The Curse of the Viking Grave by Farley Mowat

Author:Farley Mowat
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781551992426
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2008-10-17T21:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

The Viking Bow

“THIS BOW WAS A MAN’S WEAPON! It gave my people strength for more generations than I can count. It was the gift we laid aside when the white men brought rifles to our land. That was a wrong thing we did, for men should not lay down the gifts which make them great.

“This was a gift that came to us in time out of memory; but I have that memory, for I am angeokok, a man of magic things, and the memory lived through all the many winters until it came to me.

“This was a gift of the Inohowik. They were mighty beings, more than men and yet not gods, for death felled them in the end. They were pale-skinned and bearded. Their eyes were blue with the color of deep ice.

“As for the place they came from, who knows their lands? We only knew it lay far to the east, over the salt water that has no shore. They traveled over that water in boats fifty times the size of a kayak, so it was said.

“In those days we lived closer to the salt water and there were not many of us in the land, but the Itkilit—the Indians—were many. They hated us and hunted us like rabbits. It was their custom to come far out into the plains in summertime, and they would fall upon the Innuit camps and slaughter all within. So we were much afraid.

“In the hunter’s moon of a certain year our people were camped on a river called Ikarluku. One morning a boy went to the river to spear fish, but soon he came running back crying that the Itkilit were come. The men seized their spears and stood trembling in front of the tents. But it was not the feared Itkilit who came down the river—it was a strange canoe made of heavy wood and rowed by eight strange men.

“These were Inohowik. They sat in pairs, and a ninth stood and faced them from the stern. He wore a shining iron cap upon his head and iron sheets that caught the rising sun upon his chest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.