The Worthington advance., 1876-07-13

tlbuLly UJuIlu Will IOpcS Ie1edSluR
himself with few contortions of the
body is in hourly progress. In fact,
the cabinet manifestations of the Da-
venport Brothers, the Fays, and 9TH
ers, have been so thoroughly exposed
that the only surprise is that appar-
emily intelligent people are still led
astray by the claim of there being
something supernatural in such enter.
tainments.
An Esquimaux Story.
|. From MacGahan's Under the Northern Lghts'
There was once a woman who had a
son and daughter. As the son grew
up he became hunter, and one day he
killed thong-seal, from the skin of
which he proposed to cut some thongs.
But the mother wanted the skin for
some other purpose, and she and the
boy quarreled about it.
Then she went and pronounced
a charm on the sealskin, and when he
went to cut it up the end of thong
flew up, struck his eyes, and made him
blind.
The winter came on, they were de.
stitute of seal meat, and had to live
entirely on mussels, for the blind
hunter could go hunting no more.
But one day bear appeared at the
window and began to eat away at the
window pane, which was made of skin.
The mother and daughter fled to the
other side of the house, but the strip.
ling asked for his bow. His sister
gave it to him he bent it, asked her to
take aim for him, and then he shot and
killed the animal. The mother said,
'sThou hast missed.'' But the sister
whispered, ssThou hast killed the
bear.''
They had now plenty of meat, but
the mother refused to give the boy
any, pretending that as he had not
killed the bear there was none, and
only gave him mussels. But the SIS
ter gave him his share of the bear.
meat in secret.
Finally in the spring a flock of wild
geese restored the boys sight, and he
resumed his hunting occupations.
lie, with his sister, used to 20 out
on the edge of the ice, where the seals
and white whales "a kind of dolphin)
were seen, and he would kill them
with his harpoon. He had no hunting
bladder, but he used to tie the harp0on
line round his sisters waist instead,
and when the animal was struck they
would drag it upon the ice by means
of the line.
One day he asked his sister, ''Dost
Thou like our mother -
! She made no answer, but upon he
repeating the question she replied:
II am fonder of thee than of her,
@Then tomorrow he replied, "she
shall serve us for a bladder
The next day lie accordingly prOpo.
ses to his mother that she should help
in the hunt, and to this she consents
without the slightest suspicion. He
ties the inc round her waist rs he had
done to his sister, but she now begins
to grow frightened at 1.-THE look that is
in his eyes, and when she sees him
preparing to throw the harpoon she
cries
''My son, choose small whale,
choose a small one."
Just then large white whale rises
to the surface of the water at the edge
Of the ice near his feet. He throws
the harpoon into the animal and then
lets 60 the line.
The whale instantly begins to drag
his mother toward the edge of the ice,
she struggling with all her might to
get free and crying out for knife to
cut the line.
But the son only reproaches her
with her cruelty in having made him
blind, and says, "This is my revenge" :"
Then she cries out, ooh my ullo !!
my ullo it was that sucked thee, it
was I that sucked thce!'' And this
she continues crying until the whale
drags her into the water. She floats
for few moments OH the surface, still
crying, "Oh, my son! it was 1 that
sucked thee, it was I that sucked
thee - then disappears forever.
The brother and sister gaze a few
minutes at the spot where she went
down, and then, terror stricken, turn
and flee.
But the cry of their mother con-
tinues ringing in their ears, and fol.
lows them wherever they go.
They finally fly from the village to
the interior Of the country, far away
from any human kind, with this voice
still pursuing them, still ringing in
their ears, ''It was that sucked thee,
it was that sucked thee !" like the
|refrain of ''Macbeth shall sleep no
more," in Shakspeare's sublime trag'
ledy.
| They disappear, and nobody. who
knew them ever sees or hears of them
|again
i Their death would not CARY out the
Esquimax idea, and the poet has added
lone more act to the tragedy in which
There is grandeur of conception not un'
worthy Of Shakespeare himself.
II The event recorded in this act takes