Traveler's Narrative Written to Illustrate the Episode of the Báb by Abdu L Bah

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Ebook has 483 lines and 15746 words, and 10 pages

I One Eye 1

II No Man 10

V The Moose 51

VI She Wolf 66

X The Death of No Man 111

XX Sunrise Digs a Cave 207

Fled Howling into the North Frontispiece

He Scratched Pictures on Bone Page 12

Unconquered--Bleeding to Death " 59

"Not Till I am Dead" " 122

The Knitter of Nets " 185

She Sobbed in His Arms " 227

ONE EYE

Old One Eye sat in the mouth of his cave and blinked. Though he blinked both eyes, he could see only out of one of them. Years ago, when One Eye was called Swift Foot, and could run down a deer in the open, the other had been pierced by a thorn and destroyed.

It was wonderful when you came to look at him, to think that old One Eye ever could have been a swift runner, for his legs were no longer nor bigger than his arms. His body was long, heavily paunched and massive; his head hung forward on his hairy chest and he sat hunched over like an ape.

In truth, One Eye looked very much like an ape. His forehead was flat and retreating, his jaw undershot and powerful, and he was covered with matted hair pretty much all over.

His one eye at times was beady black with intelligence, and the next minute it would waver and become plaintive and unreasoning like the eye of a frightened little child. His manner of life was like his eye.

At times he would behave after a cunningly-thought-out schedule, and the next minute he would be doing something that was purely instinctive.

As he sat in the mouth of his cave blinking, and scratching his stomach with a blunt flint, he was revolving a mighty question. One Eye had a daughter.

According to our notions she was very ugly, but the men of the tribe to which One Eye belonged were after her. It was the mating season and she was of suitable age to pair. She looked like her father, but was not so hairy. Her mother had been eaten by wolves when Maku was only a few years old. And so she had been brought up by her father, who was very fond of her. And now that it was time for them to part, he naturally wanted a considerable compensation for the loss of his daughter. She made him very comfortable.

Strong Hand had offered three very finely balanced clubs. You had only to swing one to be confident of getting your man. And One Eye wanted the clubs very dearly. He loved to fight--and get the best of it. But then, Fish Catch, the renowned maker of nets, had offered him one of his best for the girl. And One Eye, who could not make nets himself, knew that his own private net was so rotted as to be useless, and that in order to live comfortably it was necessary to have a net--for a good net meant good food. So he was sadly torn in his mind.

There had been other offers for the girl, but none so glittering. And One Eye had promised on this very afternoon to decide between Strong Hand and Fish Catch.

When they came up, stooping, hairy, bent of knee, and stealthy, the one bearing the net, the other the clubs, One Eye had not come to any decision.

They sat down before him, without salutation, and for some moments blinked and dug at the earth with their toes. Strong Hand was the first to speak.

"With any of these clubs--" he began.

But Fish Catch broke in.

"Clubs!" and grunted. "What are the use of weapons to one that is without means of procuring food. It is well known that One Eye is too old to hunt with success. If he would live he must fish. Now this net--see it is of the best fibre, and knotted as I alone can knot. It will last you twenty years--maybe twenty-five--"

"One Eye," said Strong Hand, "is first of all a fighter. If he gives me the girl I will see to it that he never wants for food."

"That is the best talk yet," said One Eye.

"Then you give her to me?" said Strong Hand.

"Slowly--slowly," said One Eye. "I must have time to consider. But whom have we here?"

NO MAN

The three paused to listen. The intelligent look went out of their eyes, and gave place to the plaintive child look--the animal look.

"That will be No Man," said Fish Catch presently.

Now if you or I had been in the glade in front of One Eye's cave, we would not have known that there was anybody but One Eye, Strong Hand and Fish Catch within a hundred miles. But these three men having the acuteness of dogs, had heard footsteps that were half a mile away, and not only that, but they had almost instantly known to whom the footsteps belonged. If the wind had been right, they could have told also by sense of smell.

"He is coming in this direction," said One Eye.

"He steps stronger with one foot than the other," said Strong Hand. "He is carrying something heavy."

"Perhaps No Man wants One Eye's daughter," said Fish Catch with an ugly laugh.

"I wonder what he is carrying?" said One Eye.

This No Man was so called, because he would neither hunt, fish, make weapons, nets, or marry. Therefore he was No Man. He lived on charity, and scratched pictures on bone. That was the only thing that interested him. He was suffered to live only because he was mysterious and because the tribe liked to go to his cave and look at the pictures when there was nothing better to do.

Presently he came out of the woods, slope-shouldered and long-armed like the others, but not so heavily built, nor so apishly skulled. He seemed, besides, less stealthy, but more timid.

He had tucked under his right arm a huge flat bone. This he laid before One Eye. It was covered with little etched scenes of the chase and of the fight--throughout which a man, palpably having but one eye, deported himself with the utmost heroism--now strangling a bear, and now beating the life out of an enemy.

"This," said No Man, "is the whole story of One Eye from the beginning. It is the most beautiful picture bone that has ever been made in the world. Sitting alone in my cave, it befell on a time that a great loneliness came upon me. And the woman whose image rose most often before me, was the daughter of One Eye. Therefore I have wrought the bone, sparing no labor, and now I offer it to One Eye for the loss of his daughter. It is a thing which will keep him company in his old age. For to look upon it is to be reminded of his glorious deeds."

As One Eye examined the picture bone, the intelligence went out of his one eye. It wavered and became plaintive. Reason told him that nets were more valuable than clubs and clubs more valuable than pictures. But desire, which is a thing apart from reason, clamored for the bone.

"I wish this picture bone," he said presently. "It is of no use, neither is it of any value. Yet I wish it."

Strong Hand and Fish Catch looked at one another stealthily and then at No Man. It would be impossible to say which sprang upon him first, nor at whose hands he suffered the most. They so choked, beat and clubbed him that he screamed for mercy. One Eye blinked in the mouth of his cave and chuckled.

"Is it enough?" cried Strong Hand presently, "Filthy-do-nothing--Marrowless-bone."

"It is enough," said No Man, and they let him go.

Directly he had gained his feet, he ran from that place with incredible swiftness, and howled as he ran.

"The picture bone," said Fish Catch to One Eye, "is now ours, but knowing that you desire it, we give it to you to be a solace in your old age. And now it remains for you to choose between those admirably balanced but somewhat antiquated clubs which Strong Hand offers and this invaluable net knotted by myself."

"Fish Catch--Strong Hand," said One Eye, "I have thought of a way by which we may all be satisfied. The thought came to me when you fell upon No Man. Let each one of you take a club, and at the word fight, the one who wins shall give me his present and take the girl."

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