官术网_书友最值得收藏!

第1章 THE GOD OF HIS FATHERS(1)

  • Tales of Troy
  • Andrew Lang
  • 1028字
  • 2016-01-07 09:34:19

On every hand stretched the forest primeval,--the home of noisy comedy and silent tragedy.Here the struggle for survival continued to wage with all its ancient brutality.Briton and Russian were still to overlap in the Land of the Rainbow's End--and this was the very heart of it--nor had Yankee gold yet purchased its vast domain.The wolf-pack still clung to the flank of the cariboo-herd, singling out the weak and the big with calf, and pulling them down as remorselessly as were it a thousand, thousand generations into the past.The sparse aborigines still acknowledged the rule of their chiefs and medicine men, drove out bad spirits, burned their witches, fought their neighbors, and ate their enemies with a relish which spoke well of their bellies.

But it was at the moment when the stone age was drawing to a close.Already, over unknown trails and chartless wildernesses, were the harbingers of the steel arriving,--fair-faced, blue-eyed, indomitable men, incarnations of the unrest of their race.By accident or design, single-handed and in twos and threes, they came from no one knew whither, and fought, or died, or passed on, no one knew whence.The priests raged against them, the chiefs called forth their fighting men, and stone clashed with steel; but to little purpose.Like water seeping from some mighty reservoir, they trickled through the dark forests and mountain passes, threading the highways in bark canoes, or with their moccasined feet breaking trail for the wolf-dogs.They came of a great breed, and their mothers were many; but the fur-clad denizens of the Northland had this yet to learn.So many an unsung wanderer fought his last and died under the cold fire of the aurora, as did his brothers in burning sands and reeking jungles, and as they shall continue to do till in the fulness of time the destiny of their race be achieved.

It was near twelve.Along the northern horizon a rosy glow, fading to the west and deepening to the east, marked the unseen dip of the midnight sun.The gloaming and the dawn were so commingled that there was no night,--simply a wedding of day with day, a scarcely perceptible blending of two circles of the sun.Akildee timidly chirped good-night; the full, rich throat of a robin proclaimed good-morrow.From an island on the breast of the Yukon a colony of wild fowl voiced its interminable wrongs, while a loon laughed mockingly back across a still stretch of river.

In the foreground, against the bank of a lazy eddy, birch-bark canoes were lined two and three deep.Ivory-bladed spears, bone-barbed arrows, buckskin-thonged bows, and simple basket-woven traps bespoke the fact that in the muddy current of the river the salmon-run was on.In the background, from the tangle of skin tents and drying frames, rose the voices of the fisher folk.

Bucks skylarked with bucks or flirted with the maidens, while the older squaws, shut out from this by virtue of having fulfilled the end of their existence in reproduction, gossiped as they braided rope from the green roots of trailing vines.At their feet their naked progeny played and squabbled, or rolled in the muck with the tawny wolf-dogs.

To one side of the encampment, and conspicuously apart from it, stood a second camp of two tents.But it was a white man's camp.

If nothing else, the choice of position at least bore convincing evidence of this.In case of offence, it commanded the Indian quarters a hundred yards away; of defence, a rise to the ground and the cleared intervening space; and last, of defeat, the swift slope of a score of yards to the canoes below.From one of the tents came the petulant cry of a sick child and the crooning song of a mother.In the open, over the smouldering embers of a fire, two men held talk.

"Eh? I love the church like a good son.Bien! So great a love that my days have been spent in fleeing away from her, and my nights in dreaming dreams of reckoning.Look you!" The half-breed's voice rose to an angry snarl."I am Red River born.My father was white--as white as you.But you are Yankee, and he was British bred, and a gentleman's son.And my mother was the daughter of a chief, and I was a man.Ay, and one had to look the second time to see what manner of blood ran in my veins; for Ilived with the whites, and was one of them, and my father's heart beat in me.It happened there was a maiden--white--who looked on me with kind eyes.Her father had much land and many horses; also he was a big man among his people, and his blood was the blood of the French.He said the girl knew not her own mind, and talked overmuch with her, and became wroth that such things should be.

"But she knew her mind, for we came quick before the priest.And quicker had come her father, with lying words, false promises, Iknow not what; so that the priest stiffened his neck and would not make us that we might live one with the other.As at the beginning it was the church which would not bless my birth, so now it was the church which refused me marriage and put the blood of men upon my hands.Bien! Thus have I cause to love the church.

So I struck the priest on his woman's mouth, and we took swift horses, the girl and I, to Fort Pierre, where was a minister of good heart.But hot on our trail was her father, and brothers, and other men he had gathered to him.And we fought, our horses on the run, till I emptied three saddles and the rest drew off and went on to Fort Pierre.Then we took east, the girl and I, to the hills and forests, and we lived one with the other, and we were not married,--the work of the good church which I love like a son.

為你推薦
長(zhǎng)安的荔枝(雷佳音、岳云鵬主演影視劇原著小說(shuō))
會(huì)員

同名實(shí)體書新鮮上市,馬伯庸歷史短小說(shuō)“見微”系列神作!大唐天寶十四年,長(zhǎng)安城小吏李善德突然接到一個(gè)任務(wù):要在貴妃誕日之前,從嶺南運(yùn)來(lái)新鮮荔枝。荔枝保鮮期只有三天,而嶺南距長(zhǎng)安五千余里,山水迢迢,這是個(gè)不可能完成的任務(wù)。為了家人,李善德只得放手一搏……古裝版社畜求生記,帝國(guó)夾縫中的小人物史詩(shī)。

馬伯庸 7.2萬(wàn)讀過
麻衣神算子
會(huì)員

爺爺教了我一身算命的本事,卻在我?guī)腿怂懔巳蚊?,離開了我。從此之后,我不光給活人看命,還要給死人看,更要給……

騎馬釣魚 738萬(wàn)讀過
龍族Ⅰ:火之晨曦(修訂版)
會(huì)員

《龍族第2季》7月18日起每周五10點(diǎn),騰訊視頻熱播中!人類歷史中,總是隱藏著驚人的秘密。在多數(shù)人所不知道的地方,人類與龍族的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)已經(jīng)進(jìn)行了幾千年。路明非的十八歲,在他最衰的那一刻,一扇通往未知國(guó)度的門轟然洞開。直升機(jī)如巨鳥般掠過南方小城的天空,在少年路明非的頭頂懸停。隱藏在歷史中的那場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng),就要重開大幕。歡迎來(lái)到……龍的國(guó)度!

江南 7.1萬(wàn)讀過
劍來(lái)(1-49冊(cè))出版精校版
會(huì)員

大千世界,無(wú)奇不有。我陳平安,唯有一劍,可搬山,斷江,倒海,降妖,鎮(zhèn)魔,敕神,摘星,摧城,開天!我叫陳平安,平平安安的平安,我是一名劍客。走北俱蘆洲,問劍正陽(yáng)山,赴大驪皇城,至蠻荒天下。斬大妖,了恩怨,會(huì)舊人,歸故鄉(xiāng)??套謩忾L(zhǎng)城,陳平安再開青萍劍宗!

烽火戲諸侯 2.8萬(wàn)讀過
奪嫡
會(huì)員

【古風(fēng)群像+輕松搞笑+高甜寵妻】【有仇必報(bào)小驕女X腹黑病嬌九皇子】《與君歡》作者古言甜寵新作!又名《山河美人謀》??腃P的皇帝、吃瓜的朝臣、大事小事都要彈劾一下的言官……古風(fēng)爆笑群像,笑到停不下來(lái)!翻開本書,看悍婦和病嬌如何聯(lián)手撬動(dòng)整個(gè)天下!未婚夫又渣又壞,還打算殺人滅口。葉嬌準(zhǔn)備先下手為強(qiáng),順便找個(gè)背鍋俠。本以為這個(gè)背鍋俠是個(gè)透明病弱的“活死人”,沒想到傳言害人,他明明是一個(gè)表里不一、心機(jī)深沉的九皇子。在葉嬌借九皇子之名懲治渣男后。李·真九皇子·策:“請(qǐng)小姐給個(gè)封口費(fèi)吧。”葉嬌心虛:“你要多少?”李策:“一百兩?!比~嬌震驚,你怎么不去搶?。。?/p>

月落 2.5萬(wàn)讀過
主站蜘蛛池模板: 道孚县| 惠安县| 潞城市| 四会市| 临桂县| 绥德县| 抚松县| 新竹市| 嘉义县| 普洱| 东光县| 翁牛特旗| 左贡县| 贺州市| 东海县| 文山县| 紫阳县| 韩城市| 滦平县| 靖远县| 新昌县| 孟津县| 麟游县| 陆川县| 连江县| 汤原县| 广昌县| 桦川县| 长兴县| 凤阳县| 洛川县| 文昌市| 罗甸县| 德安县| 鄂托克前旗| 凤阳县| 旌德县| 琼海市| 西安市| 石屏县| 东乡族自治县|