The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-10-16

an era which was gladly hailed, and with
loyalty they attached themselves to the
worship and respect of their new sover-
eign. They had left behind them dual
deity good and bad, united in one, and ne
ruled them according to his varying moods
half the time he was gracious and half
the time he was angry. Half the time the
sun shone and half the time it was night.
Half the year he seemed morose and
the days were short and the nights were
long, but when the flowers came and with
them the birds he was as genial as any and
the days heightened at the expense Of the
night. But here was perpetual day and
eternal plenty, SO the fcotsore pilgrims
were contented, and their god Of two moods
they gladly forsook for one with but
single mood, and that one so steadfast and
genial. Though they willingly quit their
allegiance to their oli-time god, the aban-
donment was not mutual, and as soon as ne
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 boat. he
called on the sun to give him constant light
that he might look for them in all the cor
ners of the universe. His travels brought
him to the peaceful land of Aksharnak,
guided thither by the search, and the daz-
zling power of his sun that came with him
overwhelmed the rays of the ever-shining
orb of the country. He demanded in thun-
dering 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 Tornarsuk could
command otherwise.
Then began the grand war of the gods
which is not even yet decided. Many are
the messengers that have been sent to Tor
narsuk, but no reply comes to them, and
slowly the strength of the struggling cider
deity wanes First the angry one swore
he would devastate the fair land of AXIS
harnak and make it desert uninhabited
by living thing. His sun battled long with
that of the elder and won the first great
victory, for the latter was shorn Of its fiery
hair and bright rays, and wandered in the
heavens as the silyery moon, with just
enough light left to illumine the bright
SHOWS of the checrless winter time, and
even then so weak at times that it must
concentrate all its fame 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 respondent times, so
weak and difused would it be. Like a
great gladiator dying in an unequal strug-
Gle, it always presents that brilliant edge,
dim as it is compared with yore, toits hated
rival, that it may think it yet full of life.
Then when its victory was almost complete,
the sun Of the Innuits retreated 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, cider ducks
and by the time they were completed the
Innuit 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 Aksharnak 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 land he hated so.
From the crystal ice, the corpses of the
waves, the elder god yet essayed to make
more wings for her subjects, and put them
on the ptarmigan, 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 in
these conVulsiye gasps of mirth that the
land of Aksharnak was swept as if by a tor
nado; and thus the southern gales, so long
and furious, were commenced. Then the
great elder thought her little ones must
perish, 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 bprrowed 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 the losing in 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 Innqit god would return and watch and
search the land all summer to see what de-
struction he had accomplished during the
WluJer, duu JuSI WIleH all UUe lire OI AkSldF-
max 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 mountains of ice
were made, and slowly Aksharnak was be-
coming desert where nothing could live.
Each approach was hailed with delight by
those that were left in the wintry time to
wander over the ice and snow. As the
reindeer god had been so partial to the
reindeer at the expense of others, and the
god of the whales to those great fishes, so
the elder duck, seeing her own kind well
able to endure the present state of things
by flying south in winter and returning in
summer, became, after her hard fight to
save all in her land, somewhat reconciled
to the new order of things, and began to
relax her efforts. The others that she had
not treated so well began to complain
those shat she had not given wings to es-