The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1925-04-30
THE
GODDESS OF
THE SEA
BY ROSE MILLS POWERS
60 by Short Story Pub. Coz


worshiper alike could not destroy.
In faded scarlet and furnished gilt,
the life-size clay image of the goddess
looked placidly from her shrine in the
central hall, her attendant divinities,
Favorable Wind Ear and Thousand
Mile Eye, beloved Of sailors and junk
men, leaning toward her in worshipful
postures.
Since the days of her royal pa
troness, one Of the early expresses of
the Ming era, the goddess had gazed,
family smiling, on many changing
scenes in her lacquered halls. The
magnifcence of satin-clad emperors
had trailed itself before her eyes; the
cotton-clad simplicity Of seafaring folk
had Frustrated itself at her feet-there
had been bloody warfare at her very
doors and the shrieks of the wounded
and dying had echoed through her cor
ridors-but surely unique was the
scene upon which she now looked
a tow-headed American lad clambering
into her sacred lap and poking behind
her honorable back with long stick.
From the stone step at the feet Of the
goddess, sacred to incense and joss
stick burning since time immemorial,
a little girl, pink-cheeked and fearful,
raised a despairing face to the young
vandal.
mo use, Constance" the boy an
nounced after several vigorous thrusts,
"your doll Is not here. Whew! what
a dust! Let's get out into the court
yard and you can tell me over again
how you came to lose her."
Between her sobs, Constance re-
stated the events that had led up to
the loss Of her doll: With the other
children. she had been playing hide
and-seek and had climbed to hide be-
hind the idol. Tiffin had been called
just then and she laid her doll for
safe-keeping in the wide, comfortable
looking lap of the goddess, intending
to return for her after the meal, but
had forgotten all about her until some
hours later. The narrative ended with
q storm of sobs, the boy trying In
clumsy way to quiet his sister, but to
no avail. Suddenly Constance looked
up with. Frightening eyes.
ooh, David, I forgot; old WI was
looking in at the door when I climbed
down from the idol; perhaps he knows
something about my doll"
"Who do you mean?" asked the boy.
"Why, you know, old WI who lives
in the little house at the temple gate
and makes the paper toys and mock
money to be burned at the graves"
David's eyes opened wide. Here was
q clew."
"Wen 20 and ask him." he said.
jumping to his feet. "Cheer up, we'll
find Lady Laura yet"
They descended the long flight Of
steps to the gate to find the little out
building occupied by WI shut up and
bolted.~
Hes probably gone to carry a load
Of his things to some funeral, said
Constance. "He had q lot Of paper
animals and clothes stacked up out
side the door when we came this
morning"
David was staring past the sorghum
fields toward the west, where the city
wall ran its castellated outline against
the horizon. A faint wailing accom-
panied by the clang Of cymbals rose
on the air, and the CLEAN Of embroid-
cred trappings threw into relief long
line of white-robed figures. A funeral
was in progress in one of the ancestral
burying grounds adjoining the city
wall. The children, moved by a COM
mon impulse, ran toward the scene.
WI, the image and offering maker
of Sin Chow, was something Of an
artist in his line. When failing
strength made him quit his profession
of following the mast, he had taken
I'D this trade and had been so success
| full that he was known as "Wu Of the
Inspired Thumb" No one could equal
his deftness Of touch in making the
various offerings wrought of clay, bam-
boo and paper burned by mourning
| relatives at the graves of deceased
| friends. There was also a touch of
sentiment about the old sailor, as his
occupation Of the howell near the
temple proved, and it was rumored
that he daily worshiped at the shrine
of the abandoned Goddess of the Sea.
When Ii Fan Yin, who was one of
the minor mandarins and a person of
some official importance in Sin Chow
| had come to him with a large order
for funeral offerings for his deceased
wife, among other things asked for
(be It confessed. somewhat shame.
facedly by that worthy gentleman),
had been a representation Of "for.
eign devil" Mrs. Ii had become &C.
| uuainted with one Of the woman mis-.
| sionaries and during her last illness
had taken a strange fancy to having
this foreign person visit her-abnor.
NAL, no doubt. the graduate explained
tapping his head signifcantly-but as
Il was her last illness. he had agreed
to the odd within she had expressed
l A. Anuo nm fvv,o uo NJ the forai0nar IN