Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-10-29

petual day and eternal plenty, so the
foctsore pilgrims were contented, and
their god of two moods they gladly for
sock for one with but single mood,
and that one so steadfast and genial.
Though they willingly quit their allie
glance to their old-time god, the aban-
donment was not mutual, and as soon
as he knew that some of his subjects
were gone he searched for them far and
wide. He sunk part of his land under
the great water that he might pursue
them in a boat. He called on the sun to
give him constant light that he might
look for them in all the corners of the
universe His travels brought him to
the peaceful land of Aksharnak, guided
thither by the search, and the dazzling
power of his sun that came with him
overwhelmed the rays of the ever-shin
ing orb of the country. He demanded
in laundering tones his long-lost people,
but the great elder duck only drew them
closer under her wings and vowed that
all were entitled to her protection as
long as she was able, and that only Tor
narsuk could command otherwise.
1lltu btSdIl lllt SIdlu w al vi Vic SOuS
which is not even yet decided. Many
are the messengers that have been sent
to Tornarsuk, but no reply comes to
them, and slowly the strength of the
struggling elder deity wanes. First the
angry one swore he would devastate the
fair land of Aksharnak and make it des-
ert uninhabited by living thing. His sun
battled long with that of the elder and
won the first great victory, for the lat.
ter was shorn of its fiery hair and bright
rays, and wandered in the heavens as
the silvery moon, with just enough
light left to illumine the bright SHOWS of
the cherries winter time, and even then
SO weak at times that it must concen-
trate ali its flame on one edge to be seen
by the beloved people of Aksharnak, so
they will not lose heart as they would
if it disappeared altogether and they
might not see it if it attempted to
illumine its whole face at these de-
spondent times, so weak and diffused
would it be. Like a great gladia-
tor dying in an unequal struggle, it al
ways presents that brilliant edge, dim as
it is compared with yore, to its hated
rival, that it may think it yet full of
life. Then when its victory was almost
complete, the sun of the Innuits re-
treated to its own land to the far south
and withdrew its warm rays and those
it had captured from the despoiled
captive and the air became so chill that
it seemed that everything must perish
with the cold.
Then the great elder god made wings
from the ocean waves for her subjects,
that they might fly south to the warm
sun; for as the waves rise and fall, so
did the wings she made from them. and
bore their owners to the more genial
cline. First she made those of her own
kind-that is, elder ducks-and by the
time they We're completed the Iunut
god, seeing that his own people were
not coming first, as he thought they
would to avoid the plague of cold, and
not wanting the other life of Akshalnak
in his south land stilled the waves with
wintry sheets of ice, and no more wings
could be made. He wanted his Innuits,
but not the other kinds of life from a
land he hated so. From the crystal ice,
yet essaved to make more wings for her
subjects, and put them on the ptar-
migan. that they might travel. too, but
they could only fly the thickness of the
icebergS from which their wings were
cut. and the god of the south laughed
loud and long. So swift was his breath
i'll these convulsive gasps of mirth that
the lan1 of Aksharnak was swept as if
by tornado; and thus the southern
gales, so long and furious, were com
menced. Then the great elder
thought her little ones must per-
ish. for they could not fly south; but
she arose high in the heavens, and
plucked from her breast until it was
bare the white down that, falling as
snow, covered all the land. and into this
the Innuit pilgrims and the hares, the
polar bears. the ermine and many others
burrowed and kept warm, and to this
day the elder duck thus protects her
nest and young. Then by the motion of
her great wings, reaching from the
morning sun to the fading twilight, she
created the north wind that swept the
edges bare of snow, so the musk OK and
reindeer might find little food to keep
them living till the sun returned, and
that beat down the snow till her new
acquisition, the Innuits, could cut it into
blocks and make their houses from it.
Backward and forward the war was
waged, the elder duck god slowly losing
in the struggle.
Even the moon had to travel south at
times, so cheerless was it in its former
land, but she left some of her rays and
placed them in the sky as the northern
| lights to show that she would return.
Every spring the Innuit god would re-
turn and watch and search the land
all summer to see what destruction he
had accomplished during the winter
and just when all the life of Aksharnak
thought that the good old times might
return, southwark he would go, and
leave them in darkness and terrible cold
once more. Backward and forward he
went, but each time he left them he
STAYED away little longer. and great