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diff --git a/32620-8.txt b/32620-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c96140b --- /dev/null +++ b/32620-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8015 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Mulla-mulgars, by Walter De La Mare + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Three Mulla-mulgars + +Author: Walter De La Mare + +Illustrator: Dorothy P. Lathrop + +Release Date: May 31, 2010 [EBook #32620] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE MULLA-MULGARS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note: | + | | + | Letters with macrons have been represented with [=o], [=u] | + | and [=a]. | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +THE THREE MULLA-MULGARS + + + + +[Illustration: "OH, BUT IF I MIGHT BUT HOLD IT IN MY HAND ONE MOMENT, I +THINK THAT I SHOULD NEVER EVEN SIGH AGAIN!"] + + + + + THE THREE + MULLA-MULGARS + + BY + WALTER DE LA MARE + + ILLUSTRATED BY + DOROTHY P LATHROP + + [Illustration] + + _New York_ ALFRED·A·KNOPF _Mcmxxv_ + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY + ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. + + _Published, December, 1919 + Second Printing, February, 1925_ + + + PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + + + TO + F. AND D. + AND + L. AND C. + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + "Oh, but if I might but hold it in my hand one + moment, I think I should never even sigh again!" _Frontispiece_ + + "The Queen of the Mountains is in the Forest--with fingers + of frost" 42 + + The Wonderstone 75 + + Nod was never left alone 80 + + He jumped, he reared, he kicked, he plunged, he wriggled, + he whinnied 90 + + Nod danced the Jaqquas' war-dance, ... stooping and + crooked, "wriggle and stamp" 129 + + He felt a sudden darkness above his head, and a cold terror + crept over his skin 132 + + With sticks and staves and flaring torches they turned on the + fierce birds that came sweeping and swirling out of the dark 189 + + "What is it, brother? Why do you crouch and stare?" 218 + + "For there stood as if frozen in the moonlight the monstrous + silver-haired Meermuts of Mulgarmeerez, guarding the + enchanted orchards of Tishnar" 224 + + They feasted on fruits they never before had tasted nor + knew to grow on earth 232 + + A Mulgar of a presence and a strangeness, who was without + doubt of the Kingdom of Assasimmon 274 + + + + +THE THREE MULLA-MULGARS + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER I + + +On the borders of the Forest of Munza-mulgar lived once an old grey +fruit-monkey of the name of Mutt-matutta. She had three sons, the eldest +Thumma, the next Thimbulla, and the youngest, who was a Nizza-neela, +Ummanodda. And they called each other for short, Thumb, Thimble, and +Nod. The rickety, tumble-down old wooden hut in which they lived had +been built 319 Munza years before by a traveller, a Portugall or +Portingal, lost in the forest 22,997 leagues from home. After he was +dead, there came scrambling along on his fours one peaceful evening a +Mulgar (or, as we say in English, a monkey) named Zebbah. At first sight +of the hut he held his head on one side awhile, and stood quite still, +listening, his broad-nosed face lit up in the blaze of the setting sun. +He then hobbled a little nearer, and peeped into the hut. Whereupon he +hobbled away a little, but soon came back and peeped again. At last he +ventured near, and, pushing back the tangle of creepers and matted +grasses, groped through the door and went in. And there, in a dark +corner, lay the Portingal's little heap of bones. + +The hut was dry as tinder. It had in it a broken fire-stone, a kind of +chest or cupboard, a table, and a stool, both rough and insect-bitten, +but still strong. Zebbah sniffed and grunted, and pushed and peered +about. And he found all manner of strange and precious stuff half buried +in the hut--pots for Subbub; pestles and basins for Manaka-cake, etc.; +three bags of great beads, clear, blue, and emerald; an old rusty +musket; nine ephelantoes' tusks; a bag of Margarita stones; and many +other things, besides cloth and spider-silk and dried-up fruits and +fishes. He made his dwelling there, and died there. This Mulgar, Zebbah, +was Mutta-matutta's great-great-great-grandfather. Dead and gone were +all. + +Now, one day when Mutta-matutta was young, and her father had gone into +the forest for Sudd-fruit, there came limping along a most singular +Mulgar towards the house. He was bent and shrunken, shivering and +coughing, but he walked as men walk, his nut-shaped head bending up out +of a big red jacket. His shoulder and the top of his head were worn bare +by the rubbing of the bundle he carried. And behind him came stumbling +along another Mulgar, his servant, with a few rags tied round his body, +who could not at first speak, his tongue was so much swollen from his +having bitten in the dark a poison-spider in his nuts. The name of his +master was Seelem; his own name was Glint. This Seelem fell very sick. +Mutta-matutta nursed him night and day, with the sourest monkey-physic. +He was pulled crooked with pain and the shivers, or rain-fever. The tips +of the hairs on his head had in his wanderings turned snow-white. But he +bore his pain and his sickness (and his physic) without one groan of +complaint. + +And Glint, who fetched water and gathered sticks and nuts, and +helped Mutta-matutta, told her that his master, Seelem, was a +Mulla-mulgar--that is, a Mulgar of the Blood Royal--and own brother +to Assasimmon, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar. + +He told her, also, that his master had wearied of Assasimmon's +valley-palace, his fine food and dishes, his music of shells and +strings, his countless Mulgar-slaves, beasts, and groves and gardens; +and that, having chosen three servants, Jacca, Glutt, and himself, he +had left his brother's valleys, to discover what lay beyond the +Arakkaboa Mountains. But Jacca had perished of frost-bite on the +southern slopes of the Peak of Tishnar, and Glutt had been eaten by the +Minimuls. + +He was very silent and gloomy, this Mulla-mulgar, Seelem, but glad to +rest his bruised and weary bones in the hut. And when Mutta-matutta's +father died from sleeping in the moon-mist at Sudd-ripening, Seelem +untied his travelling bundle and made his home in the hut. Mutta-matutta +was a lonely and rather sad Mulgar, so at this she rejoiced, for she had +grown from fearing to love the royal old wanderer. And she helped him to +put away all that was in his bundles into the Portingal's chest--three +shirts of cotton; two red jackets, like his own, with metal hooks; a +sheep's-coat, with ivory buttons and pocket-flaps; three skin shoes (for +one had been lost out of his bundle in the forest); a cap of Mamasul +skin (very precious); besides knives, fire-strikers, a hollow cup of +ivory, magic physic-powder, two combs of Impaleena-horn, a green +serpent-skin for sweetening water, etc., and, beyond and above all, the +milk-white Wonderstone of Tishnar. + +Here they lived, Seelem and Mutta (as he called her), in the Portingal's +old hut, for thirteen years. And Mutta was happy with Seelem and her +three sons, Thumb, Thimble, and Nod. They had a water-spring, +honey-boxes or baskets for the bees in the Ollaconda-trees, a shed or +huddle of green branches, for Glint, and a big patch of Ummuz-cane. Nod +slept in a kind of hole or burrow in the roof, with a tiny peeping-hole, +from which he used to scare the birds from his father's Ummuz. + +Mutta wished only that Seelem was not quite so grim and broody; that the +Munza-mulgars (forest-monkeys) would not come stealing her Subbub and +honey; and that the Portingal's hut stood quite out of the silvery +moon-mist that rose from the swamp; for she suffered (as do most +fruit-monkeys) from the bones-ache. Seelem was gentle and easy in his +own moody way with Mutta and his three sons, but, most of all, he +cheered his heart with tiny Nod, the Nizza-neela. Sometimes all day long +this old travel-worn Mulla-mulgar never uttered a sound, save at +evening, when he sang or droned his evening hymn to Tishnar.[1] He kept +a thick stick, which he called his Guzza, to punish his three sons when +they were idle and sullen, or gluttonous, or with Munza tricks pestered +their mother. And he never favoured Nod beyond the others more than all +good fathers favour the youngest, the littlest, and the gaysomest of +their children. + + [1] Tishnar is a very ancient word in Munza, and means that + which cannot be thought about in words, or told, or + expressed. So all the wonderful, secret, and quiet world + beyond the Mulgars' lives is Tishnar--wind and stars, too, + the sea and the endless unknown. But here it is only the + Beautiful One of the Mountains that is meant. So beautiful + is she that a Mulgar who dreams even of one of her Maidens, + and wakes still in the presence of his dream, can no longer + be happy in the company of his kind. He hides himself away + in some old hole or rocky fastness, lightless, matted, and + uncombed, and so thins and pines, or becomes a Wanderer or + Môh-mulgar. But it is rare for this to be, for very few + Mulgars dream beyond the mere forest, as it were; and fewer + still keep the memories of their dreams when the livelong + vision of Munza returns to their waking eyes. The Valleys + of Tishnar lie on either flank of the Mountains of + Arakkaboa, though she herself wanders only in the stillness + of the mountain snows. She is shown veiled on the rude pots + of Assasimmon and in Mulgar scratch-work, with one + slim-fingered hand clasping her robe of palest purple, her + head bent a little, as if hearkening to her thoughts; and + she is shod with sandals of silver. Of these things the + wandering Oomgar-nuggas, or black men, tell. From Tishnar, + too, comes the Last Sleep--the sleep of all the World. The + last sleep just of their own life only is + N[=o][=o]manossi--darkness, change, and the unreturning. And + Immanâla is she who preys across these shadows, in this + valley. So, too, the Mulgars say, "N[=o][=o]ma, N[=o][=o]ma," + when they mean shadow, as "In the sun paces a leopard's + N[=o][=o]ma at her side." Meermut, which means in part also + shadow, is the shadow, as it were, of lesser light lost in + Tishnar's radiance, just as moonlight may cast a shadow of + a pine-tree across a smouldering fire. There is, too, a + faint wind that breathes in the first twilight and + starshine of Munza called the Wind of Tishnar. It was, I + think, the faint murmur of this wind that echoed in the ear + of Mutta-matutta as she lay dying, for in dying one hears, + it is said, what in life would carry no more tidings to the + mind than light brings to the hand. Nod's bells that he + heard, and thought were his father's, must have been the + Zevveras' bells of Tishnar's Water-middens, all wandering + Meermuts. These Water-middens, or Water-maidens, are like + the beauty of the moonlight. The countless voices of + fountain, torrent, and cataract are theirs. They, with + other of Tishnar's Maidens, come riding on their belled + Zevveras, and a strange silence falls where their little + invisible horses are tethered; while, perhaps, the Maidens + sit feasting in a dell, grey with moonbeams and ghostly + flowers. Even the sullen Mullabruk learns somehow of their + presence, and turns aside on his fours from the silvery + mist of their glades and green alleys, just as in the same + wise a cold air seems to curdle his skin when some haunting + N[=o][=o]ma passes by. All the inward shadows of the + creatures of Munza-mulgar are N[=o][=o]manossi's; all their + phantoms, spirits, or Meermuts are Tishnar's. And so there + is a never-ending changeableness and strife in their short + lives. The leopard (or Roses, as they call her, for the + beauty of her clear black spots) is Meermut to her cubs, + N[=o][=o]ma to the dodging Skeetoes she lies in wait for, + stretched along a bough. Her beauty is Tishnar's; the + savagery of her claws is N[=o][=o]manossi's. So Munza's + children are dark or bright, lovely or estranging, + according as Meermut or N[=o][=o]ma prevails in their + natures. And thus, too, they choose the habitation of their + bodies. Yet because dark is but day gone, and cruelty + unkindness, therefore even the heart-shattering + N[=o][=o]manossi, even Immanâla herself, is only absent + Tishnar. But there, as everyone can see, I am only + chattering about what I cannot understand. + +One of the first things that Nod remembered was Glint's tumbling from +the great Ukka-tree, which he had climbed at ripening-time, bough up to +bough from the bottom, cracking shells and eating all the way, until, +forgetting how heavy he had become, he swung his fat body on to a +slender and withered branch, and fell all a-topple from top to bottom on +to the back of his thick skull. Beneath this same dark-leaved tree +Seelem buried his servant, together with a pot of subbub, seven loaves +or cakes, and a long stick of Ummuz-cane. But Mutta-matutta after his +death would never touch an Ukka-nut again. + +Seelem taught his sons how to make fire, what nuts and roots and fruits +and grasses were wholesome for eating; what herbs and bark and pith for +physic; what reeds and barks for cloth. He taught them how to take honey +without being stung; how to count; how to find their way by the chief +and brightest among the stars; to cut cudgels, to build leaf-huts and +huddles against heat or rain. He taught them, too, the common tongue of +the Forest-monkeys--that is the language of nearly all the Mulgars that +live in the forests of Munza--Jacquet-mulgars, Mullabruks, purple-faced +and saffron-headed Mulgars, Skeetoes, tuft-waving Manquabees, +Fly-catchers and Squirrel-tails, and many more than I can mention. +Seelem taught them also a little of the languages of the dreaded +Gunga-mulgars, of the Collobs, and the Babbab[=o][=o]mas. But the +Minimul-mulgars' and the Oomgars' or man-monkeys' languages (white, +black, or yellow) he could not teach, because he did not know them. +When, however, they were alone together they spoke the secret language +of the Mulla-mulgars dwelling north of the Arakkaboas--that is, +Mulgar-royal. This language in some ways resembles that of the +Portugalls, in some that of the Oggewibbies, and, here and there--but in +very little--Garniereze. Seelem, of course, taught his sons, and +especially Thumb, many other things besides--more, certainly, than would +contain itself in a little book like this. But, above all, he taught +them to walk upright, never to taste blood, and never, unless in danger +or despair, to climb trees or to grow a tail. + +But now, after all these thirteen years of absence from Assasimmon's +palace in the beautiful Valleys of Tishnar, Seelem began to desire more +and more to see again his home and his brother, with whom as a child he +had walked in scarlet and Mamasul, and drunk his syrup from an ivory +cup. He grew more gloomy and morose than ever, squatted alone, his eyes +fixed mournfully in the air. And Mutta would whisper to Nod: "Sst, zun +nizza-neela, tus-weeta zan nuome." + +The more cunning of the Forest-mulgars at first had come in troops to +Seelem, laden with gifts of nuts and fruits, because they were afraid of +him. But he would sit in his red jacket and merely stare at them as if +they were no better than flies. And at last they began in revenge to do +him as much mischief as their wits could contrive, until he grew +utterly weary of their scuffling and quarrelling, their thumbs and +colours, fleas and tails. At last he could hear himself no longer, and +one morning, in the first haze of sunrise over the sleeping forest, he +called Mutta and his three sons to where he sat in the shadow of Glint's +great budding Ukka-tree. And he told them he was going on a long +journey--"beyond and beyond, forest and river, forest swamp and river, +the mountains of Arakkaboa, leagues, leagues away"--to seek again the +Valleys of Tishnar. "And I will come back," he said, leaning his hand +upon the ground and blinking at Nod, "with slaves and scarlet and +food-baskets and Zevveras, and bring you all there with me. But first I +must go alone and find the way through dangers thick as flies, O +Mulla-mulgars. Wait here and guard your old mother, Mutta-matutta, my +sons, her Ummuz and ukkas. And grow strong, O tailless ones, till I +return. Zu zoubé seese muglareen, een suang no nouano zupbf!" And that +was all he said. + +But Mutta-matutta, though she could not hide her grief at his going, +helped him in every way she could to be quickly gone. He seemed beside +himself, this white, old, crooked Mulla-mulgar. His eyes blazed; he went +muttering; he'd throw up his hands and snuff and snuff, as if the very +wind bore Tishnar on its wings. And even at night he'd rise up in the +darkness and open the door and listen as if out of the immeasurable and +solitudinous forests he heard voices calling him from far away. At +length, in his last shirt (which had been carefully kept these thirteen +years, with a dead kingfisher and a bag of civet, to keep off the +cockroaches); in his finest red jacket and his cap of Mamasul-skin; +with a great bundle of Manaka-cake and Ummuz-cane, knife and +fire-striker and physic, and the old Portingal's rusty musket on his +shoulder, he was ready to be off. In the early morning he came stooping +under the little hut-door. He looked at his hut and his water-spring, at +his bees and canes; he looked at his three sons, and at old +Mutta-matutta, with a great frown, and trembled. And Mutta could not +bear to say good-bye; she lifted her crooked hands above her old head, +the tears running down her cheeks, and she went and hid herself in the +hut till he was gone. But his three sons went a little way with him. + +Thumb and Thimble hopped along with his heavy bundle on a stick between +them to the branching of the Mulgar-track, which here runs nearly two +paces wide into the gloom of Munza-mulgar; while Nod sat on Seelem's +shoulder, sucking a stick of Ummuz-cane, and clutching the long, cold, +rusty barrel of his musket. The trees of the forest lifted their +branches in a trembling haze of heat, hung with grey thorny ropes, and +vines and trailing creepers of Cullum and Samarak, vivid with leaves, +and with large cuplike waxen flowers, moon-white, amber, mauve, and +scarlet. Butterflies like blots and splashes of flame, wee Tominiscoes, +ruby and emerald and amethyst, shimmered and spangled and sipped and +hovered. And a thin, twangling, immeasurable murmur like the strings of +N[=o][=o]manossi's harp rose from the tiny millions that made their +nests and mounds and burrows in the forest. + +Seelem took his sons one by one by the shoulders, and looked into their +eyes, and touched noses. And they lifted their hands in salutation, and +watched him till he was gone from sight. But though his grey face was +all wizened up with trouble and wet with tears, he never so much as once +looked behind him, lest his sons should cry after him, or he turn back. +So, presently, after they all three lifted their hands once more, as if +his Meermut[2] might still haunt near; and then they went home to their +mother. + + [2] "Meermut" is shadow, phantom, spectre, or even the pictured + remembrance of anything in the mind. + +But the rains came; he did not return. The long days strode softly by, +the chatter and screams of Munza at dawn, the long-drawn, moaning shout +of Mullabruk to Mullabruk as darkness deepened. Nod would sometimes +venture a little way into the forest, hoping to hear the gongs that his +father had told him the close-shorn slaves of Assasimmon tie with +leopard-thongs about their Zevveras' necks. He would sit in the gigantic +shadows of evening, watching the fireflies, and saying to himself: "Sst, +Nod, see what they say--to-morrow!" But the morrow never came that +brought him back his father. + +Mutta-matutta cared and cooked for them. She made a great store of +Manaka-cake, packed for coolness all neatly in plantain-leaves; +Nano-cheese, and two or three big pots of Subbub. She kept them clean +and combed; plastered and physicked them; taught them to cook, and many +things else, until, as one by one they grew up, they knew all that she +_could_ teach them, except the wisdom to use what they had learnt. She +would often, too, in the first hush of night, tell them stories of their +father, and of her own father, back even to Zebbah, and the Portingal +dangling with his bunch of wild-cats' tails in the corner. + +But as the years wasted away, she grew thin and mournful, and fell ill +of pining and grief and age, and even had at last to keep to her bed of +moss and cotton in the hut. + +Her sons worked hard for her, pushing into the forest and across the +narrow swamp in search of fruits to tempt her appetite. Nod heaped up +fresh leaves for her bed, and sang in his shrill, quavering voice every +evening Tishnar's hymn to his poor old mother. He baked her sweet +potatoes and Nanoes wrapped in leaves, and would dance round, "wriggle +and stamp--wriggle and stamp," as Seelem had told him dance the +Oomgar-nuggas, to try to make her cheerful. But by-and-by she began to +languish, her teeth chattering, her eyes burning, unable to eat.... And +one still afternoon, when only Nod was near (his brothers, tired of the +heat and buzzing in the green hut, having gone to gather nuts and sticks +in the forest), as Mutta-matutta sat dozing and muttering in her corner, +came the voice of Tishnar, calling in the hush of evening: and she knew +she must die. + +Nod crept close to her, thinking at first the strange voice singing +was the sound of Seelem's Zevveras' distant gongs, and he held the +hard thin hand between his. When Thumb and Thimble returned with their +bags and faggots of smoulder-wood, she called them all three, and told +them she too must go away now, perhaps even, if only in Meermut, to +find their father. And she besought them to be always true and faithful +one to another, and to be brave. "Five fingers serve one hand, my good +men," she said. "And oh, remember this always: that you are all three +Mulla-mulgars, sons of Seelem, whose home is far from here--Mulla-mulgars +who never do walk flambo--that is, on all fours--never taste blood, and +never, unless in danger and despair, climb trees or grow a tail." + +It was hot and gloomy in the tangled little hut, lit only by the violet +of the dying afterglow. And when she had rested a little while to +recover her breath, she told them that Seelem, the night before he left +them, had said that, should he perish on his journey and not return, in +seven Munza years they were, as best they could, bravely to follow after +him. In time they would perhaps reach the Valleys of Tishnar, and their +uncle, Prince Assasimmon, would welcome them. + +"His country lies beyond and beyond," she said, "forest and river, +forest, swamp and river, the Mountains of Arakkaboa--leagues, leagues +away." + +And, as she paused, a feeble wind sighed through the open window, +stirring the dangling bones of the Portingal, so that, with their faint +clicking, they too, seemed to echo, "leagues, leagues away." + +"It will be a long and dreary journey, my sons. But the Prince +Assasimmon, Mulla-mulla of the Mulgars, is great and powerful, and has +for hut a palace of ivory and Azmamogreel, with scarlet and Mamasul, +slaves and peacocks, and beasts uncountable; and leagues of Ukka and +Barbary-nuts; and boundless fields of Ummuz, and orchards of fruit, and +bowers of flowers and pleasure. And his, too, is the Rose of all the +Mulgars." And as he listened Thimble shuffled from foot to foot, his +heart uneasy, to hear her cry so hollowly the beauty of that Rose. And +at her bidding, out of the cupboard they took the civeted bundles of all +the stuff and little Mulgar treasures she had been hoarding up all +these years for them against this last day. + +She gave Thumb and Thimble each a red Oomgar's jacket with curved metal +hooks, and to Nod the little coat of mountain-sheep's wool, with its +nine ivory buttons. She divided and shared everything between +them--their father's knives and cudgels, the beads blue and emerald, the +Margarita stones. The Portingal's rusty hatchet, burned with a cross on +its stock, she gave to Thumb; a little fat black greasy book of sorcery, +made of Exxswixxia leaves, to Thimble; and to Nod, last of all, picking +it out of the stitched serpent-skin lining of her great wool cap, she +gave the Wonderstone. + +"I give this to Nod," she said to his brothers, "because he is a +Nizza-neela, and has magic in him. Come close, my sons, Thumb and +Thimble, and see. His winking [or left][3] eye has green within the +hazel; his thumbs grow lean and long; he still keeps two milk-teeth; and +bears the Nizza-neela tuft betwixt his ears." With her hot skinny +fingers she stroked softly back his hair, and showed his brothers the +little velvety patch, or tuft, or badge, or crest, on the top of his +head, above the parting. "O Mulla-mulgars, how I begged your father to +take this Wonderstone with him on his journey! but he would not. He +said, 'Keep it, and let my sons, if need be, carry it after me to the +kingdom of my brother. He will know by this one thing that they are +indeed my sons, Mulla-mulgars, Princes of Tishnar, sibbetha eena manga +Môh!'" + + [3] On the right or cudgel side, the Mulgars say, sits Bravery; + on the winking, woman, or left side, Craft. + +"Never, little Nod," said his old dying mother--"never lose, nor give +away, nor sport with, nor even lend this Wonderstone; and if in your +long journey you are in danger of the Third Sleep,[4] or lost, or in +great fear, spit with your spittle on the stone, and rub softly three +times with your left thumb, Samaweeza: Tishnar will hear you; help will +come." + + [4] First Sleep is night-sleep; Second Sleep is swoon-sleep; + Third Sleep is death, or N[=o][=o]manossi. So, too, the + Mulgars say, the first is "Little-go," the second is + "Great-go," and the third is "Come-no-more"; as if their + bodies were a lodging, and sleep a kind of out-of-doors. + +Then, with her small, clumsy fingers, she tied up the sleeping +milk-white Wonderstone in the hem of his woolly sheep's coat, and lay +back in her bed, too feeble to speak again. Thumb, Thimble, and Nod sat +all three, each with his little heap of house-stuff before him, which it +seemed hateful now to have, staring through the doorway. In the purple +gloom the fireflies were mazily flickering. Night was still, like a +simmering pot, with heat. And out of the swamp they heard the Ooboë +calling to its mate, singing marvellous sweet and clear in the darkness +above its woven nest; while over their heads the tiny Nikka-nakkas, or +mouse-owls, sat purring in the thatch. And Nod said: "Listen, Mutta, +listen; how the Ooboë's telling secrets!" And she smiled with tight-shut +lids, wagging her wizened head. + +And in the deepest dead of night, when Thimble sat sleeping, his long +arms thrown out over the Portingal's rough table, and Thumb crouching at +the door, Nod heard in the silence a very faint sigh. He crept to his +mother's bed. She softly raised her hand to him, and her eyes closed. + +So her three sons dug her a deep grave beside Glint's, under the +Ukka-tree, as she had bidden them. And many of the Forest-mulgars, +specially those of her own kind and kindred, came down solemnly out of +the forest towards evening of that day, and keened or droned for +Mutta-matutta, squatting together at some little distance from the +Portingal's hut. Beyond their counting (though that is not a hard +matter) was the number of the years she and her father and her father's +father, back even to Zebbah, had lived in the hut. But they did not come +near, because they feared the Portingal's yellow bones hung up in the +corner. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + + +CHAPTER II + + +At first the three brothers lived so forlorn and solitary together they +could scarcely eat. Everything they saw or handled told them only over +and over again that their mother was dead. But there was work to be +done, and brave hearts must take courage, else sorrow and trouble would +be nothing but evil. This, too, was no time for sitting idle and +doleful. For a little before the gathering of the rains there began to +seem a strangeness in the air. After the great heat had flown up a +tempest of wind and lightning of such a brightness that Nod, peering out +of his little tangled window-hole, could see beneath the gleaming rods +of rain and the huge, bowed, groaning trees no less than three leopards +crouching for shelter beneath the Portingal's sturdy little hut. He +could hear them, too, in the pauses of the tempest, mewling, spitting, +and swearing, and the lash of their angry tails against the wall of the +hut. After the tempest, it fell cold and very still, with sometimes a +moaning in the air. Strange weather was in the sky at rise and set of +sun. And the three brothers, looking out, and seeing the numberless +flights of birds winging with cries all in one direction, and hearing +this moaning, hardly knew what to be doing. They went out every day to +gather great bundles of wood and as many nuts and fruits and roots as +they could carry. And they found everywhere wise creatures doing the +same--I mean, of course, collecting food--for none beside the Minimuls, +the Gungas, and the Mulla-mulgars have fire-sticks, and most of them +fear even the sight and smell of flames. + +And Nod, having his mother's quick hand, made a great store of +Manaka-cake and Sudd-bread. He dried some fruits, pulped others. And +some he poured with honey or Ummuz-juice into the Portingal's little +earthen pots, many of which were still unbroken, while he who had first +used them was but a bony shadow-trap in the corner. And Nod and Thumb +made two great gourds of Subbub, very sweet and potent, so that, because +of the sweet smell of it, the four-clawed Weddervols came barking about +their hut all night. But the Manga-cheese their mother had made melted +in the heat of the great fires they burned, and most of it ran down out +of the cupboard. They filled the wood-hole with firewood, and stacked it +outside, above Nod's shoulder, all against the hut. + +And it was about the nineteenth week after Mutta's death that Thumb, as +he came stooping to the door one night, saw fires of Tishnar on the +ground. Over the swamp stood a shaving of moon, clear as a bow of +silver. And all about, on every twig, on every thorn, and leaf, and +pebble; all along the nine-foot grasses, on every cushion and touch of +bark, even on the walls of their hut, lay this spangling fiery meal of +Tishnar--frost. He called his brothers. Their breath stood round them +like smoke. They stared and snuffed, they coughed in the cold air. +Never, since birds wore feathers--never had hoar-frost glittered on +Munza-mulgar before. + +These Mullas danced; they crouched down in the dreadful cold, thinking +to warm their hands at these uncountable fires. And, lo and behold! in a +little while, looking at one another, each was a Mulgar, white and +sparkling too. Their very hairs, down-arm and up-arm, every tuft stood +stiff and white with frost. Like millers they stood, all blazing in the +night. + +And that was the beginning of Witzaweelw[=u]lla (the White Winter). For +it was only three days after Tishnar's fires were kindled that Nod first +saw snow. Now one, two, three, a scatter of flakes, just a few. +"Feathers," thought Nod. + +But faster, faster; twirling, rustling, hovering. "Butterflies," thought +Nod. + +And then it seemed the sky, the air, was all aflock. He ran out snuffing +and frightened. He clapped his hands; he leapt and frisked and shouted. +And there, coming up out of the swamp, were his brothers, laden with +rushes, and as woolly with snow as sheep. Because it looked so white and +crisp and beautiful Nod even brought out a pot and filled it with snow +to cook for their supper. But there, when he lifted the lid, was only a +little steaming water. + +By-and-by they began to wonder and to fear no more. How glad they were +of all the wood they had brought in, and of their great cupboardful of +victuals! They made themselves long poles, and would go leaping about to +keep themselves warm. They built such roaring fires on the hearth they +squatted round that the sparks flew up like fireflies under the black, +starry sky. Snug in their hut, the brothers would sit of an evening on +their three stools, with their smoking bowls between their legs. And +they would open their great mouths and drone and sing the songs their +father had taught them, beating to the notes with their flat feet on the +earth floor. But, nevertheless, they pined for the cold and the snow to +be over and gone, so that they might start on their journey! Every +morning broke bleak and sparkling. Often of a night new snow came, till +they walked between low white walls on their little path to the forest. +But in spite of the cold which made them ache and shiver, and their toes +and fingers burn and itch, they went out searching for frozen nuts and +fruits every morning, and still fetched in faggots. + +Often while they squatted, toasting themselves round their fire, Nod +would look up, blinking his eyes, to see the faces of the Forest-mulgars +peeping in at the window, envying the Mullas their warmth, though afraid +of their fire, and calling softly one to another: "Ho, ho! look at the +Mulla-sluggas [lazy princes] sitting round their fire!" And Thumb and +Thimble would grin and softly scratch their hairy knees. Thumb, indeed, +made up a Mulgar drone, which he used to buzz to himself when the +Munza-mulgars came miching and mocking and peeping. (But it was a bad +and dull drone, and I will not make it worse by turning it into my poor +English from Mulgar-royal.) + +Nod often sat watching the Forest-mulgars frisking in the forest, though +every morning the light shone through on many perched frozen in the +boughs. The Mullabruks and Manquabees made huddles in the snow. But the +tiny Squirrel-tails, with their dark, grave, beautiful eyes and silken +amber coats, still roosted high where the frost-wind stirred in the +dark. Sometimes on a crusted branch of snow Nod would see +five--seven--nine of these tiny, frost-powdered Mulgars cuddling +together in a row, poor little frozen and empty boxes, their gay lives +fled away. And when his brothers were gathering sticks in the forest, he +would smuggle out for them two or three handfuls of nuts and pieces of +cake and Sudd-bread. All the crusts and husks and morsels he kept in a +shallow grass-basket, which his mother had plaited, to feed these +pillowy Squirrel-tails, the lean Skeetoes, and the spindle-legged +flycatchers. + +Birds of all colours and many other odd little beasts came in the snow +to Nod to be fed. He summoned them with the clapping of two sticks of +ivory together, till his brothers began to wonder how it was their +victuals were dwindling so fast. But once, when Thumb and Thimble were +away in the forest with their jumping-poles, and he had ventured out on +this errand with his basket full of scraps, he forgot to put up the door +behind him. When he returned, skipping as fast as his fours would carry +him, wild pigs and long-snouted Brackanolls, Weddervols, and hungry +birds had come in and eaten more than half their store. The last of +their mother's treasured cheese was gone, and all their Ummuz-cane. That +night Thumb and Thimble went very sulky to bed. And for the next few +days all three brothers sallied out together, with their poles, +searching and grubbing after every scrap of victuals they could find +with which to fill their larder again. + +Some time after this, so hard and sharp grew the cold that Thumb and +Thimble were minded to put on their red metal-hooked jackets when they +went out stick-gathering. They took their knives and nut-sacks over +their shoulders, and muffled and bunched themselves up close, with +cotton-leaves wound round their stomachs, and their skin caps pulled low +over their round frost-enticing ears. And they told Nod to cook them a +smoking hot supper against the dark, for now the snow was so deep it was +a hard matter to find and carry sticks, and they meant to look for more +before matters worsened yet. So Nod at once set to his cookery. + +He made up a great fire on the hearthstone. But in spite of its flames, +so louring with gathering snow-clouds was the day that he had to keep +the door down to give him clearer light; and, though he kept scuttling +about, driving out the thieving Brackanolls and Peekodillies that came +nosing into the hut, and scaring away the famished birds that kept +hopping in through the window-hole, even then he could not keep himself +warm. So at last he went to the lower cupboard, under the dangling +Portingal, and took out his sheepskin coat. He put away the dried +kingfisher which his mother had wrapped in the fleece to keep it sweet, +and buttoned the ivory buttons, and skipped about nimbly over his +cooking in that. Then he heaped more wood on--logs and brush and +smoulder-wood--higher and higher, till the flames leapt red, gold, and +lichen-green out of the chimney-hole. Then he said to himself, flinging +yet another armful on: "Now Nod will go down and get some ice to melt +for water to make Sudd-bread." So he went down to the water-spring. + +And he stood watching the Mulgars frisking at the edge of the forest, +vain that they should see him with his pole and basket, standing in his +sheep's jacket. He broke up some ice and put in into his basket. Then he +plodded over to his mother's grave and cleared away the hardened snow +that had fallen during the night on her little heap of stones. "Kara, +kara Mutta, Mutta-matutta," he whispered, laying his bony cheek on the +stones--"dearest Mutta!" And while he stood there thinking of his +mother, and of how he would go and bring down a pot of honeycomb for her +death-shadow; and then of his father; and then of the strange journey +they were all going to set out on when Tishnar returned to her +mountains; and then of his Wonderstone; and then of Assasimmon, Prince +of the Valleys, his peacocks and Ummuz-cane, and Ummuz-cane, and +Ummuz-cane--while he was thus softly thinking of all these happy things, +he suddenly saw the gigantic Ukka-tree above him, lit up marvellously +red, and glowing as if with the setting of the sun. He shut his eyes +with dread, for he saw all the forest monkeys lit up too, stock-still, +staring, staring; and he heard a curious crackle and whs-s-s-ss. + +Nod turned his little head and looked back over his shoulder. And +against the snowy gloom of the forest he saw not only sparks, but +flames, wagging up out of the chimney-hole. The door of the hut was like +the frame of a furnace. And a trembling fear came over him, so that for +a moment he could neither breathe nor move. Then, throwing down his +basket of ice, and calling softly, "Mutta, O Mutta!" he scrambled over +the snow as fast as he could and rushed into the hut. But he was too +late; before he could jump, spluttering and choking, out of the door +again, with just an armful of anything he could see, its walls were +ablaze. Dry and tangled, its roof burnt like straw--a huge red fire +pouring out smoke and flame, hissing, gushing, crackling, bubbling, +roaring. And presently after, while Nod ran snapping his fingers, +dancing with horror in the snow, and calling shriller and shriller, + + "Thumb, Thimble; Thimble, Thumb, + Leave your sticks and hurry home: + Thicker and thicker the smoke do come! + Thumb, Thimble; Thimble, Thumb!" + +he heard above the flames a multitudinous howling and squealing, and he +looked over his shoulder, and saw hundreds upon hundreds of faces in the +forest staring out between the branches at the fire. By the time that +Thimble and Thumb in their red jackets were scampering on all fours, +helter-skelter, downhill out of the forest, a numberless horde of the +Forest-mulgars were frisking and howling round the blaze, and the flames +were floating half as high as Glint's great Ukka-tree. They squealed, +"Walla, walla!" (water), grinning and gibbering one to another as they +came tumbling along; but they might just as well have called +"Moonshine!" for every drop was frozen. Nor would twenty flowing springs +and all Assasimmon's slaves have quenched that fire now. And when the +Forest-mulgars saw that the Mulla-mulgars had given up hope of putting +the fire out, they pelted it with snowballs, and scampered about, +gathering up every stick and straw and shred they could find, and did +their utmost to keep it in. For at last, in their joy that the little +Portingal's bones were in the burning, and in their envy of the +Mulla-mulgars, their fear of fire was gone. + +And so Night came down, and there they all were, hand-in-hand in a huge +monkey-ring, dancing and prancing round the little Portingal's burning +hut, and squealing at the top of their voices; while countless beasts of +Munza-mulgar, too frightened of fire to draw near, prowled, with +flame-emblazoned eyes, staring out of the forest. And this was the +Forest-mulgars' dancing-song: + + "Bhoor juggub duppa singlee--duppa singlee--duppa singlee; + Bhoor juggub duppa singlee; + Sal rosen ghar Bh[=o][=o]sh!" + +They sing at first in a kind of droning zap-zap, and through their +noses, these Munza-mulgar, their yelps gradually gathering in speed and +volume, till they lift their spellbound faces in the air and howl aloud. +And with such a resounding shout and clamour on the Bh[=o][=o]sh you +would think they were in pain. + +For the best part of that night the fire flared and smouldered, while +the stars wheeled in the black sky above the forest; and still round and +round the Mulgars jigged and danced in the glistening snow. For the +frost was so hard and still, not even this great fire could melt it +fifteen paces distant from its flames. And Thimble and Thumb in their +red jackets, and Nod in his cotton breeches and sheepskin coat, shivered +and shook, because they weren't hardened, like the Forest-mulgars, to +the icy night-wind that stole fitfully abroad. + +When morning broke, the fire had burned down to a smother, and most of +the dancing Mulgars had trooped back, tired out and sleepy, to their +tree-houses and huddles and caverns and hanging ropes in the forest. But +no sleep stole over those Mulla-sluggas, Thumb, Thimble, and Nod, +sitting on their stones in the snow, watching their home-smoke drooping +down and down. Nod stared and stared at the embers, his teeth +chattering, ashamed and nearly heart-broken. But his brothers looked now +at the smoke, and now at him, and whenever they looked at Nod they +muttered, "Foh! Mulla-jugguba, foh!"--that is to say, "Foh! +Royal-Flame-Shining One!" or "Your Highness Firebright!" or "What think +you now, Prince of Bonfires?" But they were too sullen and angry, and +Nod was too downcast, even to get up to drive away the little +mole-skinned Brackanolls and the Peekodillies which came nosing and +grunting and scratching in the ashes, in search of the scorched oil-nuts +and the charred Sudd and Manaka-cake. + +The three Mulla-mulgars sat there until the sun began to be bright on +their faces and to make a splendour of the snow; then they did not feel +quite so cold and miserable. And when they had nibbled a few nuts and +berries which a friendly old Manquabee brought down to them, they began +to think and talk over what they had best be doing now--at least, Nod +listened, while Thumb and Thimble talked. And at length they decided +that, their hut being burnt, and they without refuge from the cold, or +any hoard of food, they would wait no longer, but set off at once into +the forest on the same long journey as their father Seelem had gone, to +seek out their Uncle Assasimmon, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar. + +This once said, Thumb lifted his fat body stiffly from his stone, and +took his jumping-pole, and frisked high, leaping to and fro to make +himself warm again. Soon he began to tingle, and laughed out to cheer +the others when he tumbled head over heels into a snowdrift. And they +combed themselves, and stood up to their trouble, and thought +stubbornly, as far as their monkey-wits would let them, only of the +future (which is easier to manage than the past). Then they searched +close in the cooling ashes and embers of the hut, and found a few beads +undimmed by the heat, and all the Margarita stones, which, like the +Salamander, no flame can change; also, one or two unbroken pots and jars +and an old stone kettle or Ghôb. Nod, indeed, found also a piece of gold +that had lain hid in the Portingal's rags. But all the little +Traveller's bones except his left thumb knuckle-bone were fallen to +ashes. Nod gave Thumb the noddle of gold, and himself kept the +knuckle-bone. "S[=o][=o]tli,"[5] he whispered, touched his nose with it, +and put it secretly into his pocket. And glad were they to think that +only that morning they had fetched out their red jackets and Nod his +wool coat. + + [5] That is, Magic, or Strangeness. When the Mulgars of Munza + see anything strange or unknown, they will whimper to one + another, as they stand with eyes fixed, "S[=o][=o]tli, + S[=o][=o]tli, S[=o][=o]tli," or some such sound. + +When the Forest-mulgars heard that the three brothers were setting out +on their long journey, they came trooping down from their leafy +villages, carrying presents, two skin water-bags (for the longed-for +time when the ice should bestir itself), a rough stone knife, a wild-bee +honeycomb, a plaited bag of dried Nanoes and nuts, and so on. But of +these Mulgar tribes few, like ants, or bees, or squirrels, make any +store, and none uses fire, nor, save one or two solitaries here and +there, can any walk upright or carry a cudgel. They munch and frisk and +chatter, and scratch and quarrel and mock, having their own ways and +wisdom and their own musts and mustn'ts. There are few, too, that +cherish not some kindness, if not for all, at least for one another--the +leopard to her cubs, the Coccadrillo to her eggs. But back to our +Mulla-mulgars. + +The forest of Munza-mulgar saw a feast upon its borders that day. The +Forest-mulgars sat in a great ring, and ate and drank, and when the sun +had ascended into the middle of the sky and the snow-piled branches +shone white as Tishnar's lambs, Thumb, Thimble, and Nod, rose up and +sang, "Gar Mulgar Dusangee"--the Mulgars' Farewell. While they sang, all +the Forest-mulgars, in their companies and tribes, sat solemnly around +them, furred and coloured and pouched and tailed. Shave their chops and +put them in breeches, they might well be little men. And they waved +slowly palm-branches and greenery to the time of the tune; some even +moaned and grunted, too. + + "Far away in Nanga-noon + Lived an old and grey Baboon,[6] + Ah-mi, Sulâni! + Once a Prince among his kind, + Now forsaken, left behind, + Feeble, lonely, all but blind: + Sulâni, ghar magleer. + + "Peaceful Tishnar came by night, + In the moonbeams cold and white; + Ah-mi, Sulâni! + 'Far away from Nanga-noon, + Thou old and grey Baboon; + Is a journey for thee soon!' + Sulâni, ghar magleer. + + "'Be not frightened, shut thine eye; + Comfort take, nor weep, nor sigh; + Solitary Tishnar's nigh!' + Sulâni, ghar magleer. + + "Old Baboon, he gravely did + All that peaceful Tishnar bid; + Ah-mi, Sulâni! + In the darkness cold and grim + Drew his blanket over him; + Closed his old eyes, sad and dim: + Sulâni, ghar magleer." + + [6] So I have translated "Babbabooma." + +And here the Mulgars all lay flat, with their faces in the snow, and put +the palms of their hands on their heads; while the three Mulla-mulgars +paced slowly round, singing the last verse, which, after the doggerel I +have made of the others, I despair of putting into English: + + "Talaheeti sul magloon + Olgar, ulgar Nanga-noon; + Ah-mi, Sulâni! + Tishnar s[=o][=o]tli maltmahee, + Ganganareez soongalee, + Manni Mulgar sang suwhee: + Sulâni, ghar magleer." + +Then the Mulla-mulgars cut down stout boughs to make cudgels, and, +having tied up their few possessions into three bundles and filled their +pockets with old nuts, they took palm-leaves and honey-comb and withered +scarlet and green berries, with which they canopied as best they could +their mother's grave, nor forgot poor gluttonous Glint's. They stood +there in the snow, and raised their hands in lamentable salutation. And +each took up a stone and jerked it (for they cannot throw as men do) as +far as he could towards the forest, as if to say, "Go with us!" Then, +with one last sorrowful look at the befrosted ashes of their hut, they +took up their bundles and started on their journey. + +At first, as I have said, the Mulgar-track is wide, and even in this +continually falling snow was beaten clear by hundreds of hand and foot +prints. But after a while the lofty branches began to knit themselves +above, and to hang thickly over the travellers, and to shut out the +light. And the path grew faint and narrow. + +One by one their friends waved good-bye and left them, until only Noll +and Nunga (Mutta-matutta's only sister's only children) accompanied +them. Just before sunset, when the forest seemed like a cage of music +with the voices of the birds that now sang, many of them desperately +from cold and hunger rather than for delight, Noll, too, and Nunga +raised their hands, touched noses, and said good-bye. And the three +brothers stood watching them till they had waved their branches for the +last time. Then they went on. + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER III + + +It was now, what with the snow and what with natural evening, growing +quickly dark. The birds had ceased to sing; only the Munza night-jar +rattled. Now near, now far away, the Mulla-mulgars heard the beasts of +the forest beginning to range and roar in the gloom. Nod buttoned up his +sheep's jacket, for there was a frost-mist beneath the trees. He was +cold, and began to be tired and very homesick. But Thumb was broad and +fat and prodigiously strong, Thimble lean and sinewy. And when Thumb saw +that Nod went stumbling under his bundle, he said: "Give it to me, +Mulla-jugguba!" (Prince of Bonfires). And Thimble laughed. + +But Nod refused to give up his bundle, and trudged on behind his +brothers, until night came down in earnest. Then, when it was quite +dark, after listening and muttering together, they thought that if they +spent the night down here they would certainly sleep "in danger." So +Thumb clambered into a great Ollaconda-tree, and let down a rope or +twist of the thick creeper called Cullum, and drew up all three bundles. +Then Thimble pushed and Thumb pulled, and up went Nod, too stiff and +cold to climb up by himself, after the bundles, sheep's-jacket and all. +Then Thimble climbed up too. They made their supper of Mulgar-bread and +frost-cockled Mambel-berries, which are sour and quench the thirst, and +drank or sucked splinters of ice, plenty of which hung glassy in the +great, still, winter-troubled tree. And for fear of leopards (or +"Roses," as their Munza name signifies), they agreed to keep watch in +turn, Thumb first, then Thimble, then Nod. They tied their bundles to +the boughs, chose smooth forks to squat in, and soon Thimble was fast +asleep. + +But when Nod found himself alone in the midst of the great icy tree in +the black forest, he could not sleep for thinking of it. He stroked his +face with his brown hand over and over to keep his eyes shut. He nuzzled +down into his sheep's-jacket. He counted his fingers again and again. He +repeated the lingo of the Seventy-seven Travellers from beginning to +end. It was in vain. Far and near he heard the cries and wanderings of +the forest beasts; the Ollaconda-tree was full of the nests of the +weaver-birds; and, worse still, soon Thimble began to snore so loud and +so sorrowfully that poor Nod trembled where he sat. He could bear +himself no longer. He stooped forward and called softly: "Thumb, my +brother, are you awake, Thumb?" + +"Sleep on, little Ummanodda," said Thumb; "if I watch, I watch." + +"But I cannot sleep," said Nod; "these weavers chatter so." + +Thumb laughed. "Thimble sings in his dreams," he said. "Why shouldn't +the little tailors sing, too?" + +"Do you think any leopards will come?" said Nod. + +"Think good things, my brother, not bad," Thumb answered. "But this we +will do--wait a little while awake, and I will sleep, and as soon as +sleep begins to come, call me and wake me; then, little brother, you +shall sleep in peace till morning." + +He put his head under his arm without waiting for an answer; and soon, +even louder and more dismal than Thimble's, rose Thumb's snoring into +the Ollaconda-tree. + +Nod sat cold and stiff, his eyes stretched open, his ears twitching. And +a thin moonlight began to tremble between the leaves. The light cheered +his spirits, and he thought, "Nod will soon feel sleepy now," when +suddenly out of the gloom of the forest burst a sounder or drove of wild +pig, scuffling and chuggling beneath the tree. Peeping down, Nod could +just see them in the faint moonshine, with their long, black, hairy ears +and tufted tails. + +And presently, while they were grubbing in the snow, one lifted up its +snout and cried in a loud voice: "Co-older--and colder!" + +"Co-older--and colder," cried another. + +"Co-older--and colder," cried a third. And all silently grubbed on as +before. + +"The Queen of the Mountains is in the Forest," began the first again, +"with fingers of frost." + +"And shoulders of snow." + + [Illustration: "THE QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAINS IS IN THE FOREST ... WITH + FINGERS OF FROST."] + +"And feet of ice," screamed the third. + +"The Queen of the Mountains," they grunted all together; and went on +burrowing, and shouldering, and faintly squeaking. + +"Hungrier and hungrier," cried one in a shrill voice, suddenly lifting +its head, so that Nod could see quite clearly its pale green, greedy +slits of eyes. + +"Leaner and leaner," answered another. + +"All the Sudd hid, all the Ukkas gone, all the B[=o][=o]bab frozen!" +squealed a third. + +"The Queen of the Mountains is in the Forest," they grunted all +together. But the pig that had looked up into the tree was still +staring--staring and wrinkling his narrow snout, till at last all the +pigs stopped feeding. "Pigs, my brothers; pigs, my brothers," he +muttered. "Up in this tree are Mulgar three, which travellers be.... Ho, +there!" But Nod thought it best to make no answer. And the pig turned +round and beat with his hind-feet against the bole or trunk of the +Ollaconda. "Ho, there, little Mulgar in the sheep-skin coat!" + +"If you beat like that, horny-foot, you'll wake my brothers," said Nod. + +"Brothers!" said the pig angrily. "What's brothers to Ukka-nuts? What's +your names, and where are you going?" + +"My brothers' names," said Nod, "are Thumma and Thimbulla, and I am Nod. +We are going to the palace of ivory and Azmamogreel that is our Uncle +Assasimmon's, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar." At that all the pigs +began muttering together. + +"Come down and tell us!" said a lean yellow pig; and as he snapped his +jaws Nod saw in the moonbeam the frost-light blinking on his bristles. + +"Tell you what?" said Nod. + +"About this Prince of Tishnar. Oh, these false-tongued Mulgars!" Nod +made no answer. + +Then a fat old she-pig began speaking in a soft, pleasant voice. "You +must be very, very rich, Prince Nod, with those great bags of nuts; and, +surely, it must be royal Sudd I smell! And Assasimmon his uncle! whose +house is more than a thousand pigs'-tails long; and gardens so thick +with trees of fruit and honey, one groans to have only one stomach. Come +down a little way, Prince Nod, and tell us poor hungry pigs of the royal +Assasimmon and the dainty food he eats." + +So pleasant was her flattering voice Nod thought there could not +possibly be any harm in scrambling down just one or two branches. And +though his fingers were still stiff with cold, he began to edge down. + +"Oh, but bring a bundle--bring a bundle, little Prince. It's cold for +gentlefolk sitting in the snow." + +"Pigs--pigs must naked go; but not for gentlefolk the snow," squealed +the herd shrilly. + +"Come gently, Prince Nod; do not stir your royal brothers, Prince Nod!" +said the old crafty one. + +Nod listened to her flattery, and, having untied his precious bundle, he +slid down with it softly to the ground. + +"A seat--a seat for Prince Nod," cried the old sow. "Oh, what a royal +jacket--oh, what a handsome jacket!" So Nod sat down on his bundle in +the moonlight of the snow, and all the wild pig, scenting his Sudd, +pressed close--forty wild pig at least. + +"Assasimmon, Assasimmon, Prince of Tishnar, Prince of Tishnar," they +kept grunting, and at every word they squeezed and edged closer and +closer, their hungry snouts in air--closer and closer, till Nod had to +hold tight to keep his seat; closer and closer, and again they began +squealing: "Pigs are hungry, brother Nod. Cakes of Sudd, cakes of +_Sudd_!" And then, like a great scrambling wave of pigs, they rushed at +him all together. Over went Nod into the snow. Scores of little sharp +hoofs scuttled over him. And when at last he was able to get up and look +about him, bruised and scratched and breathless, no trace of pigs was +there, no trace of bundle; every nut and crust of Sudd and crumb of +pulpy Mulgar-bread was gone. And suddenly came a loud, harsh voice out +of the tree. "Ho, ho, and ahôh! What's the trouble? what's the trouble?" +Nod looked up, and saw Thumb and Thimble staring down between their +out-stretched arms through the moon-silvery leaves. And he told them, +trembling, of how he could not sleep, and about the pigs and the bundle. + +"O most wise Nizza-neela!" said Thumb when he had finished. "Last night +Mulla-jugguba; this night Nodda-nellipogo" (Prince of Bonfires, Noddle +of Pork). But Thimble was too sore to say anything, for his little +Exxswixxia-book of sorcery had been stuffed into Nod's bundle, and now +it was lost for ever. And they left Nod to climb up again by himself. +Once safely back on his fork, he was so tired and miserable that, with +his hands over his face, he fell almost directly fast asleep. + +When he opened his small clear eyes again, sunrise was glinting here and +there through the green twilight on the icicles and snow in the trees. +He looked down, and saw Thumb and Thimble combing themselves. So down he +went, too, and took off his jacket, and skipped and frisked till he grew +warm. Then he, too, combed himself, and went and sat down beside his +brothers at the foot of the Ollaconda-tree to eat his morning's share of +musty nuts. At first his brothers sat angry and sullen, munching with +their great dog-teeth, and seeming to begrudge him every Ukka-nut he +cracked. But as the daybeams brightened, here where the trees grew not +so dense, and the birds, some wellnigh as small as acorns, flashed and +zigzagged, and Parrakeetoes squeaked and screamed in hundreds on the +branches, watching the three hungry travellers, they began to forget +Nod's supper with the pigs. And when they had eaten, into the gloom of +Munza they set out once more. + +As a dog smells out the footsteps of his master so these Mulla-mulgars +seemed to smell out their way. No path was to be seen except where +pig-droves had rambled by, or droves of Mullabruks and packs of +Munza-dogs. And once Thumb, on a sudden, stood still, and pointed to the +ground, opening his great grinning mouth, with its little wall of +glistening teeth, and muttered, "Roses!" They stood together looking +down at the frozen footprints of a mother-leopard and her cubs in the +fresh-laid snow. Nod fancied, even, he could smell her breath on the icy +air. After this they went forward more warily, but carried their cudgels +with a bravery, looking very fierce in their red jackets and great caps +of furry skins. And, after a while, the huge trees gathered in again, +and soon arched loftily overhead as thick as thatch, so that it was all +in a cold and sluggish gloom they walked, like the dusk of coming +night. Nor, so thick was the leafy roof overhead, had any snow floated +into its twilight. Only a rare frost shimmered on the spiky husks of +fruit thrown down by the Tree-mulgars. Huge frozen ropes of Cullum and +wild Pepper dangled in knots and loops from bough to bough, and +sometimes a troop of Squirrel-tails or spidery Skeetoes swung lightly +down these hoar-frost ropes, chattering and scolding at the three +strangers. But though Thumb called to them in their own tongue. +"Ullalullaubbajub," or some such sounds as that, meaning, "We are +friends," they skipped off, hand, foot, and tail, into their leafy roofs +and shadows, afraid of these cudgel-carrying travellers in their red +jackets, who walked, like the dreaded Oomgar, heads in air. + +Yet Nod was glad even of such company as this, so silent was the forest. +In this darkness they sat and ate their handful of food, with scorpions +and speckled tree-spiders watching them from their holes, not knowing +where the sun was, nor daring to kindle a fire with their fire-sticks +for fear of the tree-shadows. And at night they slept huddled close +together for warmth and safety, while Thumb and Thimble kept watch in +turn. + +In this way many days passed almost without blink of sunlight. Once and +again they would sidle over some pig-track, or stand, with club in hand, +to watch a leopard pass. And often troops of Mulgars kept pace with them +awhile, swinging from branch to branch, and chattering threats at the +travellers. But most of the forest creatures, parched and famished by +such a cold as had never fallen on Munza-mulgar before, had been driven +down out of the forest in search of food and warmth. And often the +travellers were compelled to search the bark of the trees and in the +crevices of rocks and under stones, as do the Babbaboomas, and eat +whatever creeping things they could find. Beside the dangling Skeetoes, +and now and then father, mother, and chidderkins of some old sour-faced +mournful Mullabruk, they saw few things living, except the little +ivory-gnawing M'boko, Peekodillies, and poison-spiders. But many of +these, too, had died of cold and hunger. And now, instead of the pale +green and amber lamps of firefly and glowworm, burned only the fires of +Tishnar's frost. Birds rarely ventured down into this snowy shadowland, +except only the tiny Telateuties, blood-red as ladybirds, that ran +chittering up the trees. These birds haunt only where daylight rarely +steals, and it is said they talk with the tree-spirits, or giant +N[=o][=o]mas, that roam these shades. + +At last, their feet sore with poison-needles, which sometimes pierced +clean through their thick skins, their eyes aching with the darkness, +the three travellers, on the eighth day, broke out of the dense forest +into broad daylight and shining snow again. Down and down they descended +into a frozen swampy valley. And about noon, half hidden in the fume and +steam of their own breath, they saw a great herd or muster of +Ephelantoes feeding. They stood in a line beyond Nod's counting--big, +middling-sized, and little--tearing down the rime-laden branches of the +trees, whose leaves and fruits they first warmed with their +bellows-breath before stuffing them into their mouths. The swampy ground +shook with their tramplings. Nod gazed in wonder as he and his brothers, +marching abreast, paced softly but doggedly on. And very soon the +watchful eyes, that glitter small in the great stone-coloured heads of +these mountainous beasts, perceived the red jackets moving betwixt the +grasses. And a silence came; the beasts stopped feeding. + +"Meelm[=u]tha glaren djhar!" muttered Thumb. + +So the Mulla-mulgars pushed quietly and bravely on, without turning +their heads or letting their eyes wander. For it is said that there is +nothing frets and angers these monsters so much as a watchful eye. They +leave their feeding and wallowing, even the big Shes their suckling. +Their great bodies trembling, they stand in disquiet and unrest if but +just one small clear eye beneath its lid be fixed too close or earnestly +upon them. Oomgars, Mulgars, leopards--even down to the brooding +Mullabruk, with its clay-coloured face--they abhor all scrutiny. But why +this is so I cannot say. + +It may be, then, that Nod, in his first wonder, dwelt too lingeringly +with his eye on these Lords of Munza: for a behemothian bull-Ephelanto, +with one of his tusks broken, lurched forward through the long grasses, +his tail stock-stiff behind him, and stood in their path. And as the +Mulgar travellers passed him by, he wound his long, two-fingered trunk +round Nod's belly, shook him softly, and lifted him high above the sedge +into the air. + +At this many other of the Ephelantoes stamped across the swamp and stood +in the mist around him. Nod's hand was in his pocket and pressed against +his slim thigh-bone, and there, hard and round, he felt as in a dream +his Wonderstone. And he caught back his fears, and thus, up aloft, +twenty feet or more between earth and sky, he twisted his head and said +softly: "Deal with the Nizza-neela gently, Lord of the Forest; we are +servants of Tishnar." At the sound of the name of Tishnar all the +Ephelantoes lifted up their trunks, and with a great blast trumpeted in +unison. Whereupon the bull-Ephelanto that had, half in sport, tossed Nod +up into the air set him gently on the earth again. And the three +brothers, hastening their hobbling pace a little, journeyed on once +more. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER IV + + +A little before evening Thumb suddenly stopped, and stood listening. +They went on a little farther, and again he stood still, with lifted +head, snuffing the air. And soon they all heard plainly the sound of a +great river. In the last light of sunset the travellers broke out of the +forest and looked down on the waters of the deep and swollen Obea-munza. +Along its banks grew giant sedge, stiff and grey with frost like meal. +In this sedge little birds were disporting themselves, flitting and +twittering, with long plumes of every colour that changes in the +sunlight, brushing off with their tiny wings the gathered hoarfrost into +the still sunset air. The Mulgars stood like painted wooden images, with +their bundles and cudgels, staring down at the river, wide and +turbulent, its gloomy hummocks of ice and frozen snow nodding down upon +the pale green waters. They glanced at one another as if with the +question on their faces, "How now, O Mulla-mulgars?" + +"'His country lies beyond and beyond,'" muttered Thimble. "'Forest and +river, forest, swamp, and river.' Could, then, our father Seelem walk on +water?" + +Thumb coughed in his throat. "What matters it? He went: we follow," he +grunted stubbornly. "We must journey on till our wings grow, Mulla +Thimble, or till your long legs can straddle bank to bank." And they all +three stared in silence again at the swirling icy water. + +Now, it was just beginning to be twilight, which is many times more +brief than England's in Munza, and the frozen forest was utterly still +in the fading rose and purple, the beasts not yet having come down to +drink. And while the travellers stood listening, there came, as it were +from afar off, the beating of a drum--seven hollow beats, and then +silence. + +"What in Munza, Thumb, makes a noise like that?" Nod whispered. "Listen, +listen!" + +They all three hearkened again, with heads bent and eyes fixed, and soon +once more they heard the hollow drumming. Thumb shook his head uneasily. + +"It is wary walking, my brothers," he said; "maybe there are +Oomgar-nuggas [black men] by the riverside; or maybe it is one of the +great hairy Gunga-mulgars whose country our father Seelem told me lies +five days' journey towards the daybreak. Whicheversoever, Mulla-mulgars, +we will hobble on and discover." + +Thimble dropped lightly, and rested on all-fours a moment. His eyes +squinted a little, for he greatly feared the drumming they had heard. + +But Thumb, moving softly, edged watchfully on, and Thimble and Nod +followed as he led along the reedy bank of the river. Ever and again +they heard the drumming repeated, but it seemed no less distant, so they +squatted down to eat while there was light enough in the sky to find +the way from fingers to mouth. They sat down under a twisted +B[=o][=o]bab-tree, opened their bundles, and took out the frosted nuts +and fruits which they had lately gathered for their supper. But it was +so bitterly cold by the waterside Nod could scarcely crack his shells +between his chattering teeth. And now the waning moon was beginning to +silver river and forest. From the farther bank rose the cries of Munza's +beasts come down to drink, mournful, lean, and fierce from hunger and +cold. Soon the long-billed river-birds began their night-talk across the +water. And while the Mulgars were sitting silently munching, out of the +shadow before their faces came on her soundless pads a young +she-leopard, and with catlike face stood regarding them. + +Thumb and Thimble dropped softly their hands, and very slowly stooped +their stiff-haired heads. But the leopard, after regarding them awhile, +and seeing them to be three together and Mulgars-royal, drew back her +head, yawned, and leapt lightly back into the shadowy grasses from which +she had stolen out. "One Roses brings many," said Thumb sourly; "let us +hobble on, Mulla-mulgars, until we find a quieter sleeping-place." + +But it was now so dark beside the river that the Mulgars had to stop and +walk on the knuckles of their hands, as do all the Munza-mulgars. And +while they walked heedfully forward, they heard the trump-billed +river-birds calling their secrets one to another: + + "I see Mulgars, one, two, three, + Creeping, crawling, one, two, three." + +Once Thumb trod on a forest-pig that was lying half dead with cold under +a root of Samarak. But the pig was too weak to squeal. Nod stooped and +gave him three Ukka-nuts and a pepper-pod. "There, pig," he said, "tell +your brothers who stole my bundle that Nod Nizza-neela gave you these +when you were frozen." And the pig, being a pig, opened its slits of +eyes and feebly snapped at his fingers. Nod laughed and hastened after +his brothers. + +Over the half-moon a cloud of snow was drawing, and soon the whispering +flakes began to float again between the branches. The wind that blew +steadily down the river was sharp and icy. The travellers were afraid, +if they slept in the trees again, they would be frozen. And if even one +big toe of any one of them got frost-bitten, how distant would the +Valley of Tishnar seem then! They heard, too, now and then the faint +sounds of snapping twig and rustling reed, and a low whimpering growl +would sometimes set the giant grasses trembling. Stiff and crusted with +frost, and in constant danger of falling into the river, they crawled +stubbornly on. + +And suddenly straight before them burned out a light in the darkness +that was neither of moon, star, nor frost-fire. On they rustled, very +warily now, because they knew somewhere here must lurk the Oomgar-nugga +or Gunga-mulgar whose drumming they had heard. One by one they +presently crept out of the sedge, and stood up a few paces from a kind +of huddle or hut, standing crooked and smoking in the moonlight, and +built of two or three rows of huge stakes, three times plaited, very +fast and close, with Samarak and withies of all kinds. It stood about +three Mulgars high, and its walls were more than four spans thick. + +The light which the travellers had espied burning in the distance +streamed from a misshapen window-hole far above Thimble's head. The +Mulgars stood staring at one another in the shadow of the black forest, +and now and then they would hear a rumble or clatter from behind the +thick walls, and presently a sneeze or cough. After which would suddenly +roll out the loud and hollow drumming of the great creature within. + +So Thumb bade Nod climb softly on to Thimble's shoulder, and very slowly +lift his face up and look in. Up went Nod, and softly drew his +sheep-skinned head into the light. And the first thing he noticed was a +wonderful steaming smell of broth cooking, and then, as he pushed his +head farther through the window-hole, he looked down into the hut. And +he saw, sitting there on a huge bench before his eating-board, a +gigantic Gunga-mulgar in a shift or shirt of fish-skin. He was guzzling +down broth out of a gourd, and fishing for titbits of fish-fat in it +with a wooden prong or skewer. He knew his comfort, this ugly Gunga. He +sat with crossed legs before a blazing fire. It shone on his fangs and +teeth and flaming eyes. A huge axe, made out of a stone, hung on the +wall. In one corner lay a heap of brushwood and fish-bones, and in a +hole in the ground a pile of logs. There were skins, too, on the walls +of fishes and birds and little furry beasts, and two fat hog-fish shone +silvery in the fire-light. Besides these, there was an Oomgar-nugga's +bow of wood, thrice strung with twisted string. But what pleased Nod +most to see, as he peeped stealthily down through the thorny wattle +window, was an old grey Burbhrie cat, which sat washing her face in +front of the fire. + +He was still peeping and peering into the hut, when Thumb pinched his +leg to bid him come down. So he slid cautiously down Thimble's back into +the cold moonlight again, and told his brothers all he had seen. + +"Yes, Mulla-mulgars," he said, "and beside his bow and his sharp-nosed +darts, he has three big knubbly cudgels in the corner higher than is +Nod. He sits there, muttering and chuffing and sticking a long wood spit +in his soup, and then he coughs and says 'Ug!' and beats his black fists +on his chest till the flames shake." + +Thumb's short thick scalp twitched to and fro as he sat on his heels, +staring into the moonlight. "Is he very big and strong? Is he as broad +and thick as Thumb?" he said. + +"He's sitting in a spangly shirt," said Nod, "and his arms are like +B[=o][=o]bab-roots--like B[=o][=o]bab-roots--and his eyes, +Mulla-mulgars, they burn in bony houses, and his face is black as +charcoal." + +Thumb lifted his face uneasily and yawned. "We will push on; we will not +meddle with the Gunga, my brothers," he said. "Better sleep cold than +never wake." He laughed, and patted Nod on the head with his +stump-thumbed hand, just as Seelem used to do when Nod was a baby. So +they crept softly past the huddle on their fours, turning their heads +this way, that way, snuffing softly along on an icy path that led +through the sword-grass to the river's edge. And there, tossing lightly +on the water, they found a boat, or Bobberie, of Bemba-wood and skin +pegged down with wooden pegs. It was moored fast with a rope of Samarak, +and two broad paddles lay inside it. All this the travellers saw faintly +in the moonlit dusk. Far away they heard the barking and weeping of +Coccadrilloes as they stooped together over the Bobberie, rising and +falling on the gloomy water. + +"Let us not trouble the Gunga at his supper," said Thimble, "but get in +first and ask leave after." + +And Thumb began softly hauling on the rope. But the smooth round stone +on which they stood was coated green with ice, and as he pulled his foot +slipped. He flung out his arms: down went Thumb; down went Nod. No +sooner had their uproar died away than an angry and ogreish voice broke +out from the hut. Thumb, with Thimble at his heels, had only just time +enough to scramble off and hide himself in the giant sedge before down +swung the gibbering Gunga on the crutches of his hairy arms to see what +was amiss, and who was meddling with his boat. + +There he found Nod, floating like a sheeny bubble in his puffed-out +sheep's-jacket on the icy water. He stooped down and clawed him up with +one enormous paw, and carried him off into his hut. Then, putting up the +wooden door, he sat him down with a shout before his blazing fire. + +"Ohé, ohé, ohé!" he bellowed. "Zutha mu beluthli zakketi zanga x[=u]t!" + +Nod, cold and trembling, lifted his little grey face out of his +streaming sheep's-coat and shook his head. + +Then the Gunga, seeing this crackle-shell did not understand his +language, bawled at him in Munza-mulgar: "Thief, thief! What were you +after, fishing from great Gunga's boat?" Nod shook his head again, for +he expected every moment that great hand to clutch him up and fling him +into the fire. + +"Thief, thief, and son of a thief!" squalled the Gunga again, opening +his great mouth. + +But at that Nod's wits grew suddenly clear and still. "Not so fast--not +so fast, Master Gunga," he said. "Mulla-mulgars are neither thieves nor +sons of thieves. Squeal that at the Munza-mulgars, not at Ummanodda!" + +The old Gunga stared with jutting teeth. "Mulla-mulgars," he grunted +mockingly. "Off with that sheep-skin, Prince of Fleas! I'll skin ye +'fore I cook ye!" + +Nod stared bravely into the glinting sooty face. "Gunga duseepi sooklar, +by N[=o][=o]manossi's harp!" + +The old Gunga stooped closer on his fleshless legs and blinked. "What +knows a fly-catching Skeeto of N[=o][=o]manossi's harp?" he said. + +"What knows a fish-bait Gunga of the Princes of Tishnar?" Nod answered, +and calmly sat down beside the old Burbhrie cat on a log in front of the +fire. The savage old Puss stretched out her claws, spread back her +tufted ash-coloured ears, and with grey-green eyes stared fiercely into +his face. But Nod clutched tight his Wonderstone, and paid no heed; and +soon she lazily turned again to the flames, and began to purr like a +nestful of Nikkanakkas. + +The Gunga stared, too, snapped his great jaws, coughed, then beat with +his warty fist on his great breast. "Ohé, ohé!" he said. "I meant no +evil to the Mulla-mulgar. Princes of Tishnar journey not often past old +Gunga's house. I hutch alone, far from my own country, Royal Stranger, +with only my black-man's Bobberie for friend." + +Nod, when he heard this, almost laughed out. "Not now, 'Prince of +Bonfires,' nor 'Noddle of Pork,'" he thought, "but 'Royal Stranger,' and +'Prince of Tishnar.'" + +"Why, then," he said aloud to the Gunga, "tongues chatter best when they +have something good to say. I'll take a platter of soup with you, Friend +of Fishes. And better still, I'll dry my magic coat." He slipped out of +his dripping jacket, and spread it out in front of the fire, and there +he sat, slim and silky, in his little cotton-leaf breeches, scratching +Puss's head and pretending himself at home. But the old Fish-catcher's +bloodshot eyes were watching--watching all the time. He was thinking +what snug and beautiful breeches that sheep's-coat would make him this +icy weather. But he thought, too, it would be best to speak civilly and +smoothly to his visitor--at least, for the present. Not even a +Gunga-mulgar cares to quarrel with peaceful Tishnar. + +"Make yourself easy, Traveller," he said, nodding his peaked head with a +hideous smile. "The moon was at hide-and-seek when I found you in the +water; I could not see your royal countenance. But Simmul, she knows +best." The old Burbhrie cat turned to her master at sound of her name, +put up her tufted paw towards Nod, and mewed. + +"Ohé, ohé!" said the Gunga mournfully. "She's mewing 'Magic.' And what +knows a feeble old Fish-catcher of Magic?" He poured out some soup into +a bowl, put in a skewer, and handed it to Nod. + +"I will hang the Royal Stranger's beautiful sheep's-coat on a hook," he +said slyly. "There it will dry much quicker." + +But Nod guessed easily what he was after. Once hung up there, how was he +ever going to reach his jacket down again? "No, no," says he; "it's +nearly dry already." + +He took the gourd of soup between his knees. It tasted strong of fish, +and was green with a satiny river-weed; but it was hot and sweetish, and +he supped it up greedily. And just as he was tilting the bowl for the +last mouthful he looked up and saw Thumb's round, astonished face +staring in at the little dark window. He put down his gourd and burst +out laughing. + +"What makes the stranger laugh?" said the old Gunga-mulgar. "It's very +good broth." + +"I was laughing," said Nod, "laughing at that last fish I caught." + +"Was it a big fish--a fat, heavy fish?" said the Gunga. + +Nod stared, with one eye shut and his head a little awry, at the two +hog-fish dangling on the wall. "Five times as big as them," he said. + +"Five?" said the Gunga. + +"Five or six," said Nod. + +"Or six!" said the Gunga. + +"Truly," said Nod softly, "he fishes not for minnows who knows the magic +fish-song of the Water-middens." + +The old Gunga turned his great black skull, and beneath the beetling +porches of his eyes glowered greedily on Nod. "And what," he said +cunningly--"what song is that, O Royal Stranger?" And he stooped down +suddenly and pushed Nod's jacket under the bench. + +"Why do you push my sheep's-coat under the bench?" said Nod angrily. + +"I smelt--I smelt," said Gunga, throwing back his head, "scorching. But +softly, Mulla-mulgar. What is this Water-middens' song that catches +fishes five--six times as big as mine? And if you know all this wisdom, +and are truly a Prince of Tishnar, why do you sit here, this freezing +night, supping up a poor old Fish-catcher's broth?" + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER V + + +By this time, it was plain, Thimble and Thumb had found something to +raise them to the window-hole, for Nod, as he glanced up, saw half of +both their astonished faces (one eye of each) peering in at the window. +He waved his lean little arms, and their faces vanished. + +"Why do you wave your long thumbs in the air?" said the old Gunga +uneasily. + +"I wave to Tishnar," said Nod, "who watches over her wandering Princes, +and will preserve them from thieves and cunning ones. And as for your +filthy green-weed soup, how should a Mulla-mulgar soil his thumbs with +gutting fish? And as for the Water-middens' song, _that_ I cannot teach +you, nor would I teach it you if I could, Master Fish-catcher. But I can +catch fish with it." + +The old Gunga squatted close on his stool, and grinned as graciously as +he could. "I am poor and growing old," he said, "and I cannot catch fish +as once I could. How is that done, O Royal Traveller?" + +Nod stood up and put his finger on his lips. "Secrets, Puss!" says he, +and stepped softly over and peeped out of the door. He came back. +"Listen," he said. "I go down to the water--at daybreak; oh yes, just at +daybreak. Then I row out a little way in my little Bobberie, quite, +quite alone--no one must be near to spy or listen; then I cast my nets +into the water and sing and sing." + +"What nets?" said the Gunga. + +Nod dodged a crisscross with his finger in the air. + +"S[=o][=o]tli, s[=o][=o]tli," mewed Puss, with her eyes half shut. + +The old Gunga wriggled his head with his great lip sagging. "What +happens then?" said he. + +"Then," said Nod, "from far and near my Magic draws the fishes, head, +fin, and tail, hundreds and hundreds, all to hear my Water-middens' +lovely song." + +"And what then?" said Gunga. + +"Then," said Nod, peeping with his eye, "I look and I look till I see +the biggest fish of all--seven, eight, nine times as big as that up +there, and I draw him out gently, gently, just as I choose him, into my +Bobberie." + +"And wouldn't _any_ fish come to the little Prince unless he fished +alone?" said the greedy Gunga. + +"None," said Nod. "But there, why should we be gossiping of fishing? My +boat is far away." + +"But," said the Gunga cunningly, "I have a boat." + +"Ohé, maybe," said Nod easily. "One cannot drown on dry land. But I did +speak of a Bobberie of skin and Bemba-wood, made by the stamping +Oomgar-nuggas next the sea." + +"Ay," said the Gunga triumphantly, "but that's just what my Bobberie +_is_ made of, and I broke the backbone of the Oomgar-nugga chief that +made it with one cuff of my cudgel-hand." + +Nod yawned. "Tishnar's Prince is tired," he said, "and cannot talk of +fishes any more. A bowlful more broth, Master Fish-catcher, and then +I'll just put on my jacket and go to sleep." And he laughed, oh, so +softly to himself to see that sooty, gluttonous, velvety face, and the +red, gleaming eyes, and the thick, twitching thumbs. + +"Ootz nuggthli!" coughed the Gunga sourly. He ladled out the broth, +bobbing with broken pods, with a great nutshell, muttering angrily to +himself as he stooped over the pot. And there, as soon as he had turned +his back, came those two dark wondering faces at the window, grinning to +see little Nod so snug and comfortable before the fire. + +And when the Gunga had poured out the broth, he brought his stool nearer +to Nod, and, leaning his great hands on the floor, he said: "See here, +Prince of Tishnar, if I lend you my skin Bobberie to-morrow morning, +will you catch _me_ some fish with your magic song?" + +Nod frowned and stared into the fire. "The crafty Gunga would be peeping +between the trees," he said, "and then----" + +"What then?" said he. + +"Then Tishnar's Meermuts would come with their silver thongs and drive +you squalling into the water. And the Middens would pick your eyes out, +Master Fish-catcher." + +"I promise, I promise," said the old Gunga, and his enormous body +trembled. + +"Where is this talked-of Bobberie?" said Nod solemnly. "Was it that old +log Nod saw when whispering with the Water-middens?" + +"Follow, follow," said the other. "I'll show the Prince this log." But +first Nod stooped under the bench, and pulled out his sheep's-coat and +put it on. Then he followed the old Fish-catcher down his frosty path +between its banks of snow, clear now in the silver shining of the moon. + +The Fish-catcher showed him everything--how to untie the knotted rope of +Samarak, how to use the paddles, where the mooring-stone for deep water +was. He held it up in his hand, a great round stone as big as a +millstone. Nod listened and listened, half hiding his face in his jacket +lest the Gunga-mulgar should see him laughing. Last of all, the +Fish-catcher, lifting him lightly in his hand, pointed across the turbid +water, and bade him have care not to drift out far in his fishing, for +the stream ran very swiftly, the ice-floes or hummocks were sharp, and +under the Shining-one, he said, snorting River-horses and the weeping +Mumbo lurk. + +"Never fear, Master Fish-catcher," said Nod. "Tishnar will watch over +me. How many big fish, now, can the old Glutton eat in comfort?" + +The Gunga lifted his black bony face, and glinted on the moon. "Five +would be good," he said. "Ten would be better. Ohé, do not count, Royal +Traveller. It makes the head ache after ten." And he thought within +himself what a fine thing it was to have kept this Magic-mulgar, this +Prince of Tishnar, for his friend, when he might in his rage have flung +him clean across Obea-munza into that great B[=o][=o]bab-tree grey in +the moon. "He shall teach me the Middens' song, and then I'll fish for +myself," he thought, all his thick skin stirring on his bones with +greed. + +So he cozened and cringed and flattered, and used Nod as if he were his +mother's son. He made him lie on his own bed; he put on him a great skin +ear-cap; he filled a bowl with the hot fish-water to bathe his feet; and +he fetched out from a lidded hole in the floor a necklet of scalloped +Bamba-shells, and hung it round his slender neck. + +But Nod, as soon as he lay down, began thinking of those poor +Mulla-mulgars, his brothers, hungry and shivering in the tree-tops. And +he pondered how he could help them. Presently he began to chafe and toss +in his bed, to sigh and groan. + +Up started the old Gunga from his corner beside the fire. "What ails the +Prince? Why does he groan? Are you in pain, Mulla-mulgar?" + +"In pain!" cried Nod, as if in a great rage, "How shall a Prince sleep +with twice ten thousand Gunga fleas in his blanket?" + +He got up, dragging after him the thick Munzaram's fleece off his bed, +and, opening the door, flung it out into the snow. "Try that, my hungry +hopping ones," he said, and pushed up the door again. "Now I must have +another one," he said. + +The old Fish-catcher excused himself for the fleas. "It is cold to comb +in the doorway," he said, rubbing his flat nose. And he took another +woolly skin out of his earth-cupboard and laid it over Nod. + +"That's one for Thumb," Nod said to himself, laughing. And presently +once more he began fretting and tossing. "Oh, oh, oh!" he cried out, +"What! More of ye! more of ye!" and with that away he went again, and +flung the second ram's fleece after the first. + +"Master Traveller, Master Traveller!" yelped the old Fish-catcher, +starting up, "if you throw all my blankets out, those thieves the +smudge-faces will steal them." + +"Better no blankets than a million fleas," said Nod; "and yours, Master +Fish-catcher, are as greedy as Ephelanto tics. And now I think I will +sleep by the fire, then the first peep of day will shine in my eyes from +that little window-hole up there, and wake me to my fishing." + +"Udzmutchakiss" ("So be it"), growled the Gunga. But he was very angry +underneath. "Wait ye, wait ye, wait ye, my pretty Squirrel-tail," he +kept muttering to himself as he sat with crossed arms. "For every +blanket a Bobberie or great fish." + +But Nod had never felt so merry in his life. To think of his brothers +wrapped warm in the Gunga-mulgar's blankets!--He laughed aloud. + +"What ails the Traveller? What is he mocking at now?" said the +Fish-catcher, glowering out of his corner. + +"Why," said Nod, "I laughed to hear the mice in this box hanging over my +head." + +"Mice?" said the Gunga. + +"Why, yes; a score or more," said Nod. "And one old husky Muttakin keeps +saying, 'Nibble all, nibble all; leave not one whole, my little pretty +ones--not the crumb of a crumb for the ugly old glutton.' I think, O +generous Gunga, she means the bread of Sudd, I smell." + +At that the Gunga flamed up in a fury. He rushed to his food-box, +shouting, "Will ye, oh, will ye, ye nibbling thieves!" And, opening the +door, he flung it after the blankets--Sudd-loaves, Nanoes, river-weed, +and all. And he stood a minute in the doorway, looking out on the cold, +moonlit snow. + +"Shut to the door, shut to the door, Master Fish-catcher," called Nod. +"I hear a distant harp-playing." + +The Gunga very quickly shut the door at that. But he came to the fire +and stood leaning on his hand, looking into it, very sullen and angry. +"Did I not say it, Prince of Tishnar?" he said. "My blankets are gone +already. Stolen!" + +"Sleep softly, my friend," said Nod, "and weary me not with talking. +There's better rams in the forest than ever were flayed. Your blankets +will creep back, never fear. Even to a Mullabruk his own fleas! But, +there! I'll make magic even this very moment, and to-morrow, when you go +down to the river to fetch up the fish, there shall your blankets be, +folded and civeted, on the stones by the water." + +Then he rose up in his littleness, and began to dance slowly from one +foot to the other, waving his lean arms over the fire, and singing, in +the secret language of the Mulla-mulgars, as loud as ever he could: + + "Thumb, Thimble, Mulgar meese, + In your blankets dream at ease, + And never mind the frozen fleas; + But don't forget the loaves and cheese!" + +"It is very strange magic," said the Fish-catcher. + +"Nay," said Nod; "they were very strange fleas." + +"And 'Thumthimble'--what does that mean?" + +"'Thumb' means short and fat, and 'Thimble' means long and lean, which +is Mulgar-royal for both kinds, Master Fish-catcher." + +"Ohé! the Prince knows best," said the old Gunga; "but _I_ never heard +such magic. And I've watched the Dancing Oomgars leagues and leagues +from here, and drummed them home to their Shes." + +Nod yawned. + +As soon as it was daybreak the old Fish-catcher, who had scarcely slept +a wink for thinking of the fishes he was to have for his breakfast, came +and woke Nod up. And Nod said: "Now I go, Master Fish-catcher; but be +sure you do not venture one toe's breadth beyond the door till you hear +me bringing back the fishes." + +"How can the Prince carry them, fishes big as that?" said the Gunga. + +"One at a time, my friend, as Ephelantoes root up trees," said Nod, +staring at his bristling arms and tusks of teeth. "Ohé!" he went on, +"when you hear my sweet-sounding Water-middens' song, you will not be +able to keep yourself from peeping. You must be bound with Cullum, +Master Fish-catcher. Oh, I should weep riversful of salt tears if the +Water-middens picked your gentle eyes out." + +At first the cunning old Gunga would not consent to be bound up. But Nod +refused to stir until he did. So at last he fetched a thick rope of +Samarak (which is stronger and tougher than Cullum) out of his old +chest or coffer, and Nod wound it round and round him--legs, arms, and +shoulders--and tied the ends to the great fish-scaly table. + +"Sit easy, my friend," said he; "my magic begins wonderfully to burn in +me." And, without another word, he skipped out and pulled up the door +behind him. + +Words could not tell how rejoiced were his brothers to see him from +their tree-tops come frisking across the snow. Away went the travellers +in the first light, hastening like thieves in their jackets, Nod in his +sheep's-coat leading the way. They left the blankets as Nod had promised +the Gunga. Then, one, two, three, they pushed the Bobberie into deep +water. In jumped Nod, in jumped Thimble, in jumped Thumb. Out splashed +the heavy paddles, and soon the Bobberie was floating like a cork among +the ice-humps in the red glare of dawn. They shoved off, Thumb at one +paddle, Thimble and Nod at the other. The farther they floated, the +swifter swept the water. And soon, however hard they pushed at the heavy +paddles, the Bobberie began twirling round and round, zig-zagging faster +and faster down with the stream. + +But scarcely were they more than fifteen fathoms from the bank when a +shrill and piercing "Illa olla! illa olla!" broke out behind them. No +need to look back. There on the bank in his glistening fish-skins, +gnashing his teeth and beating with his crusted hands on the drum of his +great chest, stood the terrible Gunga-mulgar, his Samarak-ropes all +burst asunder. He stooped and tore up huge stones and lumps of ice as +big as a sheep, and flung them high into the air after the tossing +Bobberie. Splash, splash, splash, they fell, around the three poor +sweating travellers, drenching them with water and melting snow. The +faster they paddled the faster swirled the water, and the thicker came +tumbling the Gunga's huge boulders of stone and ice. Let but one fall +plump upon their Bobberie, down they would go to be Mumbo-meat for good +and all. But ever farther the surging water was sweeping them on. +Suddenly the hailstones ceased, and they spied their dreadful enemy +swinging furiously back on his thick five-foot arms. + +"Gone, gone!" cried Thimble in triumph, leaning breathless on his +paddle. + +"Crow when your egg's hatched, brother Thimble," muttered Thumb. "He's +gone to fetch his bow." + +True it was. Down swung the gibbering Gunga, his Oomgar-nugga's bow +across his shoulder. Crouching by the water-side, he stretched its +string with all his strength. And a thin, keen dart sung shrill as a +parakeet over their heads. Again, again, and then it seemed to Nod a +red-hot skewer had suddenly spitted him through the shoulder, and he +knew the Fish-catcher had aimed true. He plucked the arrow out and waved +it over his head, scrunching his teeth together, and saying nothing save +"Paddle, Thimble! Paddle, O Thumb!" + +Mightily they leaned on their broad, unwieldy paddles. But now, not +looking where the water was sweeping them, of a sudden the Bobberie +butted full tilt into a great hummock of ice, and water began welling up +through a hole in the bottom. Nod knelt down, and, while his brothers +paddled, he flung out the water as fast as he could with his big +fish-skin cap. But fast though he baled, the water rilled in faster, and +just as they floated under a long, snow-laden branch of an +Ollaconda-tree, the Bobberie began to sink. + +Then Thimble cried in a loud voice, "Guzza-guzza-nahoo!" and, with a +great leap, sprang out of the boat and caught the drooping branch. Thumb +clutched his legs and Nod Thumb's; and there they were, all three +swinging over the water, while the branch creaked and trembled over +their heads. + +Down sank the staved-in Bobberie, and up--one, two, three, four, +five--floated huge, sluggish Mumboes or Coccadrilloes, with dull, +grass-green eyes fixed gluttonously on the dangling Mulgars. And a thick +muskiness filled the air around them. + +Inch by inch Thimble edged along the bough, until, because of the +jutting twigs and shoots, he could edge no farther. Then, slowly and +steadily at first, but gradually faster, the three travellers began to +swing, sweeping to and fro through the air, above the enraged and +snapping Coccadrilloes. The wind rushed past Nod's ears; his jacket +flapped about him. "Go!" squealed Thumb; and away whisked Nod, like a +flying squirrel across the water, and landed high and dry on the bank +under the wide-spreading Ollaconda-tree. Thumb followed. Thimble, with +only his own weight to lift, quickly scrambled up into the boughs above +him. And soon all three Mulla-mulgars were sitting in safety, munching +what remained of the Gunga's Sudd-bread, and between their mouthfuls +shouting mockery at the musky Coccadrilloes. + +While they were thus eating happily together Thumb suddenly threw up his +hands and called: "Blood, blood, O Ummanodda--blood, red blood!" And +then it seemed to Nod, trees, sky, and river swam mazily before his +eyes. Darkness swept up. He rolled over against a jutting root of the +Ollaconda, and knew no more. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER VI + + +When Nod opened his eyes again, he found himself blinking right into the +middle of a blazing fire, over which hung sputtering a huddled carcass +on a long black spit. Nod's head ached; his shoulder burned and +throbbed. He touched it gently, and found that it was swathed and bound +up with leaves that smelt sleepily sweet and cool. He looked around him +as best he could, but at first could see nothing, because of the +brightness of the flames. Gradually he perceived small grey creatures, +with big heads and white hands, that reached almost to the ground, +hastening to and fro. His smooth brown poll stood up stiff with terror +at sight of them, for he knew he must be lying in the earth-mounds of +the flesh-eating Minimuls. + + [Illustration: THE WONDERSTONE.] + +Memories one by one returned to him--the Bobberie, the river, the +yapping Coccadrilloes, the burning dart. One thing he could not +recall--how he came to be lying alone and helpless here in the +root-houses of these cunning enemies of all Mulgars, great and small. He +remembered the stories Mutta-matutta used to tell him of their snares +and poisons and enticements; of their earth-galleries and their horrible +flesh-feasts at the full moon. His one comfort was that he still lay in +his sheep's jacket, and felt his little Wonderstone pressed close +against his side. + +When one of the Minimuls that stood basting the spit saw that Nod was +awake he summoned others who were standing near, and many stooped softly +over, staring at him, and whispering together. Nod put his finger to his +tongue, and said, "Walla!" One of them instantly shuffled away and +brought him a little gourd of a sweetish juice like Keeri, which greatly +refreshed him. + +Then he called out, "Mulgars, Mulla-mulgars?" This, too, they seemed at +once to understand. For, indeed, Seelem had told Nod that these Minimuls +are nothing but a kind of Munza-mulgar, though their faces more closely +resemble the twilight or moonshine Mulgars, and for craft and greed the +dwarf Oomgar-nuggas, that long ago had trooped away beyond Arakkaboa. +Nod heard presently many faint voices, and then thick guttural cries of +pain and anger. And by turning a little his head he could see a host of +these mouse-faced mannikins tugging at a rope. At the end of this rope, +all bound up with Cullum, with sticky leaves plastered over their eyes, +and hung with dangling festoons of greenery and flowers, like +jacks-in-the-green, Thumb and Thimble hobbled slowly in from under an +earthen arch. Nod was weak with pain. He cried out hollowly to see his +brothers blind and helpless. + +Thumb heard the sound, and answered him boldly in Mulgar-royal. "Is +that the voice of my brother, the Mulla-mulgar, Nizza-neela Ummanodda?" + +"O Thumb!" Nod groaned, "why am I here in comfort, while you and Thimble +are dragged in, bound with Cullum, and hung all over with dreadful +leaves and flowers?" + +"Have no fear, Prince of Bonfires," said Thumb with a laugh. "The +Minimuls caught us smelling at their Gelica-nuts, and sleeping in the +warmth of their earth-mounds. We were too frozen and hungry to carry you +any farther. They are fattening us for their Moon-feast. But it will be +little more than a picking of bones, Ummanodda. And even if they do spit +up over their fire, we will taste as sweet as Mulla-mulgars can." And he +burst out into such a squeal of angry laughter the Minimuls began +chattering again and waving their hands. + +"Talk not of meat and bones to me, Thumb. If you die, I die too. Tell +me, only so that they do not understand, what is Nod to do." + +Then Thimble, who was standing in the shadow, hobbled a little nearer +into the light of the fire, and lifting up his leaf-smeared face as if +to see, said: "Have no fear for yourself, Nod. They have caught us, but +not for long. But you they dare not frizzle a hair of, little brother, +because of Tishnar's Wonderstone sewn up in your sheep's-coat. They have +smelt out its magic. Keep the stone safe, then, Ummanodda, and, when you +are alone, rub it S[=a]maweeza as Mutta told you before she died. +Tishnar, perhaps, will answer. See only that none of these miching +mouse-faces are near. Had we but been awake when they found us!..." + +But the Minimuls began to grow restless at all this palaver, for, though +the Munza-mulgar tongue is known to them, they cannot understand, except +a word here and there, the secret language of Mulgar-royal. So they laid +hold of the Cullum-ropes again, and lugged Thumb and Thimble back under +the sandy arch through which they had come. Thumb had only time enough +to cry in a loud voice, "Courage, Nizza-neela," before he was dragged +again out of sight and hearing. + +And Nod remembered that when the Gunga-mulgar had led him down out of +his huddle to show him the Bobberie, the moon was shining then at +dwindling halves. So he knew that, unless many days had passed since +then, it would be some while yet before these Minimuls made their +cannibal Moon-feast. He lay still, with eyes half shut, thinking as best +he could, with an aching head and throbbing shoulder. + +The firelight glanced on the earthy roof far above him. Here and there +the contorted root of some enormous forest-tree jutted out into the air. +There was a continued faint rustle around him, as of bees in a hive or +ants in a pine-wood. This was the shuffling of the Minimuls' shoes, +which are flat, like sandals, and made of silver grass plaited together, +that rustles on the sandy floor of their chambers and galleries. This +plaited grass they tie, too, round their middles for a belt or pouch, +beneath which, as they walk, their long lean tails descend. Their fur +shines faintly shot in moon or firelight, and is either pebble-grey or +sand-coloured. It never bristles into hair except about their polls and +chops, where it stands in a smooth, even wall, about one and a half to +two inches high, leaving the remnant of their faces light and bare. +They stand for the most part about three spans high in their grass +slippers. Their noses are even flatter than the noses of the Mullabruks. +Their teeth stand out somewhat, giving their small faces a cunning +mouse-look, which never changes. Their eyes are round and thin-lidded, +and almost as colourless as glass. Yet behind their glassiness seems to +be set a gleam, like a far and tiny taper shining, so that they are +perfectly visible in the dark, or even dusk. Thus may they be seen, a +horde of them together in the evening gloom of the forest when they go +Mulgar-hunting. When they are closely looked on, they can, as it were +within their eyes, shut out this gleam--it vanishes; but still they +continue to see, though dimly. By day their eyes are as empty as pure +glass marbles. Their smell is faintly rank, through eating so much +flesh. The she and young Minimuls feed in the deeper chambers of their +mounds, and never venture out. + +Nod was falling into a nap from weariness and pain, when there came +spindling along an old sallow-hued Earth-mulgar, whose eyes were pink, +rather than glass-grey, like the others. He shook his head this way, +that way, muttering his magic over Nod; then, with a mottled gourd +beside him, he very gently and dexterously rolled back the strip or +bandage of leaves on Nod's shoulder, and peered close into his poisoned +wound. He probed it softly with his hairless fingers. Then out of the +pouch hanging on his stomach he took fresh leaves, smeared and stalked, +a little clay pot of green healing-grease, and anointed the sore. This +he rubbed ever so smoothly with his two middle fingers. After which he +bound all up again so skilfully with leaves and grass that it seemed to +Nod his wounded shoulder was the easiest and most comfortable part of +his body. Out of his pinkish eyes he gazed greedily into Nod's face for +a moment, and took his departure. + +After he had gone, Nod smoothed his face, and with his own comb combed +himself as far as he could reach without pain. Presently shuffled along +two or three more of the Mouse-faces carrying roasted Nanoes and +Mambel-berries, and a kind of citron, like a Keeri, very refreshing; +also a little gourd of very thin Subbub. But, although he was too +wretched and too much afraid to be hungry, and shuddered at sight of the +Minimul food, Nod knew he must quickly grow strong if ever he and his +brothers were to reach the Valleys of Tishnar. So he ate and drank, and +was refreshed. Then he turned to a little sleek Minimul that tended him, +and asked him in Munza-mulgar: "Is it day--sunshine? Is it day?" + +The little creature shook his head and shut his eyes, as if to signify +he did not understand the question. + +Nod at that shut his eyes too, and laid his cheek on his lean little +hand, as if to say, "Sleep." + +Thereupon eight thickish Minimuls came--four on either side--and hoisted +up by its handles the grass mat on which he lay, while others went +before, strewing dried leaves and a kind of forest-flower that smells +like mint when crushed, and carrying lanterns of candle-worms, while +others waddled with them, beating on little tambours of Skeeto-skin--all +this because Nod breathed magic, part his own, part his Wonderstone's. + +They laid him down in a sandy chamber strewn with flowers. And, bowing +many times, their heads betwixt their rather bandy legs, they left him. +When they were gone, Nod wriggled softly up and looked about him. The +chamber was round and caved, and on the walls were still visible the +marks of the Minimuls' hands and scoops which had hollowed it out. +Through the roof a rugged root pierced, crossed over, and dipped into +the earth again. The candle-worms cast a gentle sheen on the golden +sanded walls. Hung from the roof were strings of dried flowers, shedding +so heavy and languid a smell in the narrow chamber that Nod's drowsy +eyelids soon began to droop. His bright eyes glanced like fireflies, +darting to and fro with his thoughts. But the odour of the flowers soon +soothed them all to rest. Nod fell asleep. + +The next day (that is, the next Minimul day, which is Munza night) crept +slowly by. Nod was never left alone. Every hour the little +soft-shuffling Mouse-faces tended and fed and watched him, and burnt +little magic sticks around him. Three dead Skeetoes, with fast-shut +eyes, lay on the floor, shot by their poisoned darts in the dusk of the +evening, when he was carried into the big fire-chamber, or kitchen, +again. They were soon skinned and trussed by the hungry Minimuls, and +stretched along the spit. The smell of their roasting rose up in smoke. +At last came sleeping-time again. And then, when all was silent, Nod +rose softly from his grass-mat, and stealing down the low, narrow +earth-run, looked out into the kitchen where he had lain all day. The +fire was dying in faintly glowing embers. All was utterly still. But +which way should he go now, he wondered, to seek his brothers? And which +of these dark arches led to the open forest, the snow, and the +Assasimmon? + + [Illustration: NOD WAS NEVER LEFT ALONE.] + +His quick eyes caught sight of the thin smoke winding silently up from +the logs. Somewhere that must escape into the air. But on high it was so +dim he could scarcely see the roof, only the steep walls, ragged with +snake-skins, and the huge pods of the silky poison-seed. He crept +stealthily under one of the arches hung at the entrance with the dried +carcass of a little fierce-faced, snow-white Gunga cub, and presently +came to where, all in their sandy beds, with their tails curled up, side +by side in double rows, the mousey Earth-mulgars slept. He returned to +the kitchen, and called softly in the hollow cavern, "Thumb, Thumb!" + +Only his own voice echoed back to him. Yet a sound feeble as this awoke +the light-sleeping Minimuls. For their mounds echo more than mere +hollowness would seem to make them. The lightest stir or footfall of +beast walking above in Munza may be heard. Nod had only just time enough +to scamper up his own narrow corridor and throw himself on his mat +before a score of shuffling footfalls followed, and he felt many glassy +eyes peering closely into his face. + +All the rest of that night (and for the few nights that followed) +Minimuls stood behind his bed beating faintly on their skin Z[=o][=o]ts +or tambours, while two others sat one on each side of him with fans of +soporiferous Moka-wood. But though they might lull Nod's lids asleep, +they couldn't still his busy brain. He dreamed and dreamed. Now, in his +dreams he was come in safety to his Uncle Assasimmon's, and they were +all rejoicing at a splendid feast, and he was dressed in beads from neck +to heel, with a hat of stained ivory and a peacock's feather. Now he was +alone in the forest in the dark, and a Talanteuti was lamenting in his +ear, "N[=o][=o]m-anossi, N[=o][=o]m-anossi." And now it seemed he sat +beneath deep emerald waters in the silver courts of the Water-middens, +amid the long gold of their streaming hair. But he would awake babbling +with terror, only to smell the creeping odour on the air of broiling +Mulgar. + +One day came many Earth-mulgars from distant mounds to see this Prince +of Magic whom their kinsmen had captured in the forest. They stared at +him, sniffed, bowed, and burned smoulder-sticks, and then were led off +to stare too at fat Thumb and fattening Thimble. And that same day the +Minimuls dragged into their kitchen a long straight branch of iron-wood, +which with much labour they turned by charring into a prodigious spit. +And Nod knew his hour was come, that there was no time to be lost. + +When he had once more been carried on his mat into his own chamber or +sleeping-place, he drove out the drumming and fan-waving Minimuls, +making signs to them that their noise and odour drove sleep away instead +of charming it to him. He waited on and on, tossing on his mat, +springing up to listen, hearing now some forest beast tread hollowly +overhead, and now a distant cry as if of fear or anguish. But at last, +when all was still, he very cautiously fumbled and fumbled, gnawed and +gnawed with his sharp little dog-teeth, until in the dim light of his +worm-lantern peeped out the strange pale glowing milk-white Wonderstone, +carved all over with labyrinthine beast and bird and unintelligible +characters. It lay there marvellously beautiful, as if in itself it were +all Munza-mulgar, its swamps and forests and mountains lying tinied in +the pale brown palm of his hand, and as full of changing light as the +bellies of dead fishes in the dark. He got up softly, clutching the +stone tightly in his hand. He listened. He stole down his sandy gallery, +and stood, small and hairy, in his sheep-skin, peering out into the +great evil-smelling kitchen. Then he spat with his spittle on the stone, +and began to rub softly, softly, three times round with his left thumb +S[=a]maweeza, dancing lightly, and slowly the while, with eyes tight +shut and ears twitching. + +And it seemed of a sudden as if all his care and trouble had been swept +away. A voice small and clear called softly within him: "Follow, +Ummanodda, follow! Have now no fear, Prince of Tishnar, Nizza-neela; but +follow, only follow!" + +He opened his eyes, and there, hovering in the air, he saw as it were a +little flame, crystal clear below, but mounting to the colour of rose, +and shaped like a little pear. As soon as he looked at it it began +softly to stir and float away from him across the glowery kitchen. And +again the mysterious voice he had heard called softly: "Follow, Prince +of Tishnar, follow!" With shining eyes he hobbled warily after the +little flame that, burning tranquil in the air, about a span above his +head, was floating quietly on. + +It led him past the gaunt black spit and the dying fire. It wafted +across the great kitchen to the fifth of the gloomy arches, and +stealthily as a shadow Nod stole after it. Under this arch and up the +shelving gallery gently slid the guiding flame. And now Nod saw again +the furry Earth-mulgars, lying on their stomachs in their sandy beds, +whimpering and snuffling in their sleep. On glided the flame; after it +crept Nod, scarcely daring to breathe. "Softly, now softly," he kept +muttering to himself. And now this gallery began to slope downward, and +he heard water dripping. A thin moss was growing on the stony walls. It +felt colder as he descended. But Nod kept his eyes fixed on the clear, +unswerving flame. And in the silence he heard a muffled groan, and a +harsh voice muttered drowsily, "Oo mutchee, nanga," and he knew Thumb +must be near. + +The strange voice whispered: "Hasten, Ummanodda Nizza-neela; full moon +is rising!" Then Nod whimpering in his fear a little, like a cat, edged +on once more through a gallery where was laid up on sandy shelves a +great store of nuts and pods and skins and spits and sharp-edged flints. +And at last he came to where, in a filthy hollow, cold and lightless, +and oozing with dark-glistening water-drops, his brothers Thimble and +Thumb were sleeping. They were tied hand and foot with Samarak to the +thick root of a B[=o][=o]bab-tree, even their eyes bound up with sticky +leaves. Nod hobbled over and knelt down beside Thumb, and put his mouth +close to his ear. "Thumb, Thumb," says he, "it is Nod! Wake, +Mulla-mulgar; it is Nod who calls!" And he shook him by the shoulder. +Thumb stirred in his sleep and opened his mouth, so that Nod could see +the hovering flame glistening on his teeth. "Oohmah, oohmah," he +grunted, "na nasmi mutta kara theartchen!" Which means in Mulgar-royal: +"Sorry, oh sorry, don't whip me, mother dear!" And Nod knew he was +dreaming of long ago. + +He shook him again, and Thumb, with a kind of groan, rolled over, +trembling, and seemed to listen. "Thumb, Thumb," Nod cried, "it's only +me; it's only Nod with the Wonderstone!" And while Nod was stripping off +the leaves and bandages which covered Thumb's eyes he told him +everything. "And don't cry out, Thumb, if Tishnar's flame burns your +shins. They've tied your legs in knots so tight with this tough Samarak, +my fingers can't undo them." So Thumb stretched out his legs, and +clenched his hands, while the flame stooped and came down, and burned +through the Samarak. He rubbed his poor singed shins where the flame had +scorched them. But now he stood up. Soon his arms were unbound, and +Thimble, too, was roused and unloosed, and they were all three ready to +tread softly out. + +"Lead on, my wondrous fruit of magic!" said Nod. + +The light curtsied, as it were, in the air, and glided up through the +doorway; and the three Mulla-mulgars crept out after it, Thumb and +Thimble on their fours, being too stiff to walk upright. + +"Hasten, hasten, Mulla-mulgars!" said Nod softly. "The full moon is +shining; night is come. The pot is ready for the feast." + +So one by one, with Nod's clear flame for guide, they trod noiselessly +up the sandy earth-run. It led them without faltering past the huddled +sleepers again; past, too, where the she-Minimuls lay cuddling their +tiny ones, and up into the big empty kitchen. Under another arch they +crept after it, along another gallery of rough steps, hollowed out of +the sandy rock, beneath great tortuous roots, through such a maze as +would have baffled a weasel. + +And suddenly Thumb stopped and snuffed and snuffed again. "Immamoosa, +Immamoosa!" he grunted. + +Almond and evening-blooming Immamoosa it was, indeed, which they could +smell, shedding its fragrance abroad at nightfall. And in a little while +out at last into the starry darkness they came, the great forest-trees +standing black and still around them, their huge boughs cloaked with +snow. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER VII + + +It was bitterly cold, and as the three travellers stood there, ragged +and sore and hungry, they thought they would never weary of gazing at +the starry sky and sniffing the keen night air between the trees. But +which way should they go? No path ran here, for the Earth-mulgars never +let any path grow clear around their mounds. Thumb climbed a little way +up a Gelica-tree that stood over them, and soon espied low down in the +sky the Bear's bright Seven, which circle about the dim Pole Star. So he +quickly slid down again to tell his brothers. It so happened, however, +that in this tree grows a small, round, gingerish nut that takes two +whole years to ripen, and hangs in thick clusters amid the branches. +They have a taste like cinnamon, and with these the Earth-mulgars +flavour their meat. And as Thumb slid heavily down, being stiff and sore +now, and very heavy, he shook one of these same clusters, and down it +came rattling about Nod's head. They have but thin shells, these nuts, +and are not heavy, but they tumbled so suddenly, and from such a height, +that Nod fell flat, his hands thrown out along the snow. He clambered +up, rubbing his head, and in the quietness, while they listened, they +heard as it were a distant and continuous throbbing beneath them. + +Thimble crouched down, with head askew. "The Minimuls, the Z[=o][=o]ts!" +he grunted. + +But even at the same moment Nod had cried out too. "Thumb, Thumb, O +Mulla-mulgar, the Wonderstone! the Wonderstone! the snow, the snow!" No +pale and tapering light hovered clearly beaming now beneath these cold +and starlit branches. The Mounds of the Minimuls were awake and astir. +Soon the furious little Flesh-eaters would come pouring up in their +hundreds, and to-morrow, their magic gone, all three brothers would be +quickly frizzling, with these same Gelica-nuts for seasoning, on the +spit. + +Nod flung himself down; down, too, went Thumb and Thimble in the +ice-bespangled snow. At last they found the stone, shining like a pale +moon amid the twinkling starriness of the frost. But it was only just in +time. Even now they could hear the far-away crying and clamour, and the +surly Z[=o][=o]t-beating of the Earth-mulgars drawing nearer and nearer. + +Without pausing an instant, Nod cast the stone into his mouth for +safety, and away went the three travellers, bundle and cudgel, rags and +sheep's-coat, helter-skelter, between the silvery breaks of the trees, +scampering faster than any Mulgar, Mulla, or Munza had ever run before. +The snow was crisp and hard; their worn and hardened feet made but the +faintest flip-flap in the hush. And scarcely had they run their first +short wind out, when lo and behold! there, in a leafy bower of snow in +their path, three short-maned snorting little Horses of Tishnar, or +Zevveras, stood, rearing and chafing, and yet it seemed tethered +invisibly to that same frosty stable by a bridle from which they could +not break away. + +They whinnied in concert to see these scampering Mulgars come panting +over the snow. And Nod remembered instantly the longed-for gongs and +stripes of his childhood, and he called like a parakeet: "Tishnar, O +Tishnar!" He could say no more. The Wonderstone that had lain couched on +his tongue, as he opened his mouth, slid softly back, paused for his +cry, and the next instant had glided down his throat. But by this time +Thumb had straddled the biggest of the little plunging beasts. And, like +arrows from the Gunga's bow, each with his hands clasped tight about his +Zevvera's neck, away went Thumb, away went Thimble, away went Nod, the +night wind whistling in their ears, their rags a-flutter, the clear +stripes of the Zevveras winking in the rising moon. + +But the Little Horse of Tishnar which carried Nod upon his back was by +much the youngest and smallest of the three. And soon, partly because of +his youth, and partly because he had started last, he began to fall +farther and farther behind. And being by nature a wild and untamable +beast, his spirit flamed up to see his brothers out-stripping him so +fast. He flung up his head with a shrill and piercing whinny, and +plunged foaming on. The trees winked by. Now up they went, now down, +into deep and darkling glades, now cantering softly over open and +moon-swamped snow. If only he could fling the clumsy, clinging Mulgar +off his back he would soon catch up his comrades, who were fast +disappearing between the trees. He jumped, he reared, he kicked, he +plunged, he wriggled, he whinnied. Now he sped like the wind, then on a +sudden stopped dead, with all four quivering legs planted firmly in the +snow. But still Nod, although at every twist and turn he slipped up and +down the sleek and slippery shoulders, managed to cling fast with arms +and legs. + +Then the cunning beast chose all the lowest and brushiest trees to run +under, whose twigs and thorns, like thick besoms, lashed and scratched +and scraped his rider. But Nod wriggled his head under his sheep's-coat, +and still held on. At last, maddened with shame and rage, the Zevvera +flung back his beautiful foam-flecked face, and with his teeth snapped +at Nod's shoulder. The Mulgar's wound was not quite healed. The gleaming +teeth just scraped his sore. Nod started back, with unclasped hands, and +in an instant, head over heels he shot, plump into the snow, and before +he could turn to scramble up, with a triumphing squeal of delight, the +little Zevvera had vanished into the deep shadows of the moon-chequered +forest. + + [Illustration: HE JUMPED, HE REARED, HE KICKED, HE PLUNGED, HE + WRIGGLED, HE WHINNIED.] + +At last Nod managed to get to his feet again. He brushed the snow out of +his eyes, and spat it out of his mouth. The Zevvera's hoof-prints were +plain in the snow. He would follow them, he thought, till he could +follow no longer. His brothers had forsaken him. His Wonderstone was +gone. He felt it even now burning like a tiny fire beneath his +breast-bone. He limped slowly on. But at every step he stumbled. His +shoulder throbbed. He could scarcely see, and in a little while down he +fell again. He lay still now, rolled up in his jacket, wishing only to +die and be at peace. Soon, he thought, the prowling Minimuls would find +him, stiff and frozen. They would wrap him up in leaves, and carry him +home between them on a pole to their mounds, and pick his small bones +for the morrow's supper. Everything he had done was foolish--the fire, +the wild pig, the Ephelantoes. He could not even ride the smallest of +the Little Horses of Tishnar. The languid warmth of his snow-bed began +to lull his senses. The moon streamed through the trees, silvering the +branches with her splendour. And in the beautiful glamour of the +moonbeams it seemed to Nod the air was aflock with tiny wings. His heavy +eyelids drooped. He was falling softly--falling, falling--when suddenly, +close to his ear, a harsh and angry voice broke out. + +"Hey, Mulgar! hey, Slugabones! how come you here? What are you doing +here?" + +He opened his eyes drowsily, and saw an old grey Quatta hare staring +drearily into his face with large whitening eyes. + +"Sleep," he said, softly blinking into her face. + +"Sleep!" snarled the old hare. "You idle Mulgars spend all your days +eating and sleeping!" + +Nod shut his eyes again. "Do not begrudge me this, old hare," he said; +"'tis N[=o][=o]manossi's." + +"Where did you steal that sheep's-coat, Mulgar? And how came you and the +ugly ones to be riding under my Dragon-tree on the Little Horses of +Tishnar?" + +"Why," replied Nod, smiling faintly, "I stole my sheep's-coat from my +mother, who gave it me; and as for 'riding on the Little Horses'--here +I am!" + +"Where have you come from? Where are you going to?" asked the old hare, +staring. + +"I've come from the Flesh-mounds of the Minimuls, and I think I'm going +to die," said Nod--"that is, if this old Quatta will let me." + +The old hare stiffened her long grey ears, and stamped her foot in the +snow. "You mustn't die here," she said. "No Mulgar has ever died here. +This forest belongs to me." + +In spite of all his aches and pains, Nod grinned. "Then soon you will +have Nod's little bones to fence it in with," he said. + +The old hare eyed him angrily. "If you weren't dying, impudent Mulgar, +I'd teach you better manners." + +Nod wriggled closer into his jacket. "Trouble not, Queen of Munza," he +said softly. "I shouldn't have time to use them now." He shut his eyes +again, and all his pain seemed to be floating away in sleep. + +The old hare sat up in the snow and listened. "What's amiss in +Munza-mulgar?" she muttered to herself. "First these galloping Horses of +Tishnar, one, two, three; now the angry Z[=o][=o]ts of the Minimuls, and +all coming nearer?" But Nod was far away in sleep now, and numb with +cold. + +She tapped his little shrunken cheek with her foot. "Even in your sleep, +Mulgar, you mustn't dream," she said. "None may dream in my forest." But +Nod made no answer even to that. She sat stiff up again, twitching her +lean, long, hairy ears, now this way, now that way. "Foh, +Earth-mulgars!" she said to herself. She stamped in the snow, and +stamped again. And in a minute another old Quatta came louping between +the trees, and sat down beside her. + +"Here's an old sheep's-jacket I've found," said the old Queen Quatta, +"with a little Mulgar inside it. Let us carry it home, Sister, or the +Minimuls will steal him for their feast." + +The other old Quatta raised her lip over her long curved teeth. "Pull +out the Mulgar first," she said. + +But Mishcha said: "No, it is a strange Mulgar, a Mulla-mulgar, a +Nizza-neela, and he smells of magic. Take his legs, Sister, and I will +carry his head. There's no time to be lost." So these two old Quatta +hares wrapped Nod round tight in his sheep-skin coat, and carried him +off between them to their form or house in an enormous hollow +Dragon-tree unimaginably old, and very snug and warm inside, with +cotton-leaf, feathers, and dry tree-moss. There they laid him down, and +pillowed him round. And Mishcha hopped out again to watch and wait for +the Minimuls. + +Sheer overhead the pygmy moon stood, when with drums beating and waving +cudgels, in their silvery girdles, leopard-skin hats, and grass shoes, +thirty or forty of the fury Minimuls appeared, hobbling bandily along, +following the hoof-prints of the galloping Zevveras in the snow. But +little clouds in passing had scattered their snow, and the track had +begun to grow faint. The old hare watched these Earth-mulgars draw near +without stirring. Like all the other creatures of Munza-mulgar, she +hated these groping, gluttonous, cannibal gnomes. When they reached the +place where Nod had fallen, the Minimuls stood still and peered and +pointed. In a little while they came scuttling on again, and there sat +old Mishcha under a great thorn-bush, gaunt in the snow. + +They stood round her, waving their darts, and squeaking questions. She +watched them without stirring. Their round eyes glittered beneath their +spotted leopard-skin hats as they stood in their shimmering grasses in +the snow. + +"When so many squall together," she said at last, "I cannot hear one. +What's your trouble this bright night?" + +Then one among them, with a girdle of Mulla-bruk's teeth, bade the rest +be silent. + +"See here, old hare," he said; "have any filthy Mulgars passed this way, +one tall and bony, one fat and hairy, and one little and cunning?" + +Mishcha stared. "One and one's two, and one's three," she said slowly. +"Yes, truly--three." + +"Three, three!" they cried all together--"thieves, thieves!" + +Mishcha's face wrinkled. "All Mulgars are thieves," she said; "some even +eat flesh. Ugh!" + +At this the Minimul-mulgars grew angry, their glassy eyes brightened. +They raised their snouts in the air and waved their darts. But the old +hare sat calmly under her roof of poisonous thorns. + +"Answer us, answer us," they squeaked, "you dumb old Quatta!" + +"H'm, h'm!" said Mishcha, staring solemnly. "Mulgars? There are +hundreds, and tens of hundreds of Mulgars in my forest, of more kinds +and tribes than I have hairs on my scut. How should old Mishcha raise an +eyelid at only three? Olory mi, my third-gone grandmother used to tell +me many a story of you thieving, gluttonous Mulgars, all alike, all +alike. It's sad when one's old to remember, but it's sadder to forget." + +Clouds had stolen again over the moon, and snow was falling fast. Let +these evil-smelling Minimuls chatter but a little longer, she thought; +not a hoof-print would be left. + +"Listen, old hare," said the chief of the Minimuls. "Have you seen three +Mulgars pass this way, two in red jackets, and one, a Nizza-neela, in a +sheep's coat, and all galloping, galloping, on three Little Horses of +Tishnar?" + +Mishcha gazed at him stonily, with hatred in her eyes. She was grey with +age, and now a little peaked cap of snow crowned her head, so still she +had sat beneath the drifting flakes. "I am old--oh yes, old, and old +again," she said. "I have ruled in Munza-mulgar one hundred, two +hundred, five hundred years, but I never yet saw a Mulgar riding on a +Little Horse of Tishnar. Tell me, Wise One, which way did they +sit--_with_ the stripes, or cross-cross?" + +"Answer us, grandam," squealed one of the Minimuls in a fury, "or I'll +stick a poisoned dart down your throat." + +Mishcha smiled. "Better a Minimul's dart than no supper at all," she +said. "Swallow thy tongue, thou Mulgar!" she said; and suddenly her lips +curled upward, her two long front teeth gleamed, her hair bristled. +"Hobble off home, you thieving, flesh-eating, sun-hating earth-worms! +Hobble off home before ears and nose and thumbs and toes are bitten and +frozen in Tishnar's snows! Away with you, moon-maggots, grubbers of +sand!" She stamped with her foot, her old eyes greenly burning under +the bush. + +The Minimuls began angrily chattering again. At last the first who had +spoken turned mousily and said: "To-day you go unharmed, old Quatta, but +to-morrow we will come with fire and burn your Dragon-tree about your +ears." + +Mishcha stirred not one hair. "It's sad to burn, but it's sadder still +to freeze." Her round eyes glared beneath her snow-cap. "A long march +home to you, Minnikin-mulgar! A long march home! And if I should smell +out the Sheep's-jacket on his Little Horse of Tishnar, I will tell him +where to find you--burnt, bitten, brittle, baked hard in frozen snow!" +She turned and began to hop off slowly between the shadow-casting trees. + +At this, one of the Minimuls in his fury lifted a dart and flung it at +the old hare. It stuck, quivering, in her shoulder. She turned slowly, +and stared at him through the falling flakes; then, drawing the dart out +with one of her forefeet, she spat on the point, and laid it softly down +in the snow. And so wildly she gazed at them out of her aged and +whitening eyes that the Minimuls fell into a sudden terror of the old +witch-hare, and without another word turned back in silence and scuffled +off in the thick falling snow by the way they had come. + +Old Mishcha watched them till they were hidden from sight by the trees +and the clouding snow-flakes; then, muttering a little to herself, +nodding her thin long ears, she, too, turned and hopped off quickly to +her house in the old Dragon-tree. + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Nod still lay huddled up in his jacket, his small, hairy face all drawn +and grey, his eyes tight-shut and sorrowful beneath their thick black +lashes. Mishcha squatted over him, and put her head down close to his +little body. "He breathes no more, sister, than a moth or an +Immamoosa-bud." + +"Let us drag him out of his sheep-skin, and bury him in the snow," said +Môha. + +But Mishcha listened more closely still. "I hear his heart beating; I +hear his drowsy blood just come and go. But what is it that, sweeter +than a panther's breath, smells so of Magic? We must not harm the little +Mulgar, sister; he is cunning. A Meermut of Magic would soon return to +plague us." So she wrapped him up still closer in dry leaves and +tree-moss, and opened his mouth to sprinkle a pinch of snow between his +lips. + +All that night and the next day Nod slept without stirring. But the +evening after that, when the snow had ceased again, he opened his eyes +and called "Wallah, wallah!" Mishcha hopped off and brought him snow in +a plantain-leaf, and wrapped him up still warmer. But the little dry +herbs and powdered root she put on his tongue he choked at, and could +not swallow. His shoulder burned, he tossed to and fro with eyes +blazing. Now he would start up and shout, "Thumb, Thumb!" then presently +his face would all pucker up with fear, and he would scream, "The fire, +the fire!" and then soon after he would be whispering, "Muzza, muzza, +mutta; kara mutta, mutta!" just as if he were at home again in the +little dried-up Portingal's hut. + +Mishcha did all she could to soothe and quieten him. And at last she +managed to make him swallow a little hard bright blue seed called +Candar, which drives away fever and quiets dreams. But old Môha eyed him +angrily, and wanted to throw him out into the forest to die. "Who'd +sleep in a jacket that a gibbering Mulgar has died in?" she said. + +When the next night was nearly gone, but before it was yet day, Nod +awoke, cool and clear, and stared into the musty darkness of the +Dragon-tree, wondering in vain where he was. Only one small spark of +light could he see--the red star Antares, that was now burning through a +little rift in the bark. He thought he heard a faint rustling of dry +leaves. + +"Hey, there!" he called out. "Where is Nod?" + +"Hold your tongue, thieving Mulgar," cried an angry voice, "and let +honest folk sleep in peace." + +"If I could see," Nod answered weakly, "you wouldn't sleep much +to-night, honest or no." + +"You can't see," answered the voice softly, "because, my man of bones, +you are dead and buried under the snow." + +Nod grew cold. He pinched his legs; he opened and shut his mouth, and +took long, deep breaths; then he laughed. "It's none so bad, then, being +dead, Voice-of-Kindness," he said cheerfully, "if it weren't for this +sore shoulder of mine." + +But to this the morose voice made no answer. Not yet, even, could Nod +remember all that had happened. "Hey, there!" he called out again +presently, "who buried me, then?" + +"Buried you? Why, Mishcha and Môha, the old witch-hares, who found you +snuffling in the snow in your stolen sheep's-coat--Mishcha and Môha, who +wouldn't touch monkey-skin, not for a grove of green Candar-trees." + +"I remember Môha," said Nod meekly, "a gentle and sleek, a very, very +handsome old Quatta. And is she dead, too?" + +But again the sour voice made no reply. + +"Once," said Nod, in a little while, "I had two brave brothers. I wonder +where those Mulla-mulgars are now?" + +"He wonders," said the voice slowly--"he _wonders_! Frizzling, +frizzling, frizzling, my pretty Talk-by-Night, with seven smoking +Gelica-nuts for company on the spit." + +At this Nod fell silent. He lay quaking in his warm, rustling bed, with +puckered forehead and restless eyes, wondering if the voice had told +him the truth, while daybreak stole abroad in the forest. + +When dusk began to stir within the Dragon-tree, Mishcha awoke and came +and looked at him. + +She hearkened at his ribs and mouth, and there seemed, Nod thought, a +little kindness in her ways. So he put out his shrunken hand, and said: +"Tell me truly, witch-hare. A voice in the night was merry with me, and +told me for pleasure that my brothers Thumb and Thimble were frizzling +on the cannibal Minimuls' spits. That is not true?" + +"'One long and lean,'" said Mishcha, "'one fat and very heavy, and one +sly and tiny, a Nizza-neela.' Here's the Nizza-neela Mulla-mulgar; I +know nothing of the others." + +"Ah, then," said Nod, starting up out of his bed, "I must be off to look +for them. Their Little Horses ran faster than mine. And mine, he was a +coward, and nibbled my sore shoulder to make me loose hold. But he could +not buck or scrape me off, witch-hare, tried he never so hard. I must be +off at once to look for my brothers. If they are dead, then I die too." + +"Well, well," said the old hare, "it's sad to die, but it's sadder to +live alone. But tell me first one thing," she said. "Where have these +strange Mulgars come from in their rags and bravery?" + +"Ohé," said Nod, and told her who they were. + +"And tell me just one thing more," she said, when he had finished. +"Where, little Mulgar, is all this Magic I can smell?" + +And at that question Nod thought he could never keep from laughing. But +he looked very solemn, and said: "There are three things, old hare, I +always carry about with me--one is my sheep's-jacket, one is hunger, and +the other is Magic; and the Magic just now is where my hunger is." + +The old hare eyed him narrowly. "Well," she said, "wherever it is, if it +hadn't been for the Magic, little Mulgar, the Jaccatrays would have been +quarrelling over your bones. But there! remember old Mishcha sometimes +in your travels, who hated every Mulgar except just one little one!" She +bade him be very quiet, for her sister, after the night's talk, still +lay fast asleep, her eyes wide open, in the gloom. + +And she put Ukka-nuts, and dried berries and fruits of many kinds, and +seven pepper-pods into his pockets, and buttoned the flaps. And she gave +him also some powdered physic-nuts, three bright-blue Candar-seeds, and +a little bunch of faded saffron-flower for a protection against the +teeth of the dreaded Coccadrillo. She tied up his shoulder with soft +clean moss, and fetched him a stout stick for cudgel out of the forest. +And then she hobbled out with him to see him on his way. Dawn lay rosy +and still upon the snow-laden branches. + +"Where burns the Sulemn[=a]gar, old hare?" said Nod, pretending utter +bravery. And the wise old Quatta hare pointed out to him where still the +Sulemn[=a]gar gleamed faint and silver above the glistening trees. + +So Nod thanked her, went forward a few paces, and stepped back to thank +her again; then set out truly and for good. + +He walked very cautiously, spying about him as he went. The red sun +glinted on his cudgel. Once he saw a last night's leopard's track in the +snow. So he roved his eyes aloft as well as to left and right of him, +lest she should be lying in wait, crouched in the branches. A troop of +Skeetoes pelted him with Ukka-nuts. But these, as fast as they threw +them down, he gathered up and put into his bulging pockets, and waved +his cap at them for thanks. They gibbered and mocked at him, and flung +more nuts. "So long as it isn't stones, my long-tailed friends," he said +to himself, "I will not throw back." + +After a while he came to where Cullum and Samarak grew so dense amid the +tree-trunks that he could scarcely walk upright. But he determined, as +his mother had bidden him, to keep from stooping on to his fours as long +as ever he could. Tumbling Numnuddies startled him, calling in the air. +And once a clouded vulture with wings at least six cudgels wide dropped +like a stone upon a leafless B[=o][=o]bab-branch, and watched him +gloatingly go limping by. + +He sat down in his loneliness and rested, and nibbled one of Mishcha's +nuts. But try as he might, he could not swallow much. When once more he +set out, for a long way some skulking beast which he could not plainly +see stalked through the nodding grasses a few paces distant from him, +but side by side. He flourished his cudgel, and sang softly the +Mulla-mulgars' Journey-Song which Seelem had taught him long ago: + + "That one + Alone + Who's dared, and gone + To seek the Magic Wonderstone, + No fear, + Or care, + Or black despair, + Shall heed until his journey's done. + + "Who knows + Where blows + The Mulgars' rose, + In valleys 'neath unmelting snows-- + All secrets + He + Shall pierce and see, + And walk unharmed where'er he goes." + +Whether it was the Wonderstone under his breast-bone, on the sight of +his cudgel, or a distaste for his shrill voice and skinniness, Nod could +not tell, but in a little while, when he stopped a moment to peer +between the thick streamers of Samarak, the secret beast was gone. Day +drew on. He saw no tracks in the snow, except of wild pig and +long-snouted Brackanolls. The only sound he heard was the falling of +frosted clots of snow from the branches of the trees and the sad, +continuous "Oo-ee, oo-ee, oo-ee!" of the little rust-coloured Bittock +amid the sunlit snow. He did not dare now to rest, though his feet grew +more painful at every step, and his poisoned shoulder itched and ached. + +He stumbled on, scarcely heeding where his footsteps were leading him. +Mulgar flies, speckled and humped, roused by the cloudless sun, buzzed +round his eyes and bit and stung him. And suddenly his heart stood still +at sight of seven amber and spotted beasts standing amid the grasses, +casting a league-long shadow with their necks--such beasts as he had +never seen before. But they were busy feeding, their heads and tiny +horns and lustrous eyes half hidden in the foliage of the branches. Nod +stared in fear and wonder, and passed their arbour very softly by. + +Night began to fall, and the long-beaked bats to flit in their leathery +hoods, seeking small birds and beasts to quench their thirst. It seemed +now to Nod, his brave heart fallen, that he was utterly forsaken. +Darkness had always sent him scuttling home to the Portingal's hut when +he was little. How often his mother had told him that N[=o][=o]manossi +with his luring harp-strings roamed these farther forests, and strange +beasts, too, that never show their faces to the sun! Worse still, as he +lifted his poor wrinkled forehead to the tree-tops to catch the last +beams of day, he felt a dreadful presence around him. Leopard it was +not, nor Gunga, nor Minimul. He stood still, his left hand resting on +its knuckles in the snow, his right clutching his cudgel, and leaning +his round ear sidelong, he listened and listened. He put down his +cudgel, and stood upright, his hands clasped behind his neck, and +lifting his flat nose, sniffed and sniffed again the scarcely-stirring +air. There was a smell, faint and strange. He turned as if to rush away, +to hide himself--anywhere away from this brooding, terrifying smell, +when, as if it were a little voice speaking beneath his ribs, he heard +the words: "Fear not, Ummanodda; press on, press on!" He took up his +cudgel with a groan, and limped quickly forward, and in an instant +before he could start back, before even he could cry out, he heard a +click, his foot slipped, out of the leaves whipped something smooth and +shining, and he was jerked into the air, caught, bound fast in a snare. + +He writhed and kicked, he spat and hissed. But the more he struggled, +the tighter drew the cord round his neck. Everywhere, faint and +trembling, rose the strange and dreadful unknown smell. He hung quite +still. And as he dangled in pain, a night-wandering Bittock on a branch +above him called piteously: "Oo-ee, oo-ee, oo-ee!" + +"Why do you mock me, my friend?" groaned Nod. + +"Oo-ee, oo-ee, oo-ee!" wailed the Bittock, and hopping down slowly, +perched herself before his face. Her black eye gleamed. She clapped her +tiny wings above her head, and softly let them fold. "Oo-ee, oo-ee, +oo-ee!" she cried again. + +Nod stared in a rage: "Oo-ee, oo-ee!" he mocked her feebly. "Who's +caught me in this trap? Why do you come mocking me, swinging here to +die? Put out my eyes, Bird of Sorrow. Nod's tired of being Nod." + +The little bird seemed to listen, with rusty poll poked forward. She +puffed out her feathers, raised her pointed bill, and piercingly into +the shadows rang out her trembling voice again. "Oo-ee, oo-ee, oo-ee!" +she sang, spread her wings, and left Nod quite alone. + +His thong twitched softly. He shut his eyes. And once again, borne on +the faint cold wind, that smell came sluggishly to his nostrils. His +fears boiled up. His hair grew wet on his head. And suddenly he heard a +distant footfall. Nearer and nearer--not panther's, nor Gunga's, nor +Ephelanto's. And then some ancient voice whispered in his memory: +"Oomgar, Oomgar!" Man! + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER IX + + +There was only the last of day in the forest. But Nod, dangling in +terror, could clearly see the Oomgar peering at him from beneath the +unstirring branches--his colourless skin, his long yellow hair, his +musket, his fixed, glittering eyes. And there came suddenly a voice out +of the Oomgar, like none the little Mulgar had ever heard in his life +before. Nod screamed and gnashed and kicked. But it was in vain. It only +noosed him tighter. + +"So, so, then; softly, now, softly!" said the strange clear voice. The +Oomgar caught up the slack end of the noose and wound it deftly around +him, binding him hand and foot together. Then he took a long steel knife +from his breeches pocket, cut the cord round Nod's neck, and let him +drop heavily to the ground. "_Poor_ little Pongo! poor leetle Pongo!" he +said craftily, and cautiously stooped to pick him up. + +Nod could not see for rage and fear. He drew back his head, and with +all his strength fixed his teeth in that white terrible thumb. The +Oomgar sucked in his breath with the pain, and, catching up the little +Mulgar's own cudgel that lay in the snow, rapped him angrily on the +head. After that Nod struggled no more. A thick piece of cloth was tied +fast round his jaws. The Oomgar slipped the barrel of his musket through +the Cullum-rope, lifted the little Mulgar on to his back, and strode off +with him through the darkening forest. + +They came out after a while from among the grasses, vines, and +undergrowth. The Oomgar climbed heavily up a rocky slope, trudged on +over an open and level space of snow, across an icy yet faintly stirring +stream, and came at length to a low wooden house drifted deep in snow, +in front of which a big fire was burning, showering up sparks into the +starry sky. Here the Oomgar stooped and tumbled Nod over his shoulder +into the snow at a little distance from the fire. He bent his head to +the flames, and examined his bitten thumb, rubbed the blood off with a +handful of snow, sucked the wound, bound it roughly with a strip of blue +cloth, and tied the bandage in a knot with his teeth. This done, making +a strange noise with his lips like the hissing of sap from a green +stick, he began plucking off the wing and tail feathers of a large grey +bird. This he packed in leaves, and uncovering a little hole beneath the +embers, raked it out, and pushed the carcass in to roast. + +He squinnied narrowly over his shoulder a moment, then went into his hut +and brought out a cooking-pot, which he filled with water from the +stream, and put into it a few mouse-coloured roots called Kiddals, which +in flavour resemble an artichoke, and are very wholesome, even when +cold. He hung his cooking-pot over the fire on three sticks laid +crosswise. Then he sat down and cleaned his musket while his supper was +cooking. + +All this Nod watched without stirring, almost without winking, till at +last the Oomgar, with a grunt, put down his gun, and came near and stood +over him, staring down with a crooked smile on his mouth, between his +yellow hair and the short, ragged beard beneath. He held out his +bandaged thumb. "There, little master," he said coaxingly, "have another +taste; though I warn ye," he added, wagging his head, "it'll be your +werry last." Nod's restless hazel eyes glanced to and fro above the +stifling cloth wound round his mouth. He felt sullen and ashamed. How +his brother Thimble would have scoffed to see him now, caught like a +sucking-pig in a snare! + +The Oomgar smiled again. "Why, he's nowt but skin and bone, he is; +shivering in his breeches and all. Lookee here, now, Master Pongo, or +whatsomedever name you goes by, here's one more chance for ye." He took +out his knife and slit off the gag round Nod's mouth, and loosened the +cord a little. Nod did not stir. + +"And who's to wonder?" said the Oomgar, watching him. He began warily +scratching the little Mulgar's head above the parting. "It was a cruel +hard rap, my son--a cruel hard rap, I don't gainsay ye; but, then, you +must take Andy's word for it, they was cruel sharp teeth." + +Nod saw him looking curiously at his sheep's-jacket, and, thinking he +would show this strange being that Mulla-mulgars, too, can understand, +he sidled his hand gently and heedfully into his pocket and fetched out +one of the Ukka-nuts that old Mishcha had given him. + +At that the Oomgar burst out laughing. "Brayvo!" he shouted; "that's +mother-English, that is! Now we's beginning to unnerstand one another." +He poured a little hot water out of his cooking-pot into a platter and +put it down in the snow. Nod sniffed it doubtfully. It smelt sweet and +earthy of the root simmering in it. But he raised the platter of water +slowly with his loosened hands, cooled it with blowing, and supped it up +greedily, for he was very thirsty. + +The Oomgar watched him with an astonished countenance. "Saints save us!" +he muttered, "he drinks like a Christian!" + +Nod wriggled his mouth, and imitated the sound as best he could. +"Krisshun, Krisshun," he grunted. + +The stooping Oomgar stared across the fire at Nod in the shadow as a man +stares towards a strange and formidable shape in the dark. "Saints save +us!" he whispered again, crossing himself, and sat down on his log. + +He scraped back the embers and stripped the burnt skin and frizzled +feathers off his roasted bird, stuck a wooden prong into a Kiddal, and, +with a mouthful of bird and a mouthful of Kiddal, set heartily to his +supper. When he had eaten his fill, he heaped up the fire with green +wood, tied Nod to a thick stake of his hut, so that he could lie in +comfort of the fire and to windward of its smoke; then, with a tossed-up +glance at the starry and cloudless vault of the sky, he went whistling +into the hut and noisily barred the door. + +Softly crooning to himself in his sorrow and loneliness, Nod lay long +awake. Of a sudden he would sit up, trembling, to glance as if from a +dream about him, then in a little while would lie down quiet again. At +last, with hands over his face and feet curled up towards the fire, he +fell fast asleep. + +When Nod woke the next morning the Oomgar was already abroad, and busy +over his breakfast. The sun burned clear in the dark blue sky. Nod +opened his eyes and watched the Oomgar without stirring. He stood in +height by more than a hand's breadth taller than the Gunga-mulgar. But +he was much leaner. The Gunga's horny knuckles had all but brushed the +ground when he stood, stooping and glowering, on legs crooked and +shapeless as wood. The Oomgar's arms reached only midway to his knees; +he walked straight as a palm-tree, without stooping, and no black, +cringing cunning nor bloodshot ferocity darkened his face. His hair +dangled beaming in the sun about his clear skin. His hands were only +faintly haired. And he wore a kind of loose jacket or jerkin, made of +the inner bark of the Juzanda-tree (which is of finer texture than the +Mulgars' cloth), rough breeches of buffskin, and monstrous boots. But +most Nod watched flinchingly the Oomgar's light blue eyes, hard as ice, +yet like nothing for strangeness Nod had ever seen in his life before, +nor dreamed there was. But every time they wheeled beneath their lids +piercingly towards him he closed his own, and feigned to be asleep. + +At last, feeling thirsty, he wriggled up and crawled to the dish, which +still lay icy in the snow, and raised it with both hands as far as his +manacles would serve, and thrust it out empty towards the Oomgar. + +The Oomgar made Nod a great smiling bow over the fire in answer, and +filled it with water. Then, breaking off a piece of his smoking flesh, +he flung it to the Mulgar in the snow. But Nod would not so much as +stoop to smell it. He gravely shook his head, thrust in his fingers, and +drew an Ukka-nut out of his pocket. "And who's to blame ye?" said the +Oomgar cheerfully. "It's just the tale of Jack Sprat, my son, over +again; only your little fancy's neether lean nor fat, but monkey-nuts!" +He got up, and, screening his eyes from the sun, looked around him. + +Then Nod looked, too. He saw that the Oomgar had built his hut near the +edge of a kind of shelving rock, which sloped down softly to a cliff or +gully. A little half-frozen stream flowed gleaming under the sun between +its snowy banks, to tumble wildly over the edge of the cliff in blazing +and frozen spray. Beyond the cliff stretched the azure and towering +forests of Munza, immeasurable, league on league, flashing beneath the +whole arch of the sky, capped and mantled and festooned with snow. Near +by grew only thin grasses and bushes of thorn, except that at the +southern edge of the steep rose up a little company or grove of +Ukka-nuts and Ollacondas. Toward these strode off the Oomgar, with a +thick billet of wood in his hand. When he reached them, he stood +underneath, and flung up his billet into the tree, just as Nod himself +had often done, and soon fetched down two or three fine clusters of +Ukka-nuts. These he brought back with him, and held some out to the +quiet little Mulgar. + +"There, my son," he said, "them's for pax, which means peace, you +unnerstand. I'm not afeerd of you, nor you isn't afeerd of me. All's +spliced and shipshape." So there they sat beneath the blazing sun, the +dazzling snow all round them, the Oomgar munching his broiled flesh, and +staring over the distant forest, Nod busily cracking his Ukka-nuts, and +peeling out the soft, milky, quincey kernel. Nod scarcely took his +bewitched eyes from the Oomgar's face, and the longer he looked at him, +the less he feared him. All creatures else he had ever seen seemed dark +and cloudy by comparison. The Oomgar's face was strange and fair, like +the shining of a flame. + +"Now, see here, my son," said the Oomgar suddenly, when, after finishing +his breakfast, he had sat brooding for some time: "I go there--_there_," +he repeated, pointing with his hand across the stream; "and Monkey +Pongo, he stay here--_here_," he repeated, pointing to the hut. "Now, +s'posin' Andy Battle, which is _me_"--he bent himself towards Nod and +grinned--"s'posin' Andy Battle looses off that rope's end a little more, +will Master Pongo keep out of mischief, eh?" + +Nod tried hard to understand, and looked as wise as ever he could. "Ulla +Mulgar majubba; zinglee Oomgar," he said. + +Battle burst out laughing. "Ugga, nugga, jugga, jingles! That's +it--that's the werry thing," he said. + +Nod looked up softly without fear, and grinned. + +"He knows, by gum!" said Battle. "There be more wits in that leetle +hairy cranny than in a shipload of commodores." He got up and loosened +the rope round Nod's neck. "It's only just this," he said. "Andy Battle +isn't turned cannibal yet--neither for white, black, nor monkey-meat. I +wouldn't eat you, my son, not if they made me King of England +to-morrow, which isn't likely to be, by the look of the weather, so +_don't ee have no meddlin' with the fire_!" + +"Middlinooiddyvire," said Nod, mimicking him softly. + +And at that Battle burst into such a roar of laughter the hut shook. He +filled Nod's platter with water, and gave him the rest of the Ukka-nuts. +He went into the hut and fetched musket, powder, and bullets. He put a +thick-peaked hat on his head, then, with his musket over his shoulder, +he nodded handsomely at the little blinking Mulgar, and off he went. + +Nod watched him stride away. With a hop, skip, and a jump he crashed +across the frozen water, and soon disappeared down the steep path that +led into the forest. When he was out of sight, Nod lay down in the +shadow of the log-hut. He felt a strange comfort, as if there was +nothing in all Munza-mulgar to be afraid of. His rage and sullenness +were gone. He would rest here awhile with this Oomgar, if he were as +kind as he seemed to be, and try to understand what he said. Then, when +his feet were healed of their sores and blains, and his shoulder was +quite whole again, he would set off once more after his brothers. + +All the next day, and the day after that, Nod sat patient and still, +tethered with a long cord round his neck to the Oomgar's hut. When +Battle spoke to him he listened gravely. When he laughed and showed his +teeth, Nod showed his cheerfully, too. And when Battle sat silent and +cast down in thought, Nod pretended to be unspeakably busy over his +nuts. + +And soon the sailor found himself beginning to look forward to seeing +the hairy face peering calmly out of the sheep's-jacket on his return +from his hunting. On the third evening, when, after a long absence, he +came home, tired out and heavy-laden, with a little sharp-horned +Impolanca-calf and a great frost-blackened bunch of Nanoes, he took off +Nod's halter altogether and set him free. + +"There!" said he; "we're messmates now, Master Pongo. Andy Battle's had +a taste of slavery himself, and it isn't reasonable, my son. It frets in +like rusty iron, my son; and Andy's supped his fill of it. I takes to +your company wonnerful well, and if you takes to mine, then that's +plain-sailing, says I. But if them apes and monkeys over yonder are more +to your liking than a shipwrecked sailor, who's to blame ye? Every man +to his own, says I; breeches to breeches, and bare to bare. The werry +first thing is for me and you to unnerstand one another." + +Nod listened gravely to all this talk, and caught the sailor's meaning, +what with a word here, a nod, a wink, or a smile there, and the jerk of +a great thumb. + +"But as for Andy Battle," went on the sailor, "he never were much struck +at a foreign lingo. So, says I, Andy shall learn Master Pongo his'n. And +here goes! That," said he, holding up a great piece of meat on his +knife--"that's _meat_." + +"'Zmeat--ugh!" said Nod, with a shudder. + +"And this here's nuts," said Battle. + +"'Znuts!" repeated Nod, rubbing his stomach. + +Battle rapped on his log. "Excellentissimo!" he said. "He's a scholard +born. Now, monkeys like you," he went on, looking into Nod's face, "if +I make no mistake, the blackamoors calls 'Pongoes.'" + +Nod shook his head. + +"No? 'Njekkoes, then," said the sailor. + +Nod shook his head again. "Me Mulla-mulgar, Pongo--Jecco"--he shook Ins +head vehemently--"me Mulla-mulgar Ummanodda Nizza-neela." + +The Oomgar laughed aloud. "Axing your pardon, then, Master Noddle +Ebenezer, mine's Battle--Andrew, as which is Andy, Battle." + +"Whizzizandy--Baffle," said Nod, with a jerk. + +"Fam_ous_!" said the sailor. "Us was a downright dunce to you, my son. +Now, then, hoise anchor, and pipe up! Andy Battle is an Englishman; hip, +hooray! Andy Battle----" + +"'Andy Baffle----'" + +"'Is an----'" + +"'Izzn----'" + +"'Is an Englishman.'" + +"'Izziningulissmum,'" said Nod very slowly. + +"'Hip, hooray!'" bawled Battle. + +"'Ippooray!" squealed Nod. And Battle rocked to and fro on his log with +laughter. + +"That's downright rich, my son, that is! 'Izzuninglushum!' As sure as +ever mariners was born to be drownded, + + "We'll sail away, o'er the deep blue say, + And to old England we'll make our way." + +A piece of silver for a paw-shake, and two for a good-e'en. Us 'll make +a fortune, you and me, and go and live in a snug little cottage with +six palm-trees and a blackamoor down Ippleby way. Andrew Battle, knight +and squire, and Jack Sprat, Prince of Pongo-land. Ay, and the King shall +come to sup wi' us, comfortable-like, 'twixt you and me, and drink +hisself thirsty out of a golden mug." + +And so it went on. Every day Battle taught Nod new words. And soon he +could say a few simple things in his Mulgar-English, and begin to make +himself understood. Battle taught him also to cook his meat for him, +though Nod would never taste of it himself. And Nod, too, out of Sudd +and Mambel-berries and Nanoes and whatever other dried and frosted +fruits Battle brought home, made monkey-bread and a kind of porridge, +which Battle at first tasted with caution, but at last came to eat with +relish. + +The sailor stitched his friend up a jacket of Juzanda cloth, with +Bamba-shells for buttons, and breeches of buff-skin. These Nod dyed dark +blue in patches, for his own pleasure, with leaves, as Battle directed +him. Battle made him also a pair of shoes of rhinoceros-skin, nearly +three inches thick, on which Nod would go sliding and tumbling on the +ice, and a cap of needlework and peacocks' feathers, just as in his +dream. + +There were many things in Battle's hut gathered together for traffic and +pleasure in his journey: a great necklace of Gunga's or Pongo's teeth; a +bagful of Cassary beads, which change colour with the hour, a bolt-eyed +Joojoo head, a bird-billed throwing-knife, also beads of Estridges' +eggs, as large as a small melon. There was also, what Battle cherished +very carefully, a little fat book of 566 pages and nine woodcuts that +his mother had given him before setting out on his hapless voyagings, +with a tongue or clasp of brass to keep it together. Moreover, Battle +gave Nod a piece of looking-glass, the like of which he had never seen +before. And the little Mulgar would often sit sorrowfully talking to his +image in the glass, and bid the face that there answered his own be off +and find his brothers. And Nod, in return, gave Battle for a keepsake +the little Portingal's left-thumb knuckle-bone and half the faded +Coccadrillo saffron which old Mishcha had given to him. + +Of an evening these castaways had music for their company--a bell of +copper that rang marvellously clear across the frosty air, and would +bring multitudes of night-birds hovering and crying over the hut in +perplexity at the sweet and hollow sound. And besides the bell, Battle +had a cittern, or lute, made of a gourd, with a Jugga-wood neck like a +fiddle. Stretched and pegged this was, with twangling strings made of a +climbing root that grows in the denser forests, and bears a flower +lovelier than any to be seen on earth beside. With Battle thrumming on +this old crowd or lute, Nod danced many a staggering hornpipe and +Mulgar-jig. Moreover, Battle had taught himself to pick out a melody or +two. So, then, they would dance and sing songs together--"Never, tir'd +Sailour," "The Three Cherrie-trees," "Who's seene my Deere with Cheekes +so redde?" and many another. + +Battle's voice was loud and great; Nod's was very changeable. For the +upper notes of his singing were shrill and trembling, and so the best +part of his songs would go; but when they dipped towards the bass, then +his notes burst out so sudden and powerful, it might be supposed four +men's voices had taken up the melody where a boy's had ceased. It +pleased Battle mightily, this night-music--music of all the kinds they +knew, white man's, Jaqqua-music, Nugga-music, and Mulla-mulgars'. Nod, +too, often droned to the sailor, as time went on, the evening song to +Tishnar that his father had taught him, until at last the sailor himself +grew familiar with the sound, and learned the way the notes went. And +sometimes Battle would sit and, singing solemnly, almost as if a little +forlornly, through his nose, would join in too. And sometimes to see +this small monkey perched up with head in air, he could scarce refrain +his laughter, though he always kept a straight face as kindly as with a +child. + +But the leopards and other prowling beasts, when they heard the sound of +their strings and music, went mewing and fretting; and many a great +python and ash-scaled poison-snake would rear its head out of its long +sleep and sway with flickering tongue in time to the noisy echoes from +the rocky and firelit shelf above. Even the Jack-Alls and Jaccatrays +squatted whimpering in their bands to listen, and would break when all +was silent into such a doleful and dismal chorus that it seemed to shake +the stars. + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER X + + +It was many a day after Nod had been taken in the sailor's snare, and +one very snowy, when the little Mulgar, looking up over his cooking, saw +Battle come limping white and blood-beslobbered across the frozen stream +towards home. He carried nothing except his gun, neither beast nor bird. +He stumbled over the ice, and walked crazily. And when he reached the +fire, he just tumbled his musket against a log and sat himself down +heavily, holding his head in his hands, with a sighing groan. Now, this +was the fifth day or more that Battle had gone out and returned without +meat, and Nod, in his vanity, thought the sailor was beginning to weary +of flesh, and to take pleasure only in nuts and fruit, as the +Mulla-mulgars do. But when Battle had dried up the deep scratch on his +neck, and eaten a morsel or two of Nod's fresh-baked Nano-cake, he told +him of his doings. + +Nod could even now, of course, only understand a little here and there +of what Battle said. But he twisted out enough words to learn that the +sailor was astonished and perplexed at finding such a scarcity of game, +howsoever far or cautiously he roamed in search of it. + +"Ay, and maybe that's no great wonder, neether, what with this +everlasting snow and all. But tell me this, Nod Mulgar: Why does, +whenever I spies a fine fat four-legged breakfast or two-winged supper +feeding within comfortable musket-shot--why does a howl like a +M'keesoe's, dismal and devilish, break out not fifteen paces off, and +scare away every living creature for leagues around? Why does leopards +and Jack-Alls and Jaccatrays swarm round Andy Battle when he goes +a-walking, thick as cats round cream? They've scotched me this once, my +son--an old she-leopard, black as pitch out of an Ollacondy. And I could +have staked a ransom I cast my eye over every bough. Next time who's to +know what may happen? Nizza-neela will go on cooking his little hot +niminy-cakes, and wait and wait--only for bones--only for Battle's +bones, Mulgar _mio_. What I says is this-how: leopards and Jaccatrays, +from being what they once was, two or three, one to-day and three +to-morrow, now lurks everywhere, looking me in the face as bold as +brass, and sniffling at my very musket. But, there! that's all +plain-sailing. What Andy wants to know for sartin sure is: what beast it +is grinds out so close against his ear that unearthly human howling? +'Twixt me and you and Lord Makellacolongee, it criddles my very blood to +hear it. My finger begins tapping on the musket-trigger like hail on a +millpond." + +Nod listened, puckered and intent, and looked a good deal wiser than he +was. And when supper was done he fetched out the thick rhinoceros-shoes +which Battle had made him, as if to go disporting himself as usual on +the ice. But, instead of this, he hid them behind a hummock of snow, +and, crossing over the stream, crept to the edge of the snowy shelf, and +sat under an Exxswixxia-bush, gazing down into the gloom, silently +watching and listening. He heard soft, furtive calls, whimperings. A +startled bird flew up on beating wings, and far and near the Jack-Alls +were hollowly barking one to another in their hunting-bands. But he saw +no leopards nor heard any voice or sound he knew no reason for, or had +not heard before. Perhaps, he thought, his dull wits had misunderstood +the Oomgar's talk. + +He was just about to turn away, when he heard a little call, often +repeated, "Chikka, chikka," which means in Munza-mulgar, "Bide here," or +"Wait awhile." And there, stealing up from under the longer grasses, +came who but Mishcha, the old witch-hare. But very slowly and cautiously +she came, pretending that she was searching out what poor fare she could +find in the dismal snow. + +When she was come close, she whispered: "Move not; stir not a finger, +Mulla-mulgar; speak to me as I am. I have a secret thing to say to you. +These seven long frozen evenings have I come fretting abroad in my +forest and watched and watched, and chikka'd and chikka'd, but you have +not come. Why, O Prince of Tishnar, do you linger here with this +flesh-eating Oomgar, whose gun barks N[=o][=o]manossi all day long? Why +do you think no more of your brothers and of the distant valleys?" + +Nod crouched in silence a little while, twitching his small brows. "But +this Oomgar took me in a snare," he said at last. "And he has fed me, +and been like my own father Seelem come again to me, and we are +friends--'messimuts,' old hare. Besides, I wait only until I am healed +of my blains and thorns, and my shoulder is quite whole again. Then I +go. But even then, why has the old Queen duatta come louping through +Munza all these seven evenings past, only to tell me that?" + +Mishcha eyed him silently with her whitening eyes. "Not so blind am I +yet, little Mulgar, as not to creep and creep a league for the sake of a +friend. Be off to-morrow, Nizza-neela! What knows an Oomgar of +friendship? _That_ brings only the last sleep." + +"I mind not the last sleep, old hare," said Nod in his vanity. "Did I +fear it when half-frozen in the snow? Besides, my friend, the Oomgar, +whose name is Battle, he will guard me." + +Mishcha crept nearer. "Has not the little Mulla-mulgar, then, heard +Immanâla's hunting-cry?" + +Now, Immanâla in Munza means, as it were, unstoried, nameless, unknown, +darkness, secrecy. All these the word means. Night is Immanâla to +Munza-mulgar. So is sorcery. So, too, is the dark journey to death or +the Third Sleep. And this _Beast_ they name Immanâla because it comes of +no other beast that is known, has no likeness to any. Child of nothing, +wits of all things, ravenous yet hungerless, she lures, lures, and if +she die at all, dies alone. By some it is said that this Immanâla is the +servant of N[=o][=o]manossi, and has as many lives as his white +resting-tree has branches. And so she is born again to haunt and raven +and poison Munza with cruelty and strife. All this Nod had heard from +his father Seelem, and his skin crept at sound of the name. But he +pretended he felt no fear. + +"Who is this Immanâla, the Nameless?" he scoffed softly, "that a +Mulla-mulgar should heed her yapping (uggagugga)?" + +"Ah," said the old hare, "he boasts best who boasts in safety. Mishcha, +little Mulgar, has met the Nameless face to face, and when I hear her +hunting-cry I do not make merry. How could she all these days have given +ear to the Oomgar's gun in the forest, and make no sign--she who has for +her servants leopards and Jaccatrays of many years' hunting? Mark this, +too," said Mishcha, "if the little Mulgar were not the chosen of +Tishnar, his Oomgar would long ago have been nothing but a few picked +bones." + +The old hare touched him with her long-clawed foot, and gazed earnestly +into his face with her half-blind, whitening eyes. "Yes, Mulgar," she +said at last, whispering, "your brothers that rode on the little Horses +of Tishnar are none so far away. 'Why,' say they to each other, roosting +half-frozen in their tree-huts--'why does Ummanodda betray all +Munza-mulgar to the Oomgar's gun? He is no child of Royal Seelem's +now.'" + +Nod's heart stood still to hear again of his brothers, and that they +were so near. And Mishcha promised if he would abandon the Oomgar, she +would lead him to them. Nod gazed long into the gloom before he sadly +answered: + +"I cannot leave my master," he said, "who has fed and befriended me. I +cannot leave him to be torn in pieces by this Beast of Shadows. He is +wise--oh, he is wise! He was born to stand upright. He fears not any +shadow. He walks with N[=o][=o]mas beneath every tree. He kills, old +Mishcha--that I know well--and feeds like a glutton on flesh. But a +she-leopard in one moon eats as many of the Munza-mulgars as she has +roses on her skin. As for the Nameless, my father Seelem told me many a +time of _her_ thirsty tongue." + +Then Mishcha whispered warily in Nod's ear in the shadow of the +thorn-bush beneath which they sat, turning her staring stone-coloured +eyes this way, that way. "If the Oomgar were safe from her," she said, +scarcely opening her thin lips above the lean curved teeth, "would +_then_ the little Mulgar go?" + +Nod laughed. "Then would I go on all fours, O Mishcha, for I am weary of +waiting and being far from my brothers, Thumb and Thimble. Then would I +go at once if I could leave the Oomgar quietly to his hunting, and safe +from this Shadow-beast and from more than three lean hunting leopards on +the Ollaconda boughs at one time." + +Then Mishcha told him what he should do. And Nod listened, shivering, in +part for the cold, and in part for dread of what she was saying. "There +be three things, Nizza-neela," she said, when she had told him all her +stratagem--"there be three things even a Mulla-mulgar must have who +fights with Immanâla, Queen of Shadows: he must have Magic, he must have +cunning, and he must have courage. Oh, little Prince of Tishnar, should +I have physicked you and saved you from the sooty spits of the Minimuls +if you had been neither wise nor brave?" + +And Nod promised by his Wonderstone to do all that she had bidden him. +And she crept soundlessly back into the gloom of the forest. Nod +himself quickly hobbled home, took up his sliding-shoes again, and +returned to the little hut and the Oomgar's red fire. + +Battle sat there, stooping in the light of the rising moon and the ruddy +glow over his little book. But he held it for memory's sake rather than +to read in it. His head was jerking in sleep when Nod sat himself down +by the fire, and the little Mulgar could think quietly of all that the +old hare had told him. He half shut his eyes, watching his slow, curious +Mulgar thoughts creep in and out. And while he sat there, lonely and +wretched, struggling between love for his brothers and for the Oomgar, +he heard a small clear voice within him speaking that said: "Courage, +Prince Ummanodda! Tishnar is faithful to the faithful. Who is this +Nameless to set snares against her chosen? Fear not, Nizza-neela; all +will be well!" Thus it seemed to Nod the inward voice was saying to him, +and he took comfort. He would tell the poor sailor, perhaps, part of +what he feared and knew, and with Tishnar to help him would seek out +this Immanâla and meet her face to face. + +Night rode in starry darkness above the great black forest. The logs +burned low. Close before his fire sat Battle, his chin on his breast, +his yellow-haired head rolling from side to side in his sleep. Thin +clear flames, blue and sulphur, floated along the logs, and lit up his +fast-shut eyes. Nod sat with his little chops in his hairy hands +watching the sailor. Sometimes a solitary beast roared, or a night-bird +squalled out of the gloom. At last the little book fell out of Battle's +sleep-loosened fingers. He started, raised his head, and stared into the +darkness, listening to howl answering to howl, shrill cry to distant +cry. He yawned, showing all his small white teeth. + +"Your friends are uncommon fidgety to-night, Nod Mulgar," he said. + +Nod got up and threw more wood on the glowing fire. "Not Mulla-mulgar's +friends. Nod's friends not hate Oomgar." Up sprang the flames, hissing +and crackling. + +The sailor grinned. "Lor' bless ye, my son; you talks wonnerful +hoity-toity; but in _my_ country they would clap ye into a cage." + +"Cage?" said Nod. + +"Ay, in a stinking cage, with iron bars, for the rabble to jeer at. What +would the monkeys do with a white man, an Oomgar, if they cotched 'n?" + +"In my father Seelem's hut over there," said Nod, waving his long hand +towards the Sulemn[=a]gar, "Oomgar's bones hanged click, click, click in +the wind." + +Battle stared. "They hates us, eh? Picks us clean!" + +Nod looked at him gravely. "Mulla-mulgar--me--not hate Oomgar. All +Munza"--he lifted his brows--"ay! he kill and eat, eat, eat, same as +leopard, same as Jaccatray." + +Battle frowned. "It's tit for tat, my son. I kills Roses, or Roses kills +me. Not a Jack-All that howls moon up over yonder that wouldn't say +grace for a picking. But apes and monkeys, no; not even a warty old +drumming Pongo that's twice as ugly as his own shadow in the glass. I +never did burn powder 'gainst a monkey yet. What's more," said Battle, +"who's to know but we was all what you calls Oomgars once? Good as. +You've just come down in the world, that's all. And who's to blame ye? +No barbers, no ships, no larnin', no nothing. Breeches?--One pair, my +son, to half a million, as far as Andy ever set eyes on. Maybe you come +from that wicked King Pharaoh over in Egypt there. Maybe you was one of +the plagues, and scuttled off with all the fleas." He grinned +cheerfully. Nod watched his changing face, but what he said now he could +not understand. + +"There's just one thing, Master Mulgar," went on Battle solemnly. "Kill +or not kill, hairy as hairy, or bald as a round-shot, God made us every +one. And speakin' comfortable-like, 'twixt you and me, just as my old +mother taught me years gone by, I planks me down on my knees like any +babby this very hour gone by, while you was sliding in your shoes, and +said me prayers out loud. I'm getting mortal sick of being lonesome. Not +that I blames _you_, my son. You're better company than fifty million +parakeets, and seven-and-seventy Mullagoes of blackamoors." + +Nod stared gravely. "Oomgar talk; Nod unnerstand--no." He sorrowfully +shook his head. + +"My case all over," said Battle. "Andy unnerstand--no. But there, we'll +off to England, my son, soon as ever this mortal frost breaks. Years and +years have I been in this here dismal Munza. Man-eaters and Ephelantoes, +Portingals and blackamoors, chased and harassed up and down, and never a +spark of frost seen, unless on the Snowy Mountains. What wouldn't I give +for a sight of Plymouth now!" + +He rose and stretched himself. Facing him, across the unstirring +darkness of the forest shone palely the great new-risen moon. "'Hi, hi, +up she rises,'" said Battle, staring over. "'But what's to be done with +a shipwrecked sailor?' Nobody knows, but who can't tell us. Now, just +one stave, Nod Mulgar, afore we both turns in. Give us 'Cherry-trees.' +No, maybe I'll pipe ye one of Andy's Own, and you shall jine in, same as +t'other." Nod climbed up and stood on his log, his hands clasped behind +his neck, and stamped softly with his feet in time, while Battle, after +tuning up his great gourd--or Juddie, as he called it--plucked the +sounding strings. And soon the Oomgar's voice burst out so loud and +fearless that the prowling panthers paused with cowering head and +twitching ears, and the Jaccatrays out of the shadows lifted their +cringing eyes up to the moon, dolefully listening. And when the last two +lines of each verse had been sung, Battle plucked more loudly at his +strings, and Nod joined in. + + "Once and there was a young sailor, yeo ho! + And he sailèd out over the say + For the isles where pink coral and palm-branches blow, + And the fire-flies turn night into day, + Yeo ho! + And the fire-flies turn night into day. + + "But the _Dolphin_ went down in a tempest, yeo ho! + And with three forsook sailors ashore, + The Portingals took him where sugar-canes grow, + Their slave for to be evermore, + Yeo ho! + Their slave for to be evermore. + + "With his musket for mother and brother, yeo ho! + He warred wi' the Cannibals drear, + In forests where panthers pad soft to and fro, + And the Pongo shakes noonday with fear + Yeo ho! + And the Pongo shakes noonday with fear. + + "Now lean with long travail, all wasted with woe, + With a monkey for messmate and friend, + He sits 'neath the Cross in the cankering snow, + And waits for his sorrowful end, + Yeo ho! + And waits for his sorrowful end." + + [Illustration: NOD DANCED THE JAQQUAS' WAR-DANCE, ... STOOPING AND + CROOKED "WRIGGLE AND STAMP."] + +This song sung, Nod danced the Jaqquas' war-dance, which Battle had +taught him, stooping and crooked, "wriggle and stamp," gnashing his +teeth, waving a club--which waving, indeed, always waved Nod sprawling +off his log before long, and set Battle rolling with laughter, and ended +the dance. + +That dance danced, they sat quiet awhile, Battle softly, very softly, +thrumming on his Juddie, gazing into the fire. And suddenly in the +silence, out of the vast blackness of the moonlit leagues beneath them, +broke a strange and dismal cry. It rose lone and hollow, and yet it +seemed with its sound to fill the whole enormous bowl of star-bedazzling +sky above the forest. Then down it lingeringly fell, note by note, +wailing and menacing, an answering song of hatred against the solitary +Oomgar and his gun. + +Battle caught up his musket and stood erect, facing with scowling eyes +the vast silence of the forest. And instantly from far and near, +solitary and in hunting-bands, deep and shrill, every beast that slinks +and lies in wait beneath the moon broke into its hunting-cry. + +Battle stood listening with a savage grin on his face, until the last +echo had died away. Then, throwing down his musket, he hitched up the +cloth bandage on his shoulder, lifted his great Juddie, and strode out +from the fire a few paces till he stood black and solitary in the +moonlight of the snow. And he plucked the girding strings and roared out +with all his lungs his mocking answer: + + "Voice without a body, + Panther of black Roses, + Jack-Alls fat on icicles, + Ephelanto, Aligatha, + Zevvera and Jaccatray, + Unicorn and River-horse; + Ho, ho, ho! + Here's Andy Battle, + Waiting for the enemy! + + "Imbe Calandola, + M'keesso and Quesanga, + Dondo and Sharammba, + Pongo and Enjekko, + Millions of monkeys, + Rattlesnake and scorpion, + Swamp and death and shadow; + Ho, ho, ho! + Come on, all of ye, + Here's Andy Battle, + Waiting and--alone!" + +He swept his great scarred thumb over the strings with a resounding +flourish, and burst into a laugh. Then he turned his back on the +unanswering forest, and sat down by the fire again, wiping the sweat +from his face and combing out his tangled beard. Nod drew a little away +from the fire, and sat softly watching him. The Oomgar was muttering +with wide-open lids. He snatched up a lump of the cold Mulgar-bread that +Nod had cooked for his supper, and gnawed it with twitching fingers. He +glanced over it with bright blue glittering eyes at his little +hunched-up friend. + +"Don't you have no shadow of fear, my son. If they come, come they must. +Just you skip off into the forest with your courage where your tail +ought to be. I care not a pinch of powder for them or'nery beasts. It's +that there Shadowlegs that beats me with his mewling. I've heard it down +on the coast; I've heard it with the Portingals; I've heard it with the +Andalambandoes; I've heard it wake and sleep. But witch-beast or no +witch-beast, and every skulk-by-night that creeps on claws, I'll win +home yet!" He kicked a few loose smoking logs into the blaze. "More +fire, my son! I like a light to fight by when fighting comes." + +The darkness was clear as glass. The sky seemed shaken as if with +fire-flies. Not a sound stirred now, not even a hovering wing. Nod +heaped high the huge fire, and followed the Oomgar into his hut. + +But not to sleep. He crouched on his snug dry bed of moss, and waited +patiently till Battle's snores rose slow and mournful beneath the +snow-piled roof. Then very quickly he put on his sheep's-coat over his +Juzanda jacket and breeches. He crawled out, and lifted down with both +hands the heavy bar of the door, and stole out into the moonlight again. +He thrust his puckered hand under his jacket, and touched his skinny +breast-bone, beneath which, ever since the little Horse of Tishnar had +toppled him into the snow, he had felt the slumbering Wonderstone +strangely burning. And, as if even Oomgar magic, too, might help him, he +hobbled back into the hut and put Battle's little dog's-eared book into +his pocket. Then, before his heart could fail him, he ran out as fast as +his fours could carry him to where he had heard rise up in the night the +Hunting-Song of Immanâla. + +On the extreme verge of the steep, opposite Battle's hut, stood a +solitary flat-headed rock beside the frozen stream. Here the water burst +in a blaze of moonlight into a cascade of icicles and foam. Nod stood +there in the rock's shadow awhile, looking down into the forest. And as +if a little cloud had come upon the glittering moon, he felt, as it +were, a sudden darkness above his head, and a cold terror crept over his +skin. + +Then he stepped, trembling, out of the shadow of the rock into the +moonlight, and gazed up into the shadowy countenance of Immanâla. She +lay gaunt and spare, her long neck touching the snow, her eye-balls +beneath their wide lids fixed glassily on Nod. He gazed and gazed, until +it seemed he was sinking down, down into those wide unstirring eyes. + +His heart seemed to rise up into his mouth. He coughed, and something +hard and round and tingling slid on to his tongue. He put up his hand to +his thick lips, and, like courage that steals into the mind when all +else is vain, fell into his hand, milk-pale and magical, the long-hidden +Wonder-stone. + + [Illustration: HE FELT A SUDDEN DARKNESS ABOVE HIS HEAD, AND A COLD + TERROR CREPT OVER HIS SKIN.] + +"I couch here, Ummanodda," said the Nameless, without stirring, "night +after night, hungry and thirsty, waiting for the Oomgar's head. Why does +the Mulla-mulgar keep me waiting so long for my supper?" + +"Because, O Queen of Shadows," said Nod as calmly as he could--"because +the head of the Oomgar refuses to come without his legs--and his gun." + +"Nay," said she, "there must be many a shallow gourd in the Oomgar's +hut. Cut off the head, and bring it hither yourself in that." + +"Ohé," said Nod, "the Nameless has sharp teeth, if all that is said be +true. She shall cut, and I will carry. Princes of Tishnar have no tongue +for blood." + +Immanâla crouched low, with jutting head. "Who is this Prince of Tishnar +that, having no tongue for blood, roasts meat with fire for an Oomgar, +the enemy of us all?" + +"I, Nameless, am Nod," said he softly. "But meat dead is dead meat. What +against _me_ is it if this blind Oomgar hungers for scorched bones? It +is a riddle, Immanâla. Come with me now, then; let us palaver with him +together." + +"Yea, together!" snarled the Nameless--"I to ride and thou to carry." +She gathered herself as if to spring. + +Nod whispered, "O Tishnar!" and he stood stock-still. + +Immanâla drew back her flat grey head from the snow, and shook it, +softly glancing at the moon. + +"Why, O Prince of Tishnar, should we be at strife one with another? We +hate the Oomgar. And if it were not for this magic that is yours, my +servants would have slain him long since in his hunting." + +"Ah, me!" said Nod, sighing it in Mulgar-royal, as if to himself alone, +"I myself love this Oomgar none too much. Did he not catch me walking +lonely in Munza in a wild pig snare? If he is to die, let him die, says +Nod. But I like not your fashion of hunting, Beast of Shadows, skulking +and creeping and scaring off his wandering supper-meat. Bring your +hunting-dogs into the open snow here out of their dens and lairs and +shadows. Then shall the Oomgar fight like an Oomgar, one against a +hundred, and Nod can go free!" + +Immanâla rose bristling against the clearness of the moon. + +"Tell me, Prince of Tishnar, what is this story you seem to be +whispering about my hunting-dogs?" + +And Nod, with his Wonderstone clipped tight in his hot palm, bethought +him of all Mishcha's counsel, and promised Immanâla he would come down +the next night following. And if she would call her packs into the +ravine, he would lead them, and open the door of the hut and lure out +the Oomgar. "Then you, O fearless Queen of Shadows, shall watch the hunt +in peace," he said. "One forsaken Oomgar without his gun against +nine-and-ninety Jack-Alls and Jaccatrays, and perhaps a Roses or two, +famished and parched with cold. Ay, but before I whistle them up," he +muttered, as if to himself, "I must steal the Oomgar's M'Keesso's coat, +which is drenched through with magic." + +Immanâla peered gloatingly from her rock. "The little Mulla-mulgar has a +cunning face," she said, "and a heart of many devices. I have heard of +his comings and goings in Munza-mulgar. But if he deal falsely with me, +though Tishnar came herself in all her brightness, I would wait and +wait. Not an Utt nor a Nikka-nikka but should be his enemy, and as for +those magicless Mulla-mulgars his brothers, who even now squat sullen +and hungry in their leafy houses, they shall lie cold as stones before +the morning light." + +"Why," said Nod softly, "he must be frightened who begins to threaten. I +have no fear of you, O Nameless, who are but a creeping candle-fly at +twilight to the blaze of Tishnar's moon. Come hither to-morrow with your +half-starved hunting-dogs, and I'll show you good hunting, will I." + +Without another word, with every hair on end, he ran swiftly back to the +hut by the way he had come. But even now his night's doings were not +ended, for in a while, by which time the Immanâla should have returned +from her watching-rock into the shadows of the forest, he ran out again, +and, crouching beneath the old Exxswixxia-bush under the Sulemn[=a]gar, +he called softly: "Mishcha, old hare! Mishcha!" + +When he had called her many times, she came slowly and warily limping +across the chequered snow. And Nod told her of all he had done that +night, and of how he had met and abashed the Nameless face to face. The +old hare watched dimly his flashing eyes and the vainglory of the face +of the young Mulgar Prince boasting in his finery, and she grimly +smiled. + +"Chakka, chakka," says she; "tchackka, tchackka: you bleed before you're +wounded, Mulgar-royal." + +But Nod in the heat of his glory cared nothing for what his old friend +said to quench it. And he told her to bring his brothers to the great +Ukka-tree that stood over against the shadow, where they talked, there +to wait and watch till morning. "By that time," he said, "I shall have +finished my supper with the Nameless, and the Oomgar will know me for +the Prince I am." + +Mishcha wagged slowly her old head. She hated the Oomgar, but she hated +the Beast of Shadows more, and off she hopped again, stiff and cold, to +seek out Thimble and Thumb. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XI + + +Battle went out hunting as usual the next morning. Tracks of leopards +were everywhere in the night's thin snow. He ventured not far into the +forest, and returned with only a poor old withered bird, too cold and +weak to fly off from his gun. + +"It's this way, my son," he said; "I've heard the thing before. That +howl brings half the forest against me, like blue-flies to meat. So all +I does is to keep a weather-eye open, and musket a-cock. One of these +days, Mulgar _mio_, Shadow or no Shadow, she shall have a brace of +bullets in her vitals, as sure as my name's Battle." But in spite of his +fine words, he crouched gloomy and distracted beside his fire all day, +casting ever and anon a stealthy glance over his shoulder, and lifting +his eye slowly above the flames, to survey the clustering fringes of the +forest around his hut. + +But Nod told Battle nothing of his talk with the old hare. He did not +as much as tell him even that his brothers were near, or that he had +seen Immanâla. He cleaned his master's gun. He busied himself over his +Nano-cakes and nuts, and prevailed on Battle to eat by making him laugh +at his antics. The more he thought of leaving him, and of the danger of +the coming night, and the stony cruelty of Immanâla's gloating eyes, his +heart fell deeper and deeper into trouble and dismay. But each time when +it seemed he must run away and hide himself he gulped his terror down, +and touched his Wonderstone. + +He himself lugged out Battle's Juddie when evening fell. But Battle had +no mind for merriment and braveries that night. He picked out idly on +the strings old mournful chanties that sailors sometimes sing; and he +taught Nod a new song to bray out in his queer voice, "She's me forgot": + + "'Me who have sailèd + Leagues across + Foam haunted + By the albatross, + Time now hath made + Remembered not: + Ay, my dear love + Hath me forgot. + + "'Oh, how should she, + Whose beauty shone, + Keep true to one + Such long years gone? + Grief cloud those eyes!-- + I ask it not: + Content am I-- + She's me forgot. + + "'Here where the evening + Ooboë wails, + Bemocking + England's nightingales, + Bravely, O sailor, + Take thy lot; + Nor grieve too much, + She's thee forgot!'" + +But even between his slow-drawled, shakety notes of deep and shrill Nod +listened for the least stir in the forest, and seemed to hear the low, +hungry calls and scamperings of Immanâla's hunting-pack, which she had +summoned from far and near to the tangled ravine beneath the rock. + +He got Battle early to bed by telling him he would dress his wounded +shoulder, which was angry and inflamed, with a poultice of leaves such +as his mother, Mutta-matutta, had taught him to make. "Now," says he, +"it be broad full-moontime, master, and all Munza-mulgar will be gone +hunting. But wake not. Nod, Prince of Tishnar, will watch;" and even as +he said it came remembrance of the Pigs to mind. + +Battle laughed, thinking what wondrous good sense these two-legged +monkeys seemed to have, concerning which King Angeca had yet himself +often assured him that it is all nothing but a show and pretence, since +man alone has wisdom and knowledge, and little remains over for the +beasts to share. + +The warmth and sleepiness of his big poultice soon set him snoring. And +in a blaze of moonlight Nod warily opened the door, and stood in the +squat black shadow of the hut, looking out over the forest. He had +bound himself up tight. He had wound up his Wonderstone in a piece of +lead that he had found in the hut to keep it from hopping in his pocket, +and had stuck the sailor's sharp sheath-knife down the leg of his +breeches. + +Then, like but an Utt or a gnome in that great waste of whiteness, he +sallied out to destroy the Nameless. He came to the rock, but no shadow +couched there now in the sheen. He crept on all fours, and between two +great frost-lit boulders peeped into the ravine. There, changing and +stirring, shone the numberless small green lanterns of the eyes of +Immanâla's hunting-pack. He heard their low whinings and the soft crunch +of their clawed feet in the snow. Else all was still. + +And Nod called in a low voice: "Why do you hide from me, Immanâla, Queen +of Shadows?" + +He waited, but no answer came. "Venture out, mistress," cried Nod +louder, "and we will be off together to the Oomgar's hut. You shall sit +on the roof and watch the hunting-dogs at their supper." + +At that, up by a narrow path from the ravine stole Immanâla, and all the +Jack-Alls and Jaccatrays fell silent, staring with blazing eyes out of +the darkness. + +"Call not so lustily, Prince of Tishnar!" she said, fawning; "we shall +awake the Oomgar." + +"Ohé," said Nod boldly; "he sleeps deep. He fears neither beast nor +Meermut in all this frozen Munza. Bid your greedy slaves stand ready, +Immanâla. When I whistle them, supper is up." + +Immanâla lifted her flat grey head, and seemed to listen. "I hear the +harps of Tishnar in the forest. The leaves of the branches of the trees +of my master N[=o][=o]manossi stir, and yet there moves no wind." + +She fixed her colourless eyes on Nod, with her ears on her long, smooth +forehead pricked forward. "What is the cunning Mulgar thinking beneath +all he says? Like fine sand in water, I hear the rustling of his +thoughts." + +Nod took a long breath and shut his eyes. "I was thinking," he said, +"what stupid fellows must be these dogs of yours, seeing that each and +every one keeps whimpering, 'The head--the head for me!' But they must +wait in patience yet a little longer, if even a knucklebone is to be a +share. I will go forward and choose out all that I and the +Mulla-mulgars, my brothers, want of the Oomgar's house-treasures before +the Jaccatrays tear everything to pieces." + +"Softly, now, softly," said Immanâla. "You think very little of me, +Nizza-neela. Do you dream I came from far to protect you from my slaves, +Roses and Jaccatray, and now am to get nothing for my pains? What of +that stiff coat drenched with magic? That is mine. No, no, little greedy +Mulgar; we share together, or I have all." + +"Well, well," said Nod, as if unwilling, "you shall take part, mistress, +though all that's there is truly Tishnar's. Follow quietly! I will see +if my Zbaffle be still asleep." + +Immanâla crouched snarling in the moonlight, and Nod ran swiftly to the +hut. The moon streamed in on the sailor's upturned face, where, lying +flat on his back, he snored and snored and snored. Then Nod very quietly +took down from its wooden hook the sailor's great skin coat, his belt of +Ephelanto-hide, his huge hair hat, all such as in his wanderings he had +captured from black Kings and men of magic. He filled the pockets, he +stuffed them with bullets and copper rings and stones and lumps of +ice--everything heavy that he could find. At the rattling of the stones +Battle rolled over, muttering hoarsely in his sleep. Nod stopped +instantly and listened. No words he understood. Then once more he set to +work, and soon had dragged the huge stiff coat and hat and belt one by +one over the door-log into the snow. + +"Hither, come hither! Hasten, mistress!" he called softly, capering +round about them. "Here's a sight to cheer your royal heart! Here's +riches! What have we here but the magic coat which the Oomgar stripped +from the M'keeso of the old Lord Shillambansa, that feeds a hundred +peacocks on his grave?" + +Very, very heedfully Immanâla drew near on her belly in the snow. +Cat-like, she smelt and capered. + +"Have no fear, Beast of Shadows," called Nod softly; "the Oomgar sleeps +like moss on the Tree of Everlasting." + +Then all her vanity and greed welled up in the Beast of Shadows, for +whosoever her dam may be, and all her lineage of solitude and +strangeness, she has more greed than a wolf, more vanity than a vixen. +She thrust her long lean head into the Cap. + +"Do but now let me help you, mistress," said Nod, "as I used to help the +Oomgar. Stand upright, and I will thrust your arms into the sleeves. We +must hasten, we must be quiet." At every glance her greed and vanity +increased. Nod heaved and tugged till his thick fur lay dank on his +poll, and at last the dreadful Beast was draped and swathed and mantled +from ears to tail in the Oomgar's coat. + +"Now for the Dondo's belt of sorcery," said Nod. "Sure, none will dare +sneeze in Munza-mulgar when the sailorman is gone." He put the thick +belt round her lean body, though his head swam with her muskiness, and +drew it tight into the buckle. + +"Gently, gently, little brother!" sighed Immanâla. "It is heavy, and I +scarce can breathe." + +"The very Oomgar himself used often to snort," said Nod. + +"But why does he keep so many stones in his pocket?" pined Immanâla. + +"Why, Queen of Wisdom! What if the wind should blow, and all his magic +flit away? Ay, ay, ay! stripped from the M'keeso of the dead Lord +Shillambansa came this coat into my Messimut's hands, who feeds five +hundred peacocks on his grave! And now his wondrous Cap of Hair! Nine +Fulbies, as I live, were flayed to skin that cap withal," said Nod, "and +seven rogue Ephelantoes gave the Oomgar of their tails." + +"Ah yes, ah yes!" groaned Immanâla; "but what are seventy Ephelantoes +compared with Immanâla, Queen of All?" + +"Now," said Nod, "I will weary myself no more with speeches. Is it +warm?" + +"I am in a furnace; I burn." + +"Is it too loose? Does it wrinkle? Does it sag?" + +"Oh, but I can breathe but a mouthful at a time!" + +"Last and last again, then," said Nod, packing into the pockets one or +two of the stones and bullets and lumps of ice that had fallen out, "is +it comfortable?" + +"O my friend, my scarce-wise Mulgar-royal, when did you ever hear that +grand clothes were comfortable?" + +"Wait but a little moment, then, while I go in to fetch the magic-glass, +that will show you your face, Immanâla, handsome and lovesome." + +The Beast struggled faintly in her magic coat. "Have a care--oh, have a +care, Ummanodda! The gun, the gun! The Oomgar might wake. Let me creep +swiftly to my stone, and bring the glass to me there." + +"The Oomgar will not wake," said Nod; "he sleeps as deep as the Ghost of +the Rose upon the bosom of Tishnar." + +"But, O Mulgar, think again. Strip off from my body this grievous belt," +she pleaded; "you will keep nothing for yourself." + +"Have no fear, friend," said Nod shakily; "I will keep"--and his eyes +met hers in the shadow of the hat, stony and merciless and ravenous--"I +will keep," he grunted, "my Zbaffle." + +He went into the hut and seated himself on a little stool. Then very +carefully he took the Wonderstone out of his pocket and unwrapped it. +Its pale gleam mingled softly with the moonlight, as a rainbow mingles +with foam. Wetting his left thumb with spittle, he rubbed it softly, +softly, Samaweeza, three times round. And distant and clear as the +shining of a star a voice seemed to cry: "The Spirit of Tishnar answers, +Prince Ummanodda Nizza-neela; what dost thou require of me?" + +"Oh, by Tishnar, only this," said Nod, trembling: "that the +nine-and-ninety hunting-dogs in their hunting mistake the ravening +Beast of Shadows, Immanâla, for the sailorman, Zbaffle, my master and +friend." + +And surely, when Nod looked out from the doorway, it seemed that, +strange and terrible, the shape muffled within the Oomgar's coat was +swollen out, stretched lean and tall, that even lank gold hair did +dangle on her shoulders from beneath the furry cap. It seemed he heard a +far-away crying--crying, out of that monstrous bale, as the creature +within, standing hidden from the moonlight, began to sway and stir and +totter over the snow. And Nod, choking with terror, called one word +only--"Sulâni!" Then, with all his force, he whistled once, twice, +thrice, clear and loud and long and shrill; then he shut fast the door +and barred it, and went and crouched beside the Oomgar's bed. + +Already Battle was wide awake. "Ahoy!" said he, and started up and +thrust out his hand for his gun. + +"Steady--oh, steady, Oomgar Zbaffle!" said Nod. "It is dogs of the +Immanâla only, that soon will be gone." + +Even as he spoke rose out of the distance a dreadful baying and howling. +Battle leapt up out of his bed to the window-hole. But Nod squatted +shivering, his face hidden in his hands. + +"Ghost of me! What is it?" said Battle to himself. "What beast is this +they're after--M'keeso, or Man of the Woods?" + +It reeled, it fell, it rose up; it wheeled slowly, faintly weeping and +whining, and then stood still, with arms lifted high, struggling like a +man with a great burden. But over the crudded snow, like a cloud across +the moon, streamed with brindled hair on end, jaws gaping and flaming +eyes, the hungry pack of the Shadow's hunting-dogs. "Oomgar, Oomgar, +Oomgar, Oomgar!" they yelled one to another. "Immanâla, Immanâla, death, +death, death!" And presently, while Battle in amazement watched, there +came one miserable cry of fear and pain. The tottering shape seemed to +melt, to vanish. + +Then Nod scampered and opened the door. + +"What say you now, hunting-dogs? Was the Oomgar tender or tough?" + +"Tough, tough!" they yelled. + +"Go, then, and tell your mistress, Queen of Shadows, Immanâla, that you +have supped with the Prince of Tishnar, and are satisfied." + +"Why lurks the little Mulgar in the Oomgar's hut?" yelped a lank hoary +Jaccatray. + +"I guard her treasures for the Nameless," said Nod; but he had hardly +said the word when he heard Battle striding to the door. + +"It's no good prattling and blabbing, my son," he was saying. "If come +it be, it's come. Off, now, while your skin's whole, and let me give the +rogues a taste of powder." + +Two or three of the hunting-dogs yelped aloud. "What, my brothers!" said +Nod. "Did you hear the Oomgar's Meermut calling for his gun?" + +A few of the meaner dogs scampered off a few paces at this, sniffing and +cocking their ears. + +"Out of the way, Pongo," whispered the Englishman through the doorway, +and the next moment there fell a crash that nearly toppled Nod into the +snow, and Battle strode out of the hut with his smoking musket. But the +cowardly Jack-Alls, at sound of his gun and at sight of the ghost of the +Oomgar they had torn to pieces, lifted up their voices in a howl of +terror, and in an instant over the snow they swept off at a gallop, and +soon were lost in the moonless silence and shadowiness of Munza. + +Nod turned towards the hut. Battle stood in his breeches, his gun in his +hand, his blue eyes wide open as if in fear. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XII + + +"What's these, what's these?" he muttered, for there, on the farther +bank of the stream, stood in the twilight of the sinking moon two +strange, solitary figures, motionless, staring. Nod ran to Battle, and +laid his long narrow hand on the glimmering gun-barrel. "Oh, not shoot, +not shoot!" he said, "black Oomgars--no; Mulla-mulgars, too, Nod's +friends, Nod's brothers!" + +"What's he jabbering about?" said Battle, with eyes fixed brightly on +the two gaunt shapes. + +"Nod's brothers, there," said Nod--"Thumb, Thimble, Thimble, Thumb. Nod +show Oomgar. Oh, wait softly!" He ran swiftly over the snow till he came +to the frozen bank of the stream. But still his brothers never stirred, +ragged and hollow-eyed with hunger and cold. + +"Come," said Nod, lifting up his hands in salutation; "there is no fear, +no danger! Here is Nod, my brothers." + +"What voice was that we heard?" said Thumb, trembling. "Can the mouth of +the Oomgar speak after it is shut in death?" + +"The Oomgar is not dead, Thumb, my brother; the hunting-packs killed +only that Beast of Shadows, Immanâla, who hoped to kill us all, and the +Oomgar, too. Come over, my brothers! Every day, every night, Nod has +talked in his quiet with you." + +"We do not understand the little Oomgar," said Thimble angrily. "Who are +you, the youngest of us all, to lie and make cunning against the people +of the forest? Let your master, the blood-spilling Oomgar, shoot us, +too. What are we in such a heap of bones? We have no fear of him. On all +fours, back, parakeet; tell him where the Mulgars' hearts lie hid. Maybe +he'll fling his Nizza-neela a bone." + +"O Thimble, Mulla-mulgar, why do you seek out all the black words for +me? Haven't I done all for the best? Did I play false with you when I +saved you from the spits of the Minimuls? The little Horse of Tishnar +smelt out my wounded shoulder. And the Oomgar's strangling trap caught +me. But he did not kill me. He took me, and was kind to me, fed me and +shared his fire with me, and we were 'messimuts.' Yet all day, all +night, moon and no-moon, I have talked in myself with you, and run +looking for you in my dreams, while I slept in the hairless Oomgar's +hut. The Nameless is gone for a little while. The Oomgar is wise with +his hands and in little things. Now I may go. He kills only for meat, +Mulla-mulgars. He will do no harm to Ummanodda's brothers. Come over +with me!" + +Thumb and Thimble, with toes a little turned in, and heads bent forward, +stood listening in the snow. + +"Why, then," said Thumb, muttering, "if he kills only for food, and +relishes not his own flavour in the pot, let him hobble out here to us +now and greet us, like with like--Oomgar-mulgar with Mulla-mulgar--and +leave his spit-fire and his magic behind him. But into his hut, nor +stumbling among his Munza bones, we will _not_ go. And if he will not +come, brother to brother, then it is 'Gar Mulgar dusangee' between us +three, O youngest son of Seelem. Go back to your cooking-pots. I and +Thimble will journey on alone. All day would the Harp-strings be +twangling over Mulgars smelling of blood." + +So Nod, cold with misery, went back to Battle, who sat yawning, gun on +knee, beside his fire. + +"Oomgar!" he said, leaning a little on one small hand, and standing a +few paces distant from the sailor, "my brothers, the Mulla-mulgars, sons +of Seelem, brother of Assasimmon, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar, are +here. They say Nod is not true, speaks lies, eater-of-flesh, no child of +Tishnar." He stared forlornly into Battle's face. "Tired of his living +is Nod now. Shoot straight with Oomgar Zbaffle's gun. Nod will be +still." + +The Englishman crinkled up his eyelids, opened his mouth, and burst out +laughing. + +"To tell ye sober truth, my son," he said, "bullets and powder Battle +haven't much left to waste. And what's lark-pie to a hungry sailor! As +for them hunched-up hobbagoblins over yonder, don't 'ee heed what envy +has to say. Battle is hands down on your side, my son, and let 'em +meddle if they dare! But mercy on us," he added under his breath, "what +wouldn't my old mother have said to hear these Pongoes chatter? 'Shoot +straight!' says he. 'Tired of his living!' says he. Button up your +sheep's-jacket, my son. We'll home to England yet. And, what's more"--he +waved his hand towards the lonely figures still standing motionless in +the silvery dusk--"Andy Battle's best respects to the hairy gentlemen, +and there's a warm welcome and fresh-picked bones for breakfast. But the +night's creeping cold, and bed's bed, old friend, and Andy's eyes was +never made for moth-hunting. So here goes." He went in with his gun, and +Nod heard him shut and bar the door. + +Nod listened awhile, with eyes fixed sorrowfully on the fast-shut door; +then, having heaped more logs on to the fire, he went slowly back to his +brothers. + +Now that the moon was down, and night at its darkest, the frost +hardened. And Thumb and Thimble, when they were sure the Oomgar was +asleep in his hut, were glad enough to hobble across the ice and to sit +and warm themselves before the fire. Their jackets hung in tatters. +Thumb's left second toe was frost-bitten, and Thimble's eyes were so +sore from the glaring whiteness of the snow he could only dimly see. +Moreover, they were weary of living and sleeping in their tree-houses +among the scatter-brained Forest-mulgars, and though at first they sat +shaky and sniffing, and started if but a dry leaf snapped in the fire, +they listened in silence to Nod's long story of his doings, and began to +see at last that what he had done by Mishcha's counsel had been for the +best, and not for his own sake only. + +"But we cannot stay here, Ummanodda," said Thumb. "We could not rub +noses with the Oomgar. His voice, his smell! He is not of our kind, +little brother. And now that all the peoples of Munza-mulgar are our +enemies, we must press on, with no more idling and fine eating and +sitting shanks to fire, or we shall never reach the Valleys alive." + +"I am ready, Thumb, my brother," Nod answered. "The Oomgar has been kind +to me, his own kind's kind. It was my Tishnar's Wonderstone that saved +him from the teeth of the Nine-and-ninety, and from Immanâla's magic, +though why should I tell it is so? Now they will think it is his +skin-bonneted Meermut that stalks to and fro with the ghost-gun of a +ghost. They will forsake this place, every one--claw and talon, upright +and fours, every one. How long shall a flesh-eater, hungry and +gluttonous, live on dried berries and nuts? Me gone; unless the frost +flies soon, or a great Bobberie, as he does say, comes up from that +strange water, the Sea, over yonder, the Oomgar will die. O brothers, +just as that Oomgar, the Portingal, died whose bones dangled over us +when we stood by Mutta's knee and listened to them clicking. Do but let +me stay to say good-bye, and we will go together at morning!" + +So, when day began to break, Thumb and Thimble hastened away and hid +themselves in the Ukka-trees till Nod should come out to them. Nod +busied himself, and baked his last feast with his master. He broiled him +some bones--they were little else--of the Jack-All the sailor had shot +in the moonlight. And when Battle--strange and solitary as he seemed to +Nod now, after talking with and looking on his brothers--when Battle +opened the door and came out, Nod told him as best he could, in the few +words of his English, of Immanâla and her hunting-dogs, and of his +brothers. And he told him that he must leave him now, and go on his +travels again. Battle listened, scratching his head, and with a patient, +perplexed grin on his face, but he could understand only very little of +what Nod meant. For even a Mulla-mulgar, though he can repeat like a +child, or like a parrot, by rote, has small brains for really learning +another language, so that it may be a telling picture of his thoughts. +Indeed, Battle thought that poor Nod had fallen a little crazy with the +cold. He fondled him and scratched his head--this Prince of Tishnar--as +if he were at his hearth at home, and Nod his country cat. But at least +he knew that the little Mulgar wished to leave him, and he made no +hindrance except his own sadness to his going. He gave him out of his +own pocket a silver groat with a hole in it, and a large piece of fine +looking-glass, besides the necklet of clear blue Bamba-beads, and three +rings of copper. He gave him, too, one leaf of his little fat book, and +in this Nod wrapped his Wonderstone. Nor even in his kindness did Battle +say the least word about his big coat and Ephelanto-belt and his Fulby's +hairy hat--all which things he supposed (Mulgars being by nature thieves +and robbers in his mind) Nod's brothers had stolen. + +"Good-bye, my son," he said. "'Bravely, ole sailor, take your lot!' +There, there; I make no dwelling on fine words. Good-bye, and don't +forget your larnin'. There's many a full-growed Christian Battle's come +acrost in his seafarin'--but there, flattery butters no parsnips. +Good-bye, once more, Mulgar _mio_, and thankee kindly." + +Nod raised his hands above his head. "Oomgar, Oomgar," he said, with +eyes shut and trembling lips, "ah-mi, ah-mi; sulâni, ghar magleer." +Then, with a heavy heart, he turned away, and without looking back ran +scampering as fast as he could to the five Ukka-trees. His brothers had +long been awaiting him, and swang down gladly from their sleeping-bowers +in the trees. Then, with the hut and the Oomgar's pillar of smoke upon +their cudgel-hand, they set out once more, all but due North, towards +the Valleys of Assasimmon. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XIII + + +The sun rose and beat down on the bare expanse of snow. But soon they +lurched headlong down again into the forest. But it was forest not so +dense as the forest of the Minimul mounds, nor by a tenth part as dark +as the forest where haunts the Telateuti. At scent of Nod every small +beast and bird scuttled off and flew away. And it was dreary marching +for the travellers where all that lived feared even their savour on the +wind. But by evening they had pushed on past Battle's farthest hunting, +and being wearied with their long day's march, nor any tracks of +leopards to be seen, they made no fire with their fire-sticks, but +gathered a big heap of dry leaves scattered in abundance by this strange +cold, this Witzaweelw[=u]llah, and huddled themselves close for warmth +in sleep. + +Next day they broke out into the open again, and before them, clear as +amber or coral, still and beautiful in the sunrise, rose afar off upon +the horizon the solitary peaks, which are seven--Kush, Zut, and Kippel, +Solmi, Makkri, M[=o][=o]t, and Mulgar-meerez--the Mountains of +Arakkaboa. + +All this day they trudged on in difficulty and discomfort, for the +ground was sharp and stony, and sloped now perpetually upward. And +though at first sight of them it had seemed they had need but to stretch +out a finger to touch the mountain-tops, they found the farther they +journeyed towards them the more distant seemed these wonderful peaks to +be. And their spirits began to sink. + +On the evening of the fifth day Thumb and Thimble were stooping together +over their fire-sticks in a great waste of bare rocks, while Nod was +pounding up a sweet but unknown fruit they had found in their day's +march growing close upon the ground, when suddenly they heard in the +distance a hubbub of shouts and cries the like of which they had never +heard in their lives before. They hastily concealed their small bundles +of food in a crevice of the rocks, and, creeping cautiously, peered out +in the last rays of the sun in order to discover the cause of this +prodigious uproar. + +And they saw advancing towards them a vast host and multitude of the +painted Babbab[=o][=o]ma-mulgars, travelling, as is their custom, in +company across these desolate wastes. On they came rapidly, the biggest +males on the margins. But presently, while they were yet some little way +off, at sound of a great shout all came to a standstill, the sun now +being set, to take up their night-quarters. Even in the fading light +their body-colours glowed, scarlet and purple, and bright Candar blue, +where, squatting in their hundreds at supper (some meanwhile pacing +sedately on the outskirts of the company like watchmen, to and fro on +all fours, with long, doglike snouts and jutting teeth), they made their +evening encampment. + +All that night our Mulla-mulgars never ventured to kindle a fire. They +huddled for warmth as best they could in a crevice of the rocks, warmed +only by their own hairy bodies. For they had heard of old from Seelem +how these Babbab[=o][=o]ma troops resent with ferocity the least +meddling with them. They will speedily stone to death any intruder, and +will tear a leopard in pieces with their teeth. But the travellers, all +three, curiously, cautiously peeping out, watched their doings while +there was the least light left, taking good care that not a spark of +their jackets should be seen, for these Babbab[=o][=o]mas fret more +fiercely even than our bulls at the colour red. + +They watched them sprinkling, scratching themselves, like the +Mullabruks, with their feet, and dusting their great bodies with dry +snow, rubbing it in with their hands, though for what purpose, seeing +that snow had never whitened their pilgrimages before, who can say? The +children, the Karakeena-Babbab[=o][=o]mas, squealed and frisked and +gambolled in the last sunshine together, quarrelling and at play. The +old men sat silent, munching with half-closed eyes, and watching them. +And it seemed that the big shes of the Babbab[=o][=o]mas had brought +some small tufty, goatlike animals with them, which they now sat milking +into pots or gourds. And with this milk they presently fed the littlest +of the young ones. + +For many hours after the sun had gone down the three brothers sat wide +awake, whispering together, listening to the talk and palaver of the +chiefs of the Babbab[=o][=o]mas. Sometimes they seemed to be clamouring, +fifty together; and then presently a great still voice would be lifted +over them, and all would fall silent; while of its calm authority the +master-voice said, "So shall it be," or "Thus do we make it." Then once +more the clamour of the rabble would break out again. But what its +meaning was, and whether they were merely gossiping together, or +quarrelling, or holding consultation, or whether it was that the loud +voice gave law and justice to the rest, Nod tried in vain to discover. +So at last, though much against his brothers' counsel, very curious to +see what could occasion all this talk, he crept gradually, boulder by +boulder, nearer to their great rocky bivouac. And there, by the silvery +lustre of a dying moon, he peeped and peered. But though he plainly saw +against the whiteness the pacing sentinels, and others of the +Babbab[=o][=o]mas, huddling by families close for warmth in sleep +beneath the rocks, he could not discover where their parliament or +talkers were assembled. But still he heard them gabbling, and still, +ever and anon, the great harsh voice sounding above all until at last +this, too, ceased, and save for the befrosted watchmen, the whole +innumerable horde of them lay--with the peaks of Arakkaboa to north of +them, and Sulemn[=a]gar to south--in that still dying moonlight fast +asleep. Then he, too, scuffled softly back by the way he had come. + +By morning (for the Babbab[=o][=o]mas are on the march before daybreak), +when the brothers awoke, cold and cramped, in their rocky cavern, the +whole concourse was gone, and not a sign left of them except their +scattered shells and husks, their innumerable footprints, and the stones +they had rooted up in search of whatever small creeping food might lurk +beneath. Else they seemed a dream--Meermuts of the moonlight! + +By noon of next day the travellers approached the mountain-slopes. They +crossed down into a valley, and now the farther they went the steeper +rose the bare, snow-flecked mountain-side, and beyond and around them +loftier heights yet, while in the midst spired into the midday Kush, the +first of the seven of the sacred peaks of Tishnar. Ever and again they +were startled by the sudden crash of the snow sweeping in long-drawn +avalanches from the steeps of the hills. And though it was desolate to +see those towering and unfriendly mountains, their snowy precipices and +dazzling peaks, yet their hearts came back to them, for a warm wind was +blowing through the valley, and they knew the white and cold of the snow +would soon be over, and the forest be green again, and once more would +come the flowering of the fruit-trees, and the ripening of the nuts. + +But here it was that a bitter quarrel began between the brothers that +might have ended in not one of them ever seeing Tishnar's Valleys alive. +It was like this: Not knowing in which direction to be going in order to +seek for a path or pass whereby to scale Arakkaboa, they were at a loss +what to be doing. Even the Munza-mulgars detest being more than the +height of the loftiest forest-tree above their shadows on the ground; +more especially, therefore, did these Mulla-mulgars, who never, or very +rarely, as I have said many times already, climb trees at all. So they +determined to stay awhile here and rest and eat until some Mulgar should +come along of whom they could ask the way. It was a valley rich with +the sweet ground-fruit I have already mentioned, whose spikes of a faint +and thorny blue mount just above the snow, and whose berries, owing to +their sugary coats or pods, resist all coldness. So that, without +mention of Ukka-nuts, of which a grove grew not far beyond the bend of +the valley, the travellers had plenty to eat. They had also an abundance +of water, because of a little torrent that came roaring through its ice +near by the trees they had chosen for their lodging. The wind that +softly blew along this low land was warmer, or, at least, not so keen +and fitful as the forest wind, and they were by now growing accustomed +to the cold. For the night, however, they raised up for themselves a +kind of leaning shelter, or huddle, of branches to be moved against the +wind according as it blew up or down the valley. + +But idleness leads to mischief. And not to press on is to be sliding +backward. And to wait for help is to let help limp out of sight. And +overcome, perhaps, by the luscious fruit, of which they ate far too much +and far too often, and growing sluggardly with sleep, the travellers +soon went on to bickering and scuffling together. With all this food, +too, and long sleep and idleness, their courage began to droop. And if +they heard any sound of living thing, even so much as a call or +crackling branch, they would sneak off and hide in their night-shelter, +not caring now for any kind of boldness nor to think of venturing over +these homeless mountains. + +So it came about that one night, as they were sleeping together under +their huddle, as was their custom, Thumb, who had been nibbling fruit +nearly all day long, cried out in a loud and terrible voice in his +sleep, till Thimble, half awakened by his raving, picked up his thick +cudgel and laid it soundly across his brother's shoulders where he lay. +Thumb started up out of his sleep, and in an instant the two brothers +were up and at each other, wrestling and kicking, gnashing their teeth, +and guzzling through their throats and noses like mere Gungas, +Mullabruks, or Manquabees. Poor Nod, not knowing what was the cause of +all the trouble, got a much worse drubbing than either, till at last, in +their furious struggling, all three brothers rolled from under the +wattles into the pale glimmering of the stars and snow. For in this +valley after the sun goes moves a phantom light or phosphorescence over +the snow. Brought suddenly to their senses by the chill dark air, the +travellers sat dimly glaring one at another, hunched, bruised, and +breathless. And Nod, seeing his brothers so enraged, and preparing to +fight again, and having had half his senses battered out by their rough +usage, asked what was amiss. + +"Ask him, ask him!" broke out Thimble, "the fat and stupid, who deafens +the whole forest with his gluttonous screams." + +"'Glutton, glutton!'" shouted Thumb. "How many nights, my brother +Ummanodda, have we lain awake comforting one another that this dismal +grasshopper has only one nose to snore through! I'll teach you, +graffalegs, to break my ribs with a cudgel! Wait till a blink of morning +comes! Oh, grammousie, to think I have put up with such a Mullabruk so +long!" He lifted a frozen hunch of snow and flung it full in Thimble's +face, and soon once more they were scuffling and struggling, cuffing and +kicking in the silence that lay like a cloak upon all the sacred +Valleys of Tishnar. They fought till, broken in wind and strength, they +could fight no more. And Nod was kept busy all the rest of the darkness +of that night mending the wounds of, and trying to make peace with, now +one brother, now the other. + +As soon as daybreak began to stir between the hills, Thumb and Thimble +rose up together, and without a word, with puffed and sullen faces, went +off on their fours and began gathering a good store of fruit and +Ukka-nuts, each very cautious of approaching too near the other in his +search. Nod skipped drearily from one to the other, pleading with them +to be friends. But he got only hard words for his pains, and even at +last was accused by both of them of stirring up a quarrel between them +for his own pride and pleasure. He edged sadly back to the huddle, and +sat gloomily watching them, wondering what next they would be at. He was +soon to know, for first Thimble came back to him where he sat beside +their night-hut and bade him help tie up his bundle. + +"Where are you going to, Thimble?" said Nod. "O Thimble, think a little +first! All these days we have journeyed in peace together. What would +our father, Royal Seelem, say to see us now fighting and quarrelling +like Mullabruks, and all because you cudgelled Thumb in his sleep?" + +"In his sleep!" screamed Thimble. "Tell that to your flesh-eating +Oomgar, Prince of Bonfires! How could he be asleep, when he was +squealing like a B[=o][=o]bab full of parakeets? I go back--back _now_. +Who can climb mountains with a fat hulk who takes two breaths to an +Ukka-nut? Come, if you dare! But I care not, whether or no." And with +that, catching up bundle and cudgel, with a last black look over his +shoulder at Thumb, Thimble started off down the valley towards the +forest they had so bravely left behind. + +Not a moment had he been gone when Thumb came limping and waddling back +to the shelter, loaded with nuts and berries. + +"Sit here and sulk, if you like, Nizza-neela," he growled angrily. "Come +with me, or traipse back with that scatterbrains. Whichever you please, +I care not. I am sick of the glutton that eats all day and cannot sleep +of nights for thinking of his supper." + +"How can I go with you," said Nod bitterly, "when I would not go with +Thimble? O Mulla-mulgar Thumb, you who are the eldest and strongest and +wisest of us, be now the best, too! Hasten after Thimble, and bring him +back to be friends. How can we show our faces to our Uncle Assasimmon, +even if we get over these dreadful mountains, saying we wrangled and +gandered all one cold night together simply because you screamed out +with fear in your sleep?" + +"Thumb scream! Thumb afraid! Thumb sweat after Lean-legs! If you had not +been my mother's youngest son, Ummanodda, you should never open that +impudent mouth again!" And with that, off went Thumb, too, not caring +whither, so long as it led him farthest away from Thimble. + +Now, not to make too much ado about this precious quarrel, this is what +befell the travellers: Thimble, face towards Munza, trotted--one, two, +three; one, two, three--stonily on. But in a while solitude began to +gather about him, and the cold after the heat of the fight struck chill +and woke again his lazy senses. He sat down to wrap up his bruises, +wondering where to be going, what to be doing. The Oomgar, the Nameless, +the Minimuls, the River, the Gunga--even if, he thought, he should +escape again all the dangers they had so narrowly but just come through +together, what lay at the end of it all? A little blackened heap of +ashes, the mockery of Munza-mulgar, and his mother's speechless and +sorrowful ghost. What's more, while he sat idly nibbling his nuts, for +his tongue had suddenly wearied of the luscious ground-fruit, he saw +moving between the rocks no sweeter company than a she-leopard gazing +grinningly on him where he sat beneath his rock. + +Now, these leopards, made cunning by experience, and knowing that a +Mulla-mulgar will fight long and bravely for his life, if, when they are +hunting alone, they spy out such a one alone, too, they trot softly back +until they meet with another of their kind. Then, with purring and +clashing of whiskers, they come to a sworn and friendly understanding +together, sharing out their supper-meat before they have so much as +sharpened their claws. Then at nightfall both go hunting their prey in +harmony together. Thimble well knew this crafty and evil practice, and +when dusk fell, he listened and watched without stirring. And soon, over +the snow, he heard the faint mewings and coughings of his enemies, both +shes, of wonderful clear, dark Roses, coming on as thievishly and as +softly towards him as a cat in search of her kittens. So he tore off a +little strip of his tattered red jacket and laid it in the snow. Then +away he scuttled till he must needs pause to breathe himself beneath a +farther rock. + +Meanwhile the ravenous huntresses, having come to the strip of +Mulgar-scented rag, of their natures had to stop and sniff and to +disport themselves with that awhile, as if to smell a dinner cooking is +to enjoy it more when cooked. This done, they once more set forward with +sharper hunger along Thimble's track. Three times did Thimble so play +with them, and at the third appetizing rag the leopards, famished and +over-eager, hardly paused at all over his keepsake, but came swiftly +coursing after him. And the first, that (of her own craft) was much the +younger and fleeter, soon out-distanced her hunting-mate, the which was +exactly the reason of Thimble's trickery with his red flag. For when, +panting and alone, the first Roses had got well ahead of the other, +Thimble dashed suddenly out upon her from a rock, and before she could +bare her teeth, he had caught her forefoot between his grinding jaws and +bitten it clean to the bone. It spoilt poor Roses' taste for supper, +and, seeing now that her sister was past fighting, and only too eager to +leave the Mulgar to his lone, her mate slunk off without more ado to her +own lair, to feast on the morning's bones of a frost-bitten Mullabruk. + +But Thimble, though he had worsted the leopards, hadn't much liking or +stomach for nights as wild as this. Thumb's nightmares were sweet peace +to it. All the next day he wandered about, not heeding whither his +footsteps led him. And so it came about that just before evening he +stumbled upon the very same valley he had left in his sulks the morning +before. There, indeed, sat Nod, fast asleep in the evening light for +sheer weariness of watching for his brothers, who, some faint hope had +told him, would return. + +As for Thumb, after limping on up the valley a little more than a +league, he soon grew ashamed and sick at heart at having so easily +become a silly child again. He sat down under a great boulder, humped +round with ants' nests, too desolate to go on, too proud to turn back. +All that day and the next he sat moodily watching these never-idle +little creatures, that, afraid of nothing, are feared of all. They had +tunnelled and walled, and wherever sunbeams fell had cast back the snow +that hung above the galleries. And all day long they kept going and +coming, carrying syrup and eggs and meat, and all this with endless +palaver of their waving horns, as if there were nothing else that side +of Arakkaboa but the business of their city. Thumb alive they paid no +heed to, but Thumb dead they would have picked to the bare bones before +sunset. + +The next evening Thumb's better head overcame him, and back he went to +his brothers, sitting miserable and forlorn in the new moonlight beneath +their shelter. Nothing was said. They dared scarcely look into each +other's faces awhile, until Thumb caught Nod's bright, anxious little +eyes glancing under his puckered forehead from brother to brother, in +mortal fear they would soon be breaking out again. And Nod looked so +queer, and small, and anxious, and loving, and all these things so much +at once, that Thumb burst out into a roar of laughter. And there they +sat all three, rocking to and fro, holding their sides beneath the +gigantic steeps of Arakkaboa, happy and at peace together again, while +tears ran down their nose-troughs, with their shouts on shouts of +laughter. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Next day the travellers were about very early, combing and grooming +themselves in the dawn-mist for the first time these many days, and +before the sun had shot his first colours across Arakkaboa, they had +eaten and drunk and set out from the valley of the languid and luscious +fruits that had been the chief cause of all their folly. + +They pushed up the valley, searching anxiously the hillsides for sign of +any track or path by which they might ascend. The day was crisp and +golden with sunlight. And that evening they made their night-quarters +beside a vast frozen pool in a kind of cup of the overhanging cliffs. +Here every word they said came hollowly back in echo. + +They cried, "Seelem!" "Seelem, Seelem!" replied the mocking voices. + +"Ummani nâta? Still we go on?" shouted Thumb hoarsely. + +"Nâta, nâta! On, on, on!" sang echo hoarselier yet. + +Wind had swept clean the glassy floor. In its black lustre gleamed the +increasing moon. And after dark had fallen, mists arose and trailed in +moonlit beauty across the granite escarpments of the hills. So that +night the travellers lay in a vast tent of lovely solitude, with only +the strange noises of the ice and the whisperings of the frost to tell +poor wakeful Nod he was anything more than a little Mulgar in a dream. + +Next morning early they met one of those crack-brained Môh-mulgars that +wander, eat, sleep, live, and die alone, having broken away from all +traffic and company with their friends and kinsmen. He wore about his +neck a double-coiled necklet of little bones, and wound round his middle +a plait of Cullum. He was dirty, bowed, and matted, and his eyes were +glazed as he lifted them into the sunlight in answer to Thumb's shout: + +"Tell us, O Môh-mulgar, we beseech you, how shall three travellers to +the kingdom of Assasimmon find a pathway across these hills?" + +The Môh-mulgar lifted both gnarled hands above his head. + +"Geguslar n[=o][=o]ma gulmeta m[=u]h!" replied a thick, half-brutal +voice. + +"What does he say?" said Nod, wondering to see him wave his spotted arms +as he wagged his crazy head. + +"Well," says Thumb, "what he says is this: 'Death's at the end of _all_ +paths.'" + +Thimble coughed. "So it is," he said solemnly. + +"Ay," said Thumb; "but what _I_ was asking was the longest way round.... +A track, a path to the beautiful Valleys of Tishnar," he shouted across +to the solitary Môh-mulgar. Sorrowfully he waved his bony arms about +his head, and stooped again. "Geguslar, n[=o][=o]ma gulmeta m[=u]h!" +came back his dismal answer. + +Thimble, with a sign to him, laid gravely down a little heap of nuts in +the snow. And the three travellers left the old pilgrim still standing +desolate and unquestionable in the snow, watching them till they were +gone out of sight. + +Coming presently after to some trees with tough, straight branches, the +travellers made themselves fresh cudgels. After which, to raise their +fallen spirits, they played hop-pole awhile in the sunshine, just as +they used to in the first days of the snow before they set out on their +travels. And about noon, when the sun stood radiant above them, they met +three Men of the Mountains, with shallow baskets on their heads, coming +down to gather Ukka-nuts in the valley. These Mulgars have long silken, +black-and-white hair and very profuse whiskers. They are sad in face, +with pouting lips, have but the meanest of thumbs, and turn their toes +in as they walk, one behind another, and sometimes in chains of a +hundred together. Thumb stood in their path, and inquired of the first +of them, as before, which way they must follow to cross the mountains. + +The voice of the Man of the Mountains who answered them was so high and +weak Nod could scarcely hear his whisper. "There is no way over," he +said. + +"But over we must go," said Thumb. + +The other shook his head, and looked sadder than ever. And on they all +three went again, lisping softly together, but without another word to +Thumb. + +"What's to be done now?" said Nod. + +"Where they came down, we can go up," said Thumb. + +So, the Men of the Mountains being now hidden from sight by the rocks +below, Thumb and his brothers turned up the narrow track between great +boulders of stone, by which they had come down. And glad they were of +the new staves or cudgels they had broken off. Even with the help of +these, so steep was the path that they had often to pull themselves up +by roots and jutting rocks. And gradually, besides being steep, the way +grew so narrow that they were simply walking on a ledge of rock not more +than two Mulgar paces wide. And for giddiness Nod nearly fell flat when +by chance he turned his eyes and looked down to where, far below, a +frozen torrent gleamed faintly amid huge boulders that looked from this +height no bigger than pebble-stones. + +It made him giddy even to keep his eyes fixed on the narrowing path +before him, and shuffle up, up, up. + +Suddenly, Thumb, who was wheezing and panting a few paces in front, came +to a standstill. + +"What is it, Thumb?" said Nod. + +"Why do you stop, Nod?" said Thimble, who was last of all. + +"Look, look!" said Thumb. + +They slowly raised their eyes, and not a hundred paces beyond them, on +the same narrow ledge of rock against the deep blue sky, came slowly +winding down thirty at least of these same meagre and hairy Men of the +Mountains, a few with long staves in their hands, and every one with his +long tufted tail over his shoulder and a round shallow basket on his +head. These Men of the Mountains have very weak eyes; and it was not +until they were come close that they perceived the three travellers +standing on their mountain-path. The first stopped, then he that was +next, and so on, until they looked like a long black-and-white +caterpillar, clinging to the precipice, with tiny tufts waving in the +air. + +Thumb raised his hand as if in peace. "We are, sirs, strangers to these +rocks and hills. After the shade of Munza, our eyes dizzy with the +heights. And we walk, journeying to the Courts of Assasimmon, in great +danger of falling. How, then, shall we pass by?" + +They heard a faint, shrill whispering all along the hairy row. Then the +first of the Men of the Mountains came quite close, and told the three +brothers to lie down flat on their faces, and he and his thirty would +all walk gently over them. "But to go on has no end," he said, "and the +travellers had better far turn back." + +At this Thumb grew angry. "What does the old grey-beard mean?" he +coughed out of the corner of his mouth. "Mulla-mulgars stoop on their +faces to no one. Do you lie down on yours." + +The old Mountain-mulgar blinked. "We are thirty; you are three," he +said. Thumb laughed. + +"We are strangers to Arakkaboa, O Man of the Mountains. And we fear to +lie down, lest we never rise up again." At this civil speech the old +Mulgar went shuffling back to the others. + +And, to Nod's astonishment, he presently saw him take his long staff of +tough, sinewy wood, and thrust it into a little crevice of the rock, +even with the path, so that about a third of its length overhung the +precipice. Meanwhile, another of these Mountain-mulgars had in the same +way thrust his staff into the rock a little farther down. The first Man +of the Mountains, who was, perhaps by half a span, taller than the rest, +took firm hold of the end of his staff with his long-fingered but almost +thumbless hands, and lightly swung himself down over the precipice. The +next scrambled down over his shoulders until he swung by his leader's +heels; the next followed, and so on. Three such Mulgar strings presently +hung down from their staves over the abyss. And there being thirty Men +of the Mountains in all, each string consisted of ten. [For this reason +some call these Mountain-mulgars Caterpillar or Ladder Mulgars.] + +When they were all thus quietly dangling, their leader bade Thumb +advance. Stepping warily over the little heaps of baskets, this the +brothers did. But as Nod passed each string in turn, and saw it swinging +softly over the sheer precipice, and all the ten faces with pale eyes +blinking sadly up at him out of their fluff of hair, he thought he +should certainly be toppled over and dashed to pieces. At last, however, +all three were safely passed by. But the rocky ledge was here so narrow +that Thimble could not even turn himself about to thank the +Mountain-mulgars for their courtesy, nor to watch them climb back one by +one to their mountain-path again. + +On and on, up, ever up, climbed the ribbon-like path winding about the +granite flanks of Kush. Once Nod lifted up his face, and saw in one +swift glimpse the glittering peaks and crest of the mountains rising in +beauty, crowned with snow, out of the vast sun-shafted precipices. He +hastily shut his eyes, and his knees trembled. But there could be no +turning back now. He followed on close behind his fat, panting brother, +until suddenly Thumb leapt back to a standstill, shouting in a voice of +fear: "O ho, ho! Illa ulla, illa ulla! O ho, ho!" + +"O Thumb, why do you call 'ho!' like that?" said Nod anxiously. + +"Back, back!" Thumb cried; "du steepa datz." + +Nod stooped low on the smooth rock, and under the tatters of Thumb's +metal-hooked coat stared out between his brother's bandy legs. He simply +looked out of that hairy window straight into the empty air. They stood +like peering cormorants at the cliff's edge. The path had come to an +end. + +Thumb whined softly and coughed, and a faint steam rose up from his +body. "We must go back," he barked huskily. + +"Yes, brother," said Thimble softly; "but I cannot go back. If I turn, +down I go. But if you two can turn, down go will I." + +"Tishnar, O Tishnar," cried Nod in terror, "the hills are dancing." + +"Softly, softly, child!" said Thumb. "It is only your giddy eyes +rolling. What's more," he said, pretending to laugh, "those old hairy +Men of the Mountains, even if only Meermuts, _must_ have come from +somewhere. Where they came from we can go to. O and Ahôh!" he called. + +"Why do you call 'Ahôh!' Thumb?" whispered Nod, with tight-shut eyes. + +"Both together, Thimbulla," muttered Thumb. "Ahôh, ahôh, ahôh!" they +bawled. + +Their voices sounded small and far-away. Only a bird screamed in answer +from the chasm beneath. The sun blazed shadowlessly over the peak of +Kush upon the three Mulgars, standing motionless, pressed close against +the steaming rock. To Nod the minutes crawled like hours, while he +crouched sick and trembling, clutching Thumb's rags to keep him from +falling. + +"Thimble, my brother," at last called Thumb softly, "could you, if +little Nod twisted himself round, straddle your legs enough to let him +creep through? We old gluttonous fellows were never meant for +mountain-climbing. And standing here over the great misty pot----" But +just then it seemed to Thumb he felt, light as the wind, something +softly pluck at his wool hat. Very, very slowly, and without a word, he +lifted his head and looked up--looked straight up into the sorrowful +hairy face of a Man of the Mountains dangling, the last of a long chain, +from a rocky parapet above. + +"Why?" says Thumb, looking into his face. "What then?" + +"Up, up!" said he, in a thin, lisping Munza-tongue, making a step or +loop of his long fringed arms. + +This, then, was the stairs or ladder on which the travellers must climb +into safety. But Thumb could barely touch him with the tips of his +fingers. He stood in doubt, staring up. And presently down that living +rope of Mulgars yet another Man of the Mountains softly descended, and +his arms just reached Thumb's elbows. + +"Tread gently, Mulla-mulgar," said this last, with a doleful smile. "You +are fat, and our ladder is slender." + +Thumb, with one white, doglike glance into the deeps, took firm hold, +and slowly, heavily, he climbed on from trembling Mulgar to trembling +Mulgar till at length he reached the top. + +"Now, Nizza-neela," said the last Man of the Mountains, "it is your +turn." Up clambered Nod after Thumb, groping carefully with the palms of +his feet from hairy loop to loop. But he was glad that the Men of the +Mountains, as their custom generally is, dangled with their faces to the +rock, and could not see into his eyes. + +At last all three were safely up, and found themselves on a wide, +smooth, shelving ledge of the mountain, about fifty Mulgar paces wide, +with here and there a tree or tuft of grass, and to the right a cascade +of ice, roped with icicles, streaming from the heights above. But what +most Nod blinked in wonder at were the small white mushroom houses of +these Mountain-mulgars. More than a hundred of them were here, standing +like snow-white beehives in the glare of the sun, each with its low +round door, from which, here and there, a baby Mulgar, with short, +fleecy, and cane-coloured whiskers, stood on its fours, peeping at the +strangers. When they were all three safely landed, one of the Men of the +Mountains led them between the beehive houses to a cool, shadowy cavern +in the mountain-side. There he bade them sit down, while others brought +them a kind of thin, sour cheese and a mess of crushed and mouldy +Ukka-nuts. For these Arakkaboan Mulgars will not so much as look at a +nut fresh and crisp; it must be green and furred to please their taste. +And while the travellers sat nibbling a little meanly of the nuts and +cheese, Thumb told the Men of the Mountains as best he could in the +Munza tongue who they were, and why they were come wandering in +Arakkaboa. + +When Thumb in his talk made mention of the name of Tishnar, the +Mountain-mulgars that sat round them in a circle bobbed low, till the +hair of their faces touched the cavern floor. + +"The Valleys of Assasimmon lie far from here," said the first +Mountain-mulgar in a shrill, thin voice. "And the Men of the Mountains +walk no mountain-paths beyond the peak of Zut; nor have we ever dangled +our ropes into the Ummuz-groves of Tishnar. I do not even know the way +thither. It would have been go thin and come back fat, O Mulla-mulgars, +if I did. Rest and sleep now, travellers. We will bring you to the +Mulla-moona-mulgar [that is, Lord, or Captain] of Kush when he awakes +from his 'glare.'" + +This "glare," or "shine," is the name of the Mountain-mulgars give to +the sleep they take in the middle of the day. Some little while before +"no-shadow," as they call it, or noonday, they creep into their mushroom +houses and sleep till evening begins to settle. So weak have their eyes +become (or are, by nature) that they rarely venture out by day to go +nut-gathering in the valleys. And often then, even, many go bandaged, +keeping touch merely with their tails. It was in the midst of this +noonday sleep or glare that the travellers had roused them with their +halloo. At evening they awake, and when the moon is clear their ladders +may be seen near and far drooping over the precipices. And they go +walking with soft, shambling steps from ledge to ledge. Even the least +of them have no fear of any height. Their children of an evening will +sit and eat their suppers, their spindle legs dangling over a depth so +extreme that no Munza-mulgar could see to the bottom. + +Left alone, the Mulla-mulgars, who had been climbing many hours now, and +felt stiff in legs and back, were glad to roll themselves over in the +flealess sand of the cavern, and soon were all three asleep. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XV + + +When Nod opened his eyes beneath the vast blue arch of the cavern, not a +sign of the Men of the Mountains was to be seen. He sat for awhile +watching his brothers humped up in sleep on the floor, and wondering +rather dismally when they should have done with their troubles and come +to the palace of their Uncle Assasimmon. He was blained and footsore; +his small bones stuck out beneath his furry skin, his hands were cracked +and scorched. And the keen high air of Arakkaboa made him gasp at every +breath. + +When Thumb awoke they sat quietly mumbling and talking together a while. +Beyond the mouth of the cavern stood the beehive-houses of the +Mountain-mulgars, each in its splash of lengthening shadow. Day drew on +to evening. An eagle squalled in space. Else all was still; no living +thing stirred. For these Men of the Mountains have no need to keep +watch. They sleep secure in their white huts. None can come in, and +none go out but first they must let down their ladders. Thumb scrambled +up, and he and Nod hobbled off softly together to where the cataract +hung like a shrine of hoarfrost in pillars of green ice from the frozen +snows above. The evening was filled with light of the colour of a +flower. Even the snow that capped the mountains was faintest violet and +rose, and far in the distance, between the peaks of Zut and misty Solmi, +stretched a band of darkest purple, above which the risen moon was +riding in pale gold. And Nod knew that there, surely, must be Battle's +Sea. He pointed Thumb to it, and the two Mulgars stood, legs bandy, +teeth shining, eyes fixed. Nod gazed on it bewitched, till it seemed he +almost saw the foam of its league-long billows rolling, and could catch +in his thin round ear the roar and surge Battle had so often told him +of. "Ohé! if my Oomgar were but with me now!" he thought. "How would his +eyes stare to see his friend the sea!" + +But the Men of the Mountains were now bestirring themselves. They came +creeping, lean and hairy, out of their mushroom houses. Some fetched +water, some looped down over the brink by which the travellers had come +up. Some clambered up into little dark horseshoe courts cut in the rock +like martins' holes in sand, and came down carrying sacks or suchlike +out of their nut pantries and cheese-rooms. Some, too, of the elders sat +combing their long beards with a kind of teasel that grows in the +valleys, while their faint voices sounded in their gossiping like +hundreds of grasshoppers in a meadow. Nod watched them curiously. Even +the faces of quite the puny Mountain-mulgars were sad, with round and +feeble eyes. And he couldn't help nudging Thumb to look at these tiny +creatures gravely combing their hairy chops--for all had whiskers, from +the brindled and grey, whose hair fell below their knees, to the mouse +and cane coloured babies lying in basins or cradles of Ollaconda-bark, +kicking their toes towards the brightening stars. + +The moonlight dwelt in silver on every crag. And, like things so +beautiful that they seem of another world, towered the mountains around +them, clear as emeralds, and crowned with never-melting snow. + +Thimble, when he awoke, was fevered and aching. The heights had made his +head dizzy, and the mountain cheese was sickly and faint. He lay at full +length, with wandering eyes, refusing to speak. So, when the Mulla-moona +sent for the three travellers, only Thumb and Nod went together. He was +old, thin-haired and thick-skinned, and rather fat with eating of +cheese; he wore a great loose hat of leopard-skin on his head. And he +looked at them with his eyes wizened up as if they were creatures of no +account. And he asked one of the Mountain-mulgars who stood near, Who +were these strangers, and by whose leave they had come trespassing on +the hill-walks of the Mountain-mulgars. "Munza is your country," he +said. "The leaves are never still with you, thieves and gluttons, +squealing and fighting and swinging by your tails!" + +Thumb opened his mouth at this. "We are three, and you are many, Old Man +of the Mountains," he barked, "but keep a civil tongue with us, for all +that. We are neither thieves nor gluttons. We fight, oh yes, when it +pleases us. But having no tails, we do not swing by them. We are +Mulla-mulgars, my brothers and I, and we go to the kingdom of our +father's brother, Assasimmon, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar. He is a +Prince, O Mulla-moona, who has more slaves in his palace and more +Ukka-trees in the least of his seventy-seven gardens than your royal +whiskers have hairs! On, then, we go! But be not afraid, +Mulla-moona-mulgar. We will leave a few small stones of Arakkaboa behind +us. But whether you will or whether you won't, on we go until the Harp +sounds. Then our Meermuts will Tishnar welcome, and bid wander over +these her mountains, never hungry, never thirsty, never footsore, with +sweet-smelling lanterns to light us, and striped Zevveras to carry us, +and gongs to make music. But if we live, Chief Mulgar of Kush, we will +remember your words, I and my brother Ummanodda Nizza-neela, for he +shall breathe them into a little book in the Zbaffle Oomgar's tongue for +Prince Assasimmon to mock at in his Ummuz-fields." + +Nod listened in wonder to this palaver. Had he, then, been talking in +his sleep, that Thumb knew all about the Oomgar's little fat magic-book? +The old Mountain-mulgar sat solemnly blinking, fingering the tassel of +his long tail. He was a doleful and dirty fellow, and very sly. + +"Why," he said at last, "I did but speak Munza fashion. Scratch if you +itch, traveller. Even an Utt can grow angry. As for writing my words in +the Oomgar's tongue, that is magic, and I understand it not. Rest in the +cool of the shadow of Kush a little, and to-morrow my servants shall +lead you as far across Arakkaboa as they know the way. But this I will +tell you: Beyond Zut my paths go not." He raised his pale eyes softly. +"But then, Meermuts need no paths, Mulla-mulgars." + +Thumb laughed. "All in good time, Prince," he said, showing his teeth. +"I begin to get an itching for this Zut. We will rest only one day. The +Mulla-mulgar Thimbulla has a poor stomach for your green cheese. We will +journey on to-morrow." + +The Mulla-moona then called an old Mulgar who stood by, whose name was +Ghibba, and bade him take a rope (that is, about twenty) of the +Mountain-mulgars with him to show the travellers the secret "walks" and +passes across their country to the border round Zut. "After that," he +said, turning sourly to Thumb, "though your Meermuts were three hundred +and not three, and your Uncle, King Assasimmon, had more palaces than +there are nuts on an Ukka-tree, I could help you no more. Sulâni, O +Mulla-mulgars, and may Tishnar, before she scatters your bones, sweeten +your tempers!" + +And at that the old Mountain-man curled his tail over his shoulder and +shut his eyes. + +When Thumb and Nod came into the great cavern again to Thimble, they +found him helpless with pain and fever. He could not even lift his head +from his green pillow. His eyes glowed in their bony hollows. And when +Thumb stooped over him he screamed, "Gunga! Gunga!" as if in fear. + +Thumb turned and looked at Nod. "We shall have to carry him, Ummanodda," +he said. "If he eats any more of their mouldy nuts and cheese our +brother will die in these wild mountains. They must be sad stomachs that +thrive on meat gone green with age. And now the physic is gone, and +where shall we find more in these great hills of ice? We must carry +him--we must carry him, Nodnodda." + +Then Ghibba, who was standing near, understanding a little of what Thumb +said, though he had spoken low in Mulgar-royal, called four of his +twenty. And together they made a kind of sling or hammock or pallet out +of their strands of Cullum, and cushioned it with hair and moss. For +once every year these Mulgars shave all the hair off their bodies, and +lie in chamber until it is grown again. By this means even the very old +keep sleek and clean. With this hair they make a kind of tippet, also +cushions and bedding of all sorts. It is a curious custom, but each, +growing up, follows his father, and so does not perceive its oddness. +Into this litter, then, they laid Thimble, and lifted him on to their +shoulders by ropes at the corners, plaited thick, so as not to chafe the +bearers. Then, the others laden with great faggots of wood and torches, +bags of nuts and cheese, and skin bottles of milk, they passed through +an arch in the wall of the cavern, and the travellers set out once more. +All the Men of the Mountains came out with their little ones in the +starlight and torch-flare to see them go. Even the old chief squinnied +sulkily out of his hut, and spat on the ground when they were gone. + +The Mulgar-path on the farther side of this arch was so wide that here +and there trees hung over it with frost-tasselled branches. And a rare +squabbling the little Mountain-owls made out of their holes in the rock +to see the travellers' torches passing by. First walked six of the Men +of the Mountains, two by two. Then came Thimble, tossing and gibbering +on his litter. Close behind the litter followed Ghibba, walking between +Thumb and Nod. And last, talking all together in their thin grasshopper +voices, the other ten Mountain-mulgars with more bags, more faggots, and +more burning torches. It was, as I have said, clear and starry weather. +Far below them the valleys lay, their blackness fleeced with mist; high +above them glittered the quiet ravines of ice and snow. So cold had it +fallen again, Nod huddled himself close in his sheep's-jacket, buzzing +quiet songs while he waddled along with his stick. So all night they +walked without resting, except to change the litter-bearers. + +When dawn began to stir, they came to where the Mulgar-path widened +awhile. Here many rock-conies dwelt that have, as it were, wings of skin +with which they leap as if they flew. And here the travellers doused +their torches, set Thimble down, and made breakfast. While they all sat +eating together, on a narrow pass beneath them wound by another of the +long-haired companies of the Men of the Mountains. From upper path to +lower was about fifteen Mulgars deep, for that is how they measure their +heights. All these Mulgars were laden with a kind of fresh green seaweed +heaped up on their shallow head-baskets, and were come three days' +journey from the sea from fetching it. This seaweed they eat in their +soup, or raw, as a relish or salad. Perhaps they pit it against their +cheese. Whether or no, its salt and refreshing savour rose up into the +air as they walked. And Nod sniffed it gladly for simple friendship and +memory of his master Battle. + +Breakfast done, the snow-bobbins hopped down to pick up the crumbs. +These little tufty birds, of the size of a plump bull-finch, but pure +white, with coral eyes, hop among the Mountain-mulgar troops wheresoever +they go, having a great fancy for their sour cheese-crumbs. + +The Men of the Mountains then hung up on their rods or staves a kind of +thick sheet or shadow-blanket, as they call it, woven of goats' wool and +Ollaconda-fibre, under which they all hid themselves from the glare of +the over-riding sun. Nod, too, and Thumb sat down in close shade beside +Thimble's litter, and slept fitfully, tired out with their night-march, +but anxious in the extreme for their brother. + +Towards about three, as we should say, or when the sun was three parts +across his bridge, having wound up their shadow-blankets and made all +shipshape, the little company of grey and brown Mulgars set out once +more. Thimble, who had lain drowsy and panting, but quiet, during the +day, now began to toss and rave as if in fear. His cries rang piercing +and sorrowful against these stone walls, and even the hairy +Mountain-men, who carried him in such patience slung between them, grew +at last weary of his clamour, and shook his litter when he cried out, as +if, indeed, that might quiet him. + +Nod stumped on for a long time in silence, listening to his brother's +raving. "O Thumb, what should we do," he broke out at last--"what should +we do, you and me, if Thimble died?" + +Thumb grunted. "Thimble will not die, little brother." + +"But how can you know, Thumb? Or do you say it only to comfort me?" + +"I never could tell how I know, Ummanodda; but know I do, and there's an +end." + +"I suppose we shall get to Tishnar's Valleys--in time?" said Nod, half +to himself. + +"The Nizza-neela is downcast with long travel," said Ghibba. + +"Ay," muttered Thumb, "and being a Mulla-mulgar, he does not show it." + +Nod turned his head away, blinked softly, shrugged up his jacket, but +made no answer. And Thumb, in his kindness, and perhaps to ease his own +spirits, too, broke out in his great seesaw voice into the Mulgar +journey-song. High above the squabbling of the little Mountain-owls, +high above the remote thunder of the surging waters in the ravine, into +the clear air they raised their hoarse voices together: + + "In Munza a Mulgar once lived alone, + And his name it was Dubbuldideery, O; + With none to love him, and loved by none, + His hard old heart it grew weary, O, + Weary, O weary, O weary. + + "So he up with his cudgel, he on with his bag + Of Manaka, Ukkas, and Keeri, O; + To seek for the waters of 'Old-Made-Young,' + Went marching old Dubbuldideery, O + Dubbuldi-dubbuldi-deery. + + "The sun rose up, and the sun sank down; + The moon she shone clear and cheery, O, + And the myriads of Munza they mocked and mopped + And mobbed old Dubbuldideery, O, + Môh Mulgar Dubbuldideery. + + "He cared not a hair of his head did he, + Not a hint of the hubbub did hear he, O, + For the roar of the waters of 'Old-Made-Young' + Kept calling of Dubbuldideery, O, + Call--calling of Dubbuldideery. + + "He came to the country of 'Catch Me and Eat Me'-- + Not a fleck of a flicker did fear he, O, + For he knew in his heart they could never make mince-meat + Of tough old Dubbuldideery, O, + Rough, tough, gruff Dubbuldideery. + + "He waded the Ooze of Queen Better-Give-Up, + Dim, dank, dark, dismal, and dreary, O, + And, crunch! went a leg down a Cockadrill's throat, + 'What's _one_?' said Dubbuldideery, O, + Undauntable Dubbuldideery. + + "He cut him an Ukka crutch, hobbled along, + Till Tishnar's sweet river came near he, O-- + The wonderful waters of 'Old-Made-Young,' + A-shining for Dubbuldideery, O, + Wan, wizened old Dubbuldideery. + + "He drank, and he drank--and he drank--and he--drank: + No more was he old and weary, O, + But weak as a babby he fell in the river, + And drownded was Dubbuldideery, O, + Drown-ded was Dubbuldideery!" + + [Illustration: WITH STICKS AND STAVES AND FLARING TORCHES THEY + TURNED ON THE FIERCE BIRDS THAT CAME SWEEPING AND SWIRLING OUT + OF THE DARK.] + +It was a long song, and it lasted a long time, and so many were the +verses, that at last even the Men of the Mountains caught up the crazy +Mulgar drone and wheezily joined in, too. A very dismal music it was--so +dismal, indeed, that many of the eagles who make their nests or eyries +in the crevices and ledges of the topmost crags of Arakkaboa flew +screaming into the air, sweeping on their motionless wings between the +stars over the echoing precipices. + +The travellers had set to the last verse of the Journey-Song more +lustily than ever, when of a sudden one of these eagles, crested, and +bronze in the torchlight, swooped so close in its anger of the voices +that it swept off Thumb's wool hat. In his haste he heedlessly struck at +the shining bird with his staff or cudgel. Its scream rose sudden and +piercing as it soared, dizzily wheeling in its anger, at evens with the +glassy peak of Kush. Too late the Men of the Mountains cried out on +Thumb to beware. In an instant the night was astir, the air forked with +wings. From every peak the eagles swooped upon the Mulgars. And soon the +travellers were fighting wildly to beat them off. They hastily laid poor +Thimble down in his sling and covered up his eyes from the tumult with a +shadow-blanket. And with sticks and staves and flaring torches they +turned on the fierce birds that came sweeping and swirling out of the +dark upon them on bristling feathers, with ravening beaks and talons. +But against Thumb the eagles fought most angrily for his insult to their +Prince, hovering with piercing battle-cry, their huge wings beating a +dreadful wind upon his cowering head. Nod, while he himself was +buffeting, ducking and dodging, could hear Thumb breathing and coughing +and raining blows with his great cudgel. The moon was now sliding +towards the mouth of Solmi's Valley, and her beams streamed aslant on +the hosts of the birds. Wherever Nod looked, the air was aflock with +eagles. His hand was torn and bleeding, a great piece of his +sheep's-jacket had been plucked out, and still those moon-gilded wings +swooped into the torchlight, beaks snapped almost in his face, and +talons clutched at him. + +Suddenly a scream rose shrill above all the din around him. For a moment +the birds hung hovering, and then Nod perceived one of the biggest of +the eagles struggling in mid-air with something stretched and wrestling +upon its back. It was a Man of the Mountains floating there in space, +while the maddened eagle rose and fell, and poised itself, and shook and +beat its wings, vainly striving to tear him off. And now many other of +the eagles wheeled off from the Mulgars and swept in frenzy to and fro +over this struggling horse and rider, darting upon them, beating the +dying Mulgar with their wings, screaming their war-song, until at last, +gradually, lower and lower they all sank out of the moonlight into the +shadow of the valley, and were lost to sight. The few birds that +remained were soon beaten off. Five lay dead in their beautiful feathers +on the pass. And the breathless and bleeding Mulgars gathered together +on this narrow shelf of the precipice to bind up their wounds and rest +and eat. But three of them were nowhere to be found. They made no +answer, though their friends called and called, again and again, in +their shrill reedy voices. For one in fighting had stumbled and toppled +over, torch in hand, from the path, one had been slit up by an eagle's +claw, and one had been carried off by the eagles. + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XVI + + +And now that the moon was near her setting, dark grew the air. The Men +of the Mountains had at last ceased to call their lost companions, and +on either side of the path were breaking up their faggots and building +fires, leaving two wide spaces beneath the beetling rock for their +encampment between the fires. Nod, sitting beside Thimble's litter, +watched them for some time, and presently he fancied he heard a distant +howling, not from the darkness below, but seemingly from the heights +above the Mulgar-pass. He rose and limped along to Ghibba, who was busy +about the fires. "Why are you heaping up such large fires?" he said, +"and whose, Man of the Mountains, are those howlings I heard from the +mountain-tops?" + +Ghibba's face was scorched and bleeding; one of his long eyebrows was +nearly torn off. "The fires and the howls are cousins, little Mulgar," +he said. "The screams of the golden-folk have roused the wolves, and if +we do not light big fires they will come down in packs along their +secret paths to devour us. It is a good thing to fight bravely, but it's +a better not to have to fight at all." + +Nod came back and told this news to Thumb, who was sitting with a great +strip of his jacket bound round his head like a Turk's turban. "It is +good news, brother," he said--"it is good news. What stories we shall +have to tell when we are old!" + +"But two of the hairy ones are dead," said Nod, "and one is slipping, +they say, from his second sleep." + +"Then," said Thumb, looking softly over the valley, "they need fight no +more." + +Nod sat down again beside Thimble's litter and touched his hand. It was +dry and burning hot. He heard him gabbling, gabbling on and on to +himself, and every now and again he would start up and gaze fixedly into +the night. "No, Thimble, no," Nod would say. "Lie back, my brother. It +is neither the Harp-strings nor our father's Zevveras; it is only the +little mountain-wolves barking at the icicles." + +On either side of their camping-place he heard yelp answering to yelp, +and then a long-drawn howl far above his head. He began to think, too, +he could see, as it were, small green and golden marshlights wandering +along the little paths. And, watching them where he sat quietly on his +heels in a little hollow of the rock, it brought back, as if this were +but a dream he was in, the twangle of Battle's Juddie, the restless +fretting and howling of Immanâla's Jaccatrays. As the Moona-mulgar's +fires mounted higher, great shadows sprang trembling up the mountains, +and tongues of flame cast vague shafts of light across the shadowy +abyss; while, stuck along the wall in sconces of the rock, a dozen +torches smoked. + +Thumb grunted. "They'd burn all Munza up with fires like these," he +muttered. "Little wolves need only little fires." But Thumb did not know +the ferocity of these small mountain-wolves. They are meagre and +wrinkle-faced, with prick ears and rather bushy tails. In winter they +grow themselves thick coats as white as snow, except upon their legs, +which are short-haired and grey, with long tapping claws. And they are +fearless and very cunning creatures. Nod could now see them plainly in +the nodding flamelight, couched on their haunches a few paces beyond the +fires, and along the galleries above, with gleaming eyes, scores and +scores of them. And now the eagles were returning to their eyries from +their feasting in the valley, and though they swept up through the air +mewing and peering, they dared not draw near to the great blaze of fire +and torch, but screamed as they ascended, one to the other, until the +wolves took up an answer, barking hard and short, or with long mournful +ululation. + +When at last they fell quiet, then the Men of the Mountains began +wailing again for their lost comrades. They sit with their eyes shut, +resting on their long narrow hands, their faces to the wall, and sing +through their noses. First one takes up a high lamentable note, then +another, and so on, faster and faster, for all the world like a faint +and distant wind in the hills, until all the voices clash together, +"Tish--naehr!" Then, in a little, breaks out the shrillest in solo +again, and so they continue till they weary. + +Nod listened, his face in his hands, but so faint and fast sang the +voices he could only catch here and there the words of their drone, if +words there were. He touched Thumb's shoulder. "These hairy fellows are +singing of Tishnar!" he said. + +Thumb grunted, half asleep. + +"Who taught them of Tishnar?" Nod asked softly. + +Thumb turned angrily over. "Oh, child!" he growled, "will you never +learn wisdom? Sleep while you can, and let Thumb sleep too! To-morrow we +may be fighting again." + +But though the Ladder-mulgars soon ceased to wail, and, except for two +who were left to keep watch and to feed the fires, laid themselves down +to sleep, Nod could not rest. The mountains rose black and unutterably +still beneath the stars. Up their steep sides enormous shadows jigged +around the fires. Sometimes an eagle squawked on high, nursing its +wounds. And whether he turned this way or that way he still saw the +little wolves huddled close together, their pointed heads laid on their +lean paws, uneasily watching. And he longed for morning. For his heart +lay like a stone in him in grief for his brother Thimble. A little dry +snow harboured in the crevices of the rocks. He filled his hands with +it, and laid it on poor Thimble's head and moistened his lips. Then he +walked softly along past the sleeping Mulgars towards the fire. + +Where should we all be now, he thought, if the eagles had come in the +morning? On paths narrow as those there was not even room enough to +brandish a cudgel. The fire-watcher raised his sad countenance and +peered through his hair at Nod. + +"What is it in your mouldy cheese, Man of the Mountains, that has +poisoned my brother?" said Nod. + +The Mulgar shook his head. "Maybe it is something in the Mulla-mulgar," +he answered. "It is very good cheese." + +"Will morning soon be here?" said Nod, gazing into the fire. + +The Mulgar smiled. "When night is gone," he answered. + +"Why do these mountain-wolves fear fire?" asked Nod. + +The Mulgar shook his head. "Questions, royal traveller, are easier than +answers," he said. "They _do_." + +He caught up a firebrand, and threw it with all his strength beyond the +fire. It fell sputtering on the ledge, and instantly there rose such a +yelping and snarling the chasm re-echoed. Yet so brave are these +snow-wolves one presently came venturing pitapat, pitapat, along the +frosty gallery, and very warily, with the tip of his paw, poked and +pushed at it until the burning stick toppled and fell over, down, down, +down, down, till, a gliding spark, it vanished into the torrent below. +The Mountain-mulgar looked back over his shoulder at Nod, but said +nothing. + +Nod's eyes went wandering from head to head of the shadowy pack. "Is it +far now to my uncle, Prince Assasimmon's? Is it far to the Valleys?" he +said in a while. + +"Only to the other side of death," said the watchman. "Come +N[=o][=o]manossi, we shall walk no more." + +"Do you mean, O Man of the Mountains," said Nod, catching his breath, +"that we shall never, never get there alive?" The watchman hobbled over +and threw an armful of wood on to the fire. + +"'Never' shares a big bed with 'Once,' Mulla-mulgar," he said, raking +the embers together with a long forked stick. "But we have no Magic." + +Nod stared. Should he tell this dull Man of the Mountains to think no +more of death, seeing that _he_, Ummanodda himself, had magic? Should he +let him dazzle his eyes one little moment with his Wonderstone? He +fumbled in the pocket of his sheep-skin coat, stopped, fumbled again. +His hair rose stiff on his scalp. He shivered, and then grew burning +hot. He searched and searched again. The Mulgar eyed him sorrowfully. +"What ails you, O nephew of a great King?" he said in his faint, high +voice. "Fleas?" + +Nod stared at him with flaming eyes. He could not think nor speak. His +Wonderstone was gone. He turned, dropped on his fours, sidled +noiselessly back to Thimble's litter, and sat down. + +How had he lost it? When? Where? And in a flash came back to his +outwearied, aching head remembrance of how, in the height of the +eagle-fighting, there had come the plunge of a lean, gaping beak and the +sudden rending of his coat. Vanished for ever was Tishnar's Wonderstone, +then. The Valleys faded, N[=o][=o]manossi drew near. + +He sat there with chattering teeth, his little skull crouching in his +wool, worn out with travel and sleeplessness, and the tears sprang +scalding into his eyes. What would Thumb say now? he thought bitterly. +What hope was left for Thimble? He dared not wake them, but stooped +there like a little bowed old man, utterly forlorn. And so sitting, +cunning Sleep, out of the silence and darkness of Arakkaboa, came +softly hovering above the troubled Nizza-neela; he fell into a shallow +slumber. And in this witching slumber he dreamed a dream. + +He dreamed it was time gone by, and that he was sitting on his log again +with his master, Battle, just as they used to sit, beside their fire. +And the Oomgar had a great flat book covering his knees. Nod could see +the book marvellously clearly in his dream--a big book, white as a dried +palm-leaf, that stretched across the sailor knee to knee. And the sailor +was holding a little stick in his hand, and teaching him, as he used in +a kind of sport to do, his own strange "Ningllish" tongue. Before, +however, the sailor had taught the little Mulgar only in words, by +sound, never in letters, by sight. But now in Nod's dream Battle was +pointing with his little prong, and the Mulgar saw a big straddle-legged +black thing in the book strutting all across the page. + +"Now," said the Oomgar, and his voice sounded small but clear, "what's +that, my son?" + +But Nod in his dream shook his head; he had never seen the strange shape +before. + +"Why, that's old 'A,' that is," said Battle; "and what did old +straddle-legs 'A' go for to do? What did 'A' do, Nod Mulgar?" + +And Nod thought a voice answered out of his own mouth and said: "A ... +Yapple-pie." + +"Brayvo!" cried the Oomgar. And there, sure enough, filling plump the +dog's-eared page, was a great dish something like a gourd cut in half, +with smoke floating up from a little hole in the middle. + +"A--Apple-pie," repeated the sailor; "and I wish we had him here, +Master Pongo. And now, what's this here?" He turned the page. + +Nod seemed in his dream to stand and to stare at the odd double-bellied +shape, with its long straight back, but in vain. "Bless ye, Nod Mulgar," +said Battle in his dream, "that's old Buzz-buzz; that's that old +garden-robber--that's 'B.'" + +"'B,'" squealed Nod. + +"And 'B'--he bit it," said Battle, clashing his small white teeth +together and laughing, as he turned the page. + +Next in the dream-book came a curled black fish, sitting looped up on +its tail. And that, the Oomgar told him, leaning forward in the +firelight, was "C"; that was "C"--crying, clawing, clutching, and +croaking for it. + +Nod thought in his dream that he loved learning, and loved Battle +teaching him, but that at the word "croaking" he looked up wondering +into the sailor's face, with a kind of waking stir in his mind. What was +this "IT"? What could this "_IT_" be--hidden in the puffed-out, smoking +pie that "B" bit, and "C" cried for, and swollen "D" dashed after? And +... over went another crackling page.... The Oomgar's face seemed +strangely hairy in Nod's dream; no, not hairy--tufty, feathery; and so +loud and shrill he screamed "E," Nod all but woke up. + +"'E,'" squeaked Nod timidly after him. + +"And what--what--what did 'E' do?" screamed the Oomgar. + +But now even in his dream Nod knew it was not the beloved face of his +sailor Zbaffle, but an angry, keen-beaked, clamouring, swooping Eagle +that was asking him the question, "'E,' 'E,' 'E'--what did 'E' do?" And +clipped in the corner of its beak dangled a thread, a shred of his +sheep's-jacket. What ever, ever did "E" do? puzzled in vain poor Nod, +with that dreadful face glinting almost in touch with his. + +"Dunce! Dunce!" squalled the bird. "'E' ate it...." + +"E ... ate it," seemed to be still faintly echoing on his ear in the +darkness when Nod found himself wide awake and bolt upright, his face +cold and matted with sweat, yet with a heat and eagerness in his heart +he had never known before. He scrambled up and crept along in the rosy +firelight till he came to the five dead eagles. Their carcasses lay +there with frosty feathers and fast-sealed eyes. From one to another he +crept slowly, scarcely able to breathe, and turned the carcasses over. +Over the last he stooped, and--a flock, a thread of sheep's wool dangled +from its clenched black beak. Nod dragged it, stiff and frozen, nearer +the fire, and with his knife slit open the deep-black, shimmering neck, +and there, wrapped damp and dingily in its scrap of Oomgar-paper, his +fingers clutched the Wonderstone. He hastily wrapped it up, just as it +was, in the flock of wool, and thrust it deep into his other pocket, and +with trembling fingers buttoned the flap over it. Then he went softly +back to his brothers, and slept in peace till morning. + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XVII + + +When he awoke, bright day was on the mountains. The little snow-wolves +had slunk back to their holes and lairs. The fires burned low. And +Thimble lay in a sleep so quiet and profound it seemed to Nod the heart +beneath the sharp-ribbed chest was scarcely stirring. It was bitter cold +on these heights in the sunlessness of morning. And Nod was glad to sit +himself down beside one of the wood-fires to eat his breakfast of nuts, +and swallow a suppet or two of the thawed Mulgar-milk. But the Men of +the Mountains had plucked and roasted the eagles, and were squatting, +with not quite such doleful faces as usual, picking with pointed, rather +catlike teeth, the bones. + +Nod could not help watching them under his eyebrows, where they sat, +with tail-tufts over their shoulders, in their fleecy hair, blinking +mildly from their pale pink eyes. For, though here and there may be seen +a Mountain-mulgar with eyes blue as the turquoise, by far the most of +them have pink, and some (but these are what the Oomgar-nuggas would +call Witch-doctors, or Fulbies) have one of either. They looked timid +and feeble enough, these Moona-mulgars, yet with what fearless fury had +they fought with the eagles! How swiftly they shambled dim-sighted along +these wrinkled precipices! Some even now were seated on the rocky verge +as easily as a Skeeto in its tree-top, their lean shanks dangling over. +But they nibbled and tugged at their slender bird-bones, and peered and +waved their long arms in faint talk; though, as their watchman had told +Nod in the firelight, they knew they were all within earshot of the +Harp. + +Ghibba was sitting a little away from the others, eating with his eyes +shut. + +"Are you so sleepy, Prince of the Mountains, that you keep your eyes +shut in broad day?" said Nod. + +Ghibba wagged his head. "No, Mulla-mulgar, I am not sleepy; but one eye +is scorched with the fire and one a little angry with the eagles, so +that I can scarcely see at all." + +"Not blind?" said Nod. + +Ghibba opened his eyes, red and glittering. "Nay, twilight, not night, +little Mulgar," he answered cheerfully. "I see no more of you than a +little brown cloud against black mountains." + +"But how will you walk on these narrow, icy shelves?" said Nod. + +"Why," says he, "I have a tail, Mulgar-royal; and my people must lead +me.... What of the morning, Nizza-neela?" + +"It is bright as hoarfrost on the slopes and tops there," said Nod, +pointing. "It dazzles Ummanodda's eyes to look. But the sun is behind +this huge black wall of ours, so here we sit cold in the shadow." + +"Then we will wait," said Ghibba, "till he come walking a little higher +to melt the frost and drive away the last of the wolves." + +"Man of the Mountains," said Nod presently, "would you hold me if I +crept close and put my head over the edge? I would like to see how many +Mulgars-deep we walk." + +Ghibba laughed. "This path is but as other Mulgar-paths, Mulla-mulgar; +no traveller need stumble twice. But I will do as you ask me." + +So Nod lay down flat on his stomach, while two of the Mountain-mulgars +clutched each a leg. He wriggled forward till head and shoulders hung +beyond the margent of the rock. He shut his eyes a moment against that +terrific steep of air, and the huge shadow of the mountain upon the deep +blue forest. All far beneath was still dark with night; only the frozen +waters of the swirling torrent palely reflected the daybreak sky. But +suddenly he shot out a lean brown paw. "Ahôh, ahôh! I say!" + +The Men of the Mountains dragged him back so roughly that his broad snub +nose was scraped on the stone. "Why do you do that?" he said angrily. + +"You called 'O, O!' Mulla-mulgar, and we thought you were afraid." + +"Afraid! Nod? No!" said Nod. "What is there to be afraid of?" + +Ghibba twitched his long grey eyebrow. "The little Mulgar asks us +riddles," he said. + +"I called," said Nod, "because I spy something jutting there with a +fluff of hair in the wind that leaps the chasm, and with thin ends that +look to me like the arms and legs of a Man of the Mountains lying caught +in a bush of Tummusc." + +At the sound of Nod's "Ahôh!" Thumb had come scrambling along from the +other fire, and many of the Mountain-mulgars fell flat on their faces, +and leaned peering over the precipice. But their eyes were too dim to +pierce far. They broke into shrill, eager whisperings. + +"It is, perhaps, a wisp of snow, an eagle's feather, or maybe a nosegay +of frost-flowers." + +"What was the name of him who fell fighting?" said Nod eagerly. + +"His name was Ubbookeera," said Ghibba. + +"Then," said Nod, "there he hangs." + +"So be it, Eyes-of-an-Eagle," said Ghibba; "we will go down before he +melts and fetch him up." So they drove two of their long staves into a +crevice of the rocks. And Ghibba, being one of the strongest of them, +and also nearly blind, crept to the end and unwound himself down; then +one by one the rest of the Mountain-mulgars descended, till the last and +least was gone. + +"Hold my legs, Thumb, my brother, that I may see what they're at," said +Nod. Thumb clutched him tight, and Nod edged on his stomach to the end +of the bending pole. He saw far down the grey string of the Men of the +Mountains dangling, but even the last of them was still twenty or thirty +Mulgars off the Tummusc-bush. He heard their shrill chirping. And +presently the first sunbeam trembled over the wall of the mountain above +them, and beamed clear into the valley. Nod wriggled back to Thumb. +"They cannot reach him," he said. "He lies there huddled up, Thumb, in a +Tummusc-bush, just as he fell." + +"Why, then," said Thumb, "he must have hung dead all night. The eagles +will have picked his eyes out." + +In a little while the last and least of the Mountain-mulgars crept back +over Ghibba's shoulders and scrambled on to the path. He was a little +blinking fellow, and in colour patched like damask. + +"Is he dead? Is he dead? Is thy 'Messimut' dead?" said Nod, leaning his +head. + +"He is dead, Mulla-mulgar, or in his second sleep," he answered. + +Now, all the Mulgar beads on that strange string stood whispering and +nodding together. Ghibba presently turned away from them, and began +raking back the last smoulderings of their watch-fire. + +"What will you do?" said Nod. "Why do you drag back the embers?" + +"The swiftest of us is going back to bring a longer 'rope' and stronger +staves and Samarak, and, alive or dead, they will drag him up. But we go +on, Mulla-mulgar." + +"Ohé," said Nod softly; "but will he not be melted by then, Prince of +the Mountains? Will not the eagle's feather be blown away? Will not the +frost flowers have melted from the bush?" + +Ghibba turned his grave, hairy face to Nod. + +"The Men of the Mountains will remember you in their drones, +Mulla-mulgar, for saving the life of their kinsman; they will call you +in their singing 'Mulla-mulgar Eengenares'"--that is, Royal-mulgar with +the Eyes of an Eagle. + +Nod laughed. "Already am I in my brothers' thoughts Prince of Bonfires, +Noddle of Pork; if only I could see through Zut, they also might call me +Eengenares, too." + +All were in haste now, binding up what remained of faggots and torches, +combing and beating themselves and quenching the fires. Soon the Mulgar +who had been chosen to return had rubbed noses and bidden them all +farewell, and had set out on his lonely journey home. Thimble still lay +in a deep sleep, and so cold after the heats of fever that they had to +muffle him twice or thrice in shadow-blankets to regain his warmth. + +When they had trudged on a league or so the day began to darken with +cloud. And a thin smoke began to fume up from below. The travellers +pressed on in all haste, so fast that the tongues of the bearers of +Thimble's litter lolled between their teeth. Wind rose in scurries, and +every peak was shrouded. Unnatural gloom thickened around the lean, +straggling troop of Mulgars. And almost before they had time to drive in +their long poles, as shepherds drive in posts for their wattles, and to +swathe and bind themselves close into the sloping rock, the tempest +broke over them. A dense and tossing cloud of ice beat up on the wind, +so that soon the huddled travellers looked like nothing else than a long +low mound on the Mulgar pass, heaped high with the drifting crystals. On +every peak and crest the lightning played blue and crackling. In its +flash the air hung still, bewitched with snow-flakes. Thunder and wind +made such a clamour between them that Nod could scarcely hear himself +think. But the travellers sat mute and glum, and moved never a finger. +Such storms sweep like wild birds through these mountains of Arakkaboa, +and, like birds, are as quickly flown away. For in a little while all +was peace again and silence. And the sun broke in flames out of the pale +sky, shining in peaceful beauty upon the mountains, as if, indeed, the +snow-white Zevveras of Tishnar had passed by. + +The travellers soon beat each other free of their snow, and danced and +slapped themselves warm. And now they were rejoiced to see in the +distant clearness peeping above the shoulder of Makkri that league-long +needle Moot. The pass now began to widen, and a little before noonday +they broke out into a broad and steep declivity of snow. And, seeing +that they had but lately rested themselves, and soon would be journeying +in shelter from the sun, they did not tarry for their "glare," or +middle-day sleep. + +Their breath hung like smoke on the icy air. They sank at every step +wellnigh up to their middles in snow, and were all but wearied out when +at last they climbed up into a gorge cut sheer between bare walls of +rock, and so lofty on either hand that daylight scarcely trembled down +to them at the bottom. + +So steep and glazed with ice was this gorge or gully that they were +compelled to tie themselves together with strands of Cullum. They laid +Thimble's litter on three long pieces of wood strapped together. Then, +Ghibba going foremost, one by one they followed the ascent after him, +stumbling and staggering, and heaving at the Cullum-rope to drag up poor +Thimble on his slippery bed. + +The Men of the Mountains have bristly feet and long, hairy, hard-nailed +toes. But Thumb and Nod, with their naked soles and shorter toes, could +scarcely clutch the icy path at all, and fell so often they were soon +stiff with bruises. Worse still, there frequents in the upper parts of +these mountains a kind of witless or silly Mulgars, who are called +Obobbomans, with very long noses. And just as men use a spyglass for +sight, to magnify things and to bring things at a distance nearer, so +these Obobbomans use their prolonged noses for smell. Long before Thumb +and his company were come to their precipitous gully they had sniffed +them out. And, being as mischievous as they are dull-witted, they had +already scampered about, gathering together great heaps of stones, and +had now set themselves in a row, sniffing and chattering, along the edge +of the rock on both sides, and waited there concealed in ambush. + +When the Men of the Mountains had climbed up some little way into the +gorge, and were scrambling and stumbling on the ice, these Obobbomans +began pelting them as fast as they could with their stones and snowballs +and splinters of ice. These missiles, though not very large, fell +heavily down the walls of the precipice. And soon the whole caravan of +Mulgars was brought to a standstill, they were so battered and +bewildered by the stones. + +As soon as the travellers stopped, these knavish Long-noses ceased to +pelt them. So cautious and furtive are they that not a sign of them +could be distinguished by the Mulgars staring up from below, though, +indeed, a hundred or more of their thin snouts were actually protruded +over the sides of the chasm, sniffing and trembling. + +"Does it always rain pebble-stones and lumps of ice in these miserable +hills?" said Thumb bitterly. + +And Ghibba told him that it was the Long-nose mulgars who were molesting +them. They squatted down to breathe themselves, hoping to tire out the +Obobbomans. But the instant they stirred, down showered snowball, ice, +and stones once more. The travellers bound faggots and blankets over +their heads, and struggled on, but the faggots kept slipping loose, and +did not cover their stooping backs and buttocks. They shouted, +threatened, shook their hands towards the heights; one or two even flung +pebbles up that only bounced down upon their own heads again. It was all +in vain. They halted once more, and squatted down in despair. To add to +their misery, it was so cold in this gorge that the breath of the +Hill-mulgars froze in long icicles on their beards, and whensoever they +turned to speak to one another, or if they sneezed (as they often did in +the cold, and with the snuff-like ice-dust), their fringes tinkled like +glass. At last Ghibba, who had been sitting lost in thought of what to +be doing next, suddenly groped his way forward, and bade two of his +people sit down to their firesticks to make fire. + +"What is this Whisker-face tinkering at now?" muttered Thumb. "What is +he after now? We had best have come alone." + +"I know not," said Nod; "but if he can fight Noses, Thumb, as well as he +can fight Beaks, we shall soon be getting on again." + +They crouched miserably in the snow, huddled up in shadow-blankets. The +Obobbomans peeped further into the ravine, chattering together, at a +loss to understand why the travellers were sitting there so still. But +at last fire came to the firesticks, and Ghibba then bade two or three +of his Mountaineers kindle torches. Whereupon he gave to each a bundle +of the eagle feathers which they had plucked from the five carcasses on +the pass, and told them to burn them piecemeal in their torches. + +"Ghost of a Môh-man!" grunted Thumb sourly; "he has lost his cheesy +wits!" + +With feathers fizzling, away they went again, slipping, staggering, and +straining at the rope. Down at once hailed the stones again, the +Obobbomans gambolling and squealing with delight in their silly +mischief. And now no longer little were the snowballs, for the +Long-noses all this time had been busy making big ones. These four or +five of them, shoving together, with noses laid sidelong, rolled slowly +to the edge, and pushed over. Down they came, bounding and rebounding +into the abyss, and broke into fragments on the travellers' heads. Some, +too, of the craftier of the Long-noses had mingled stones and ice in +these great balls. + +Thumb groaned and sweated in spite of the cold, for he, being by far the +fattest and broadest of the travellers, received the most stones, and +stumbled and fell far more often than the rest on his clumsy feet on the +ice. Now, however, the smoke of the burning bunches of eagles' feathers +was mounting in pale blue clouds through the gorge. It was enough. At +the first sniff and savour of this evil smoke the Long-noses paused in +their mischief, coughing and sneezing. At the next sniff they paused no +longer. Away they scampered headlong, higgledy-piggledy, toppling one +over another in their haste to be gone, squealing with disgust and +horror; and the travellers at last were left in peace. + +"I began to fear, O Man of the Mountains," grunted Thumb to Ghibba, +"that your wits had got frostbitten. But I am not too old nor fat to +learn wisdom." + +Ghibba lifted his face and peered from under the bandage he had wound +over his sore eyes into Thumb's bruised face. "Munza or Mountains, +there's wisdom for all, brave traveller," he said. "They are very old +friends of ours, these Long-noses; they could smell out a mouse's +Meermut in the moon." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XVIII + + +The pass grew ever steeper, but now that the travellers were no longer +pestered by the Obobbomans they managed to struggle slowly on. And near +about sunset they had tugged their way to the top, and came out again +upon the mountain-side. They spread out their blankets and threw +themselves down, panting, bruised, and outwearied. But they made no fire +here yet, because their wood was running short, and all that they had +would be needed against the small hours of the night. They nibbled at +their blue cheese and a few cold eagle-bones, and, having cut one of +their skin-bags to pieces, broke up the frozen milk and shared the lumps +between them. + +Thumb and Nod crouched down beside Thimble, who was now awake and in his +own mind. And they told him all that had happened since his megrims had +come on. He was still weak and fretful, and turned his eyes hastily from +sight of the mouldy cheese the Mountain-mulgars were nibbling. But he +sucked a few old Ukka-nuts. Then they lifted him gently, and with an arm +round Thumb's neck and a hand on Nod's shoulder, they walked him awhile +quietly in the snow. + +While the brothers were thus walking friendly together, Ghibba groped +his way up to them. + +"I come, Royal Travellers," he said, "to tell you that here our country +ends. Zut lies now behind us. Yonder stretches the Shadow Country, and +my people know the way no farther." + +The three brothers turned their heads to look, and on their cudgel-hand, +about two leagues distant, stood Solmi; to the west, and a little in +front of them, M[=o][=o]t and Makkri. Upon the topmost edge of the +snow-slope at the foot of which they were now encamped ran a long, low +border of a kind of thorn-bush, huddling among great rocks and boulders, +resembling a little the valleys of the Babbab[=o][=o]mas. + +"You mean, O Man of the Mountains, whose friendship has been our very +lives to us," said Thumb, "that now we must journey on alone?" + +"No, Mulla-mulgar; I mean only that here the Moona country, my people's +country, ends, and therefore that I cannot now be certain of the way to +the Valleys of Tishnar. But this I do know: that beyond here is thick +with the snares of N[=o][=o]manossi. But if the Mulgar Princes and the +Nizza-neela Eengenares, who saved my kinsman's life, would have it so, +and are not weary of our company, then I and my people will journey on +with them till they come to an end. We know from childhood these +desolate mountains. They are our home. We eat little, drink little, and +can starve as quietly as an icicle can freeze. If need be (and I do not +boast, Mulla-mulgars), we Thin-shanks can march softly all day for many +days, and not fall by the way. We are, I think, merely Leather-men, not +meant for flesh and blood. But the Mulla-mulgars have fought with us, +and we are friends. And I myself am friend to the last sleep of the +small Prince, Nizza-neela, who has the colour of Tishnar in his eyes. +Shall it be farewell, Travellers? Or shall we journey on together?" + +The brothers looked at the black and thorn-set trees, at the towering +rocks, at the wastes of the beautiful snows. They looked with +astonishment at this old, half-blind mountaineer with his lean, sinewy +arms, and hill-bent legs, and his bandaged eyes. And Thumb lifted his +hands in salutation to Ghibba, as if he were a Mulla-mulgar himself. + +"Why should we lead you into strange dangers, O Man of the Mountains," +he grunted--"maybe to death? But if you ask to come with us, if we have +only to choose, how can I and my brothers say no? We will at least be +friends who do not part while danger is near, and though we never reach +the Valley, Tishnar befriends the Meermuts of the brave. Let us, then, +go on together." + +So Ghibba went back to his people, and told them what Thumb had said. +And being now agreed together, they all hobbled off but three, who were +left to guard the bundles, to break and cut down wood, and to see if +perhaps among the thorns grew any nut-trees. But they found none; and +for their pains were only scratched and stung by these waste-trees which +bear a deadly poison in their long-hooked thorns. This poison, like the +English nettle, causes a terrible itch to follow wherever the thorns +scratch. So that the travellers could get no peace from the stinging and +itching except by continually rubbing the parts in snow wherever the +thorns had entered. + +And Nod, while they were stick-gathering, kept close to Ghibba. + +"Tell me, Prince of the Mountains," he said, "what are these nets of +N[=o][=o]manossi of which you spoke to my brother Thumb? What is there +so much to fear?" + +Ghibba had sat himself down in the snow to pluck a thorn out of his +foot. "I will tell the Prince a tale," he said, stooping over his +bundle. + +"Long time ago came to our mountains a Mulgar travelling alone. My +kinsmen think oftener of him than any stranger else, because, +Mulla-mulgar, he taught us to make fire. He was wayworn and full of +courage, but he was very old. And he, too, was journeying to the Valleys +of Tishnar. But he was, too, a silent Mulgar, never stirred his tongue +unless in a kind of drone at evening, and told us little of himself +except in sleep." + +"What was he like?" said Nod. "Was he mean and little, like me, or tall +and bony, like my brother Thimble, or fat, like the Mulla-mulgar, my +eldest brother, Thumb?" + +"He was," said Ghibba, "none of these. He was betwixt and between. But +he wore a ragged red jacket, like those of the Mulgars, and on his +woman-hand stood no fourth finger." + +"Was the little woman-finger newly gone, or oldly gone?" said Nod. + +"I was younger then, Nizza-neela, and looked close at everything. It +was newly gone. The stump was bald and pale red. He was, too, white in +the extreme, this old Mulgar travelling out of Munza. Every single hair +he carried had, as it were, been dipped in Tishnar's meal." + +"I believe--oh, but I do believe," said Nod, "this poor old traveller +was my father, the Mulla-mulgar Seelem, of the beautiful Valleys." + +"Then," said Ghibba, jerking his faggot on to his back, and turning +towards the camp, "he was a happy Mulgar, for he has brave sons." + +"Tell me more," said Nod. "What did he talk about? Did he speak ever of +Ummanodda? How long did he stay with the Mulla-moonas? Which way did he +go?" + +"Lead on, then," said Ghibba, peering under his bandage. + +"Here go I," said Nod, touching his paw. + +"He followed the mountain-paths with my own father," said Ghibba, "and +lived alone for many days in one of our Spanyards,[7] for he was worn +out with travel, and nearly dead from lying down to drink out of a +Quickkul-fish pool. But after five days, while he was still weak, he +rose up at daybreak, crying out in Munza-mulgar he could remain with us +no longer. So my people brought him, as I have brought you, to this +everlasting snow-field, where he said farewell and journeyed on alone." + + [7] I suppose, huts or burrowings. + +"Had he a gun?" said Nod. + +"What is a gun, Nizza-neela?" + +"What then--what then?" cried Nod impatiently. + +"Two nights afterwards," continued the old Mulgar, "some of my people +came up to the other end of the gorge of the Long-noses. There they +found him, cold and bleeding, in his second sleep. The Long-noses had +pelted him with stones till they were tired. But it was not their stones +that had driven him back. He would not answer when the Men of the +Mountains came whispering, but sat quite still, staring under his black +arches, as if afraid. After two days more he rose up again, crying out +in another voice, like a Môh-mulgar. So we came again with him, two +'ropes' of us, along the walks the traveller knows. And towards evening, +with his bag of nuts and water-bottle, in his rags of Juzana, he left us +once more. Next morning my father and my people came one or two together +to where we sit, and--what did they see?" + +"_What_ did they see?" Nod repeated, with frightened eyes. + +"They did see only this," said Ghibba: "footsteps--one-two, one-two, +just as the Mulla-mulgar walks--all across the snow beyond the +thorn-trees. But they did see also other footsteps, slipping, sliding, +and here and there a mark as if the traveller had fallen in the snow, +and all these coming _back_ from the thorn-trees. And at the beginning +of the ice-path was a broken bundle of nuts strewn abroad, but uneaten, +and the shreds of a red jacket. Water-bottle there was none, and Mulgar +there was none. We never saw or heard of that Mulgar again." + +"O Man of the Mountains," cried Nod, "where, then, is my father now?" + +Ghibba stooped down and peered under his bandage close into Nod's small +face. "I believe, Eengenares, your father--if that Mulgar was your +father--is happy and safe now in the Valleys of Tishnar." + +"But," said Nod, "he must have come back again out of his wits with fear +of the Country of Shadows." + +"Why," said Ghibba, "a brave Mulgar might come back once, twice, ten +times; but while one foot would swing after the other, he might still +arise in the morning and try again. 'On, on,' he would say. 'It is +better to die, going, than to live, come-back.'" + +And Nod comforted himself a little with that. Perhaps he would yet meet +his father again, riding on Tishnar's leopard-bridled Zevveras; +perhaps--and he twisted his little head over his shoulder--perhaps even +now his Meermut haunted near. + +"But tell me--tell me _this_, Mountain-mulgar: What was the fear which +drove him back? What feet so light ran after him that they left no +imprint in the snow? Whose shadow-hands tore his jacket to pieces?" + +Ghibba threw down his bundle of twigs, and rubbed his itching arms with +snow. + +"That, Mulla-mulgar," he said, smiling crookedly, "we shall soon find +out for ourselves. If only I had the Wonderstone hung in my beard, I +should go singing." + +Nod opened his mouth as if to speak, and shut it again. He stared hard +at those bandaged eyes. He glanced across at the black, huddling +thorn-trees; at the Mountain-mulgars, going and returning with their +faggots; at Thimble lying dozing in his litter. All the while betwixt +finger and thumb he squeezed and pinched his Wonderstone beneath the +lappet of his pocket. + +Should he tell Ghibba? Should he wait? And while he was fretting in +doubt whether or no, there came a sharp, short yelp, and suddenly out of +the thorn-trees skipped a Mountain-mulgar, and came scampering +helter-skelter over the frozen snow, yelping and chattering as he ran. +Following close behind him lumbered Thumb, who hobbled a little way, +then stopped and turned back, staring. + +"Why do you dance in the snow, my poor child? What ails you?" mocked +Ghibba, when the Mountain-mulgar had drawn near. "Have you pricked your +little toe?" + +The Mountain-mulgar cowered panting by the fire which Ghibba had +kindled. And for a long while he made no answer. So Nod scrambled on his +fours up the crusted slope of snow. He passed, as he went, two or three +of the Men of the Mountains whimpering and whispering. But none of them +could tell him what they feared. At last he reached Thumb, who was still +standing, stooping in the snow, staring silently towards the clustering +thorn-trees. + +"What is it, brother?" said Nod, as he came near. "What is it, brother? +Why do you crouch and stare?" + +"Come close, Ummanodda," said Thumb. "Tell me, is there anything I see?" +They hobbled a little nearer, and stood stooping together with eyes +fixed. + + [Illustration: "WHAT IS IT, BROTHER? WHY DO YOU CROUCH AND STARE?"] + +These thorn-trees, as dense as holly, but twisted and huddled, grew not +close together, but some few paces apart, as if they feared each other's +company. Between them only purest snow lay, on which evening shed its +light. And now that the sun was setting, leaning his beams on them from +behind M[=o][=o]t, their gnarled and spiny branches were all aflame with +scarlet. It was utterly still. Nod stood with wide-open eyes. And softly +and suddenly, he hardly knew how or when, he found himself gazing into a +face, quiet and lovely, and as it were of the beauty of the air. He +could not stir. He had no time to be afraid. They stood there, these +clumsy Mulgars, so still that they might have been carved out of wood. +Yet, thought Nod afterwards, he was not afraid. He was only startled at +seeing eyes so beautiful beneath hair faint as moonlight, between the +thorn-trees, smiling out at him from the coloured light of sunset. Then, +just as suddenly and as softly, the face was gone, vanished. + +"Thumb, Thumb!" he whispered, "surely I have seen the eyes of a +wandering Midden of Tishnar?" + +"Hst!" said Thumb harshly; "there, there!" He pointed towards one of the +thorn-trees. Every branch was quivering, every curved, speared leaf +trembling, as if a flock of silvery Parrakeetoes perched in the upper +branches, where there are no thorns, or as if scores of the tiny +Spider-mulgars swung from twig to twig. The next moment it was +still--still as all the others that stood around, afire with the last +sunbeams. Yet nothing had come, nothing gone. + +"Acch magloona nani, Nod," called Thumb, afraid, "lagoosla sul majeela!" + +They scuttled back, without once turning their heads, to the fire, where +all the Hill-mulgars were sitting. Whispering together they were, too, +as they nibbled their cheese and sipped slowly from their gurgling, +narrow-mouthed bags or bottles. They had carried Thimble close to the +fire, and Ghibba was roasting nuts for him. Thumb and Nod came down and +seated themselves beside Ghibba, but they had agreed together to say +nothing of what they had seen, for fear of affrighting Thimble, who was +still weak in head and body, and continually shivering. And Nod told his +brothers all that Ghibba had told him concerning the solitary traveller. +And Thumb sat listening, heavy and still, with his great face towards +the huddling thorns that wooded the height. + +So they talked and talked, sitting together, round about their fire. The +twigs of these thorns burn marvellous clear with colours, and at each +thorn-tip, as the flame licks near, wells out and gathers a milk-pale +globe of poison that, drying, bursts in the heat. So all the fire is +continually a-crackle, amidst a thin smoke of a smell like nard. Never +before had so bright a bonfire blazed upon these hills. For the Men of +the Mountains never camp beyond the pass, and the Long-noses have not +even the wits to keep a fire fed with fuel. But as the day wore on, and +when all the feather-smoke had dispersed, they assembled in hundreds +upon hundreds, sitting a long distance off, all their noses stuck out +towards the blaze, snuffing the cloudy fragrance of the nard. But they +were too much afraid of the travellers to venture near now that they +were free men and out of the pass. + +The sun had set, but the moon was at full, and the travellers determined +to go forward at once. It was agreed that every one should carry a +bundle of sticks on his shoulders, also a stout cudgel or staff; that +they should march close in rows of four, with Thimble's litter in their +midst; and that the Mulgar at each corner should carry a burning torch. +They made what haste they could to tie up their bundles, bottles, and +faggots, so as to lose nothing of the moon's brilliance during the long +night. She rode unclouded above the snow-fields when the little band of +Mulgar-travellers set out. As soon as they were gone, down trooped the +long-nosed Obobbomans to the fire, sniffing and scuffling, to fall +asleep at last, higgledy-piggledy, in a great squirrel-coloured ring +around the glowing embers, their noses towards the fire. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XIX + + +The travellers marched slowly, keeping sharp watch, their cudgels ready +in their hands. Behind them, paled by the moonlight, shook the fiery +silver of the Salemn[=a]gar. With this at their backs and that North +Pole, M[=o][=o]t, in huge congealment, a little to their left, they made +their way at an angle across the open snow, and approached the tangled +thickets. Here they walked more closely together, with heads aslant and +tails in air, like little old men, like pedlars, blinking and spying, +wishing beyond measure they were sitting in comfort around their +watch-fire. The farther they zigzagged betwixt the thorns, the more +doubtful grew the way. For the thorn-trees rise all so equal in height +and thickness they often with their tops shut out the stars, and there +was nothing by which the travellers could mark what way they went. + +Still they pressed on, their hairy faces to the night-wind, which Ghibba +had observed before starting was drifting from the north. They shuffled +crisply over the snow, coughing softly, and gurring in their throats, +winding in and out between the trees, and casting lean, gigantic shadows +across the open spaces. For so dazzling bright the moon gleamed, she +almost put out the smoky flare of their torches. But it gave the Mulgars +more courage to march encompassed with their own light. Their packs were +heavy, the thickets sloped continually upward. But the poison-thorns +curl backward beneath the drooping hood of their leaves by night--in the +hours, that is, when, it is said, they distil their poison--so the +travellers were no longer fretted by their stings. Thus, then, they +gradually advanced till M[=o][=o]t was left behind them, and out of the +grey night rose Mulgarmeerez, mightiest of Arakkaboa's peaks, whose +snows have known no Mulgar footprints since the world began. + +Only the whish of the travellers' feet on the snow was to be heard, when +suddenly all with one accord stopped dead, as if a voice had cried, +"Halt!" + +Their torches faintly crackled, their smoke rising in four straight +pillars towards the stars. And they heard, as if everywhere around them +in the air, clear yet marvellously small voices singing with a thin and +pining sound like glass. It floated near, this tiny, multitudinous +music--so near that the travellers drew back their face with wide-open +eyes. Then it seemed out of the infinite distance to come, echoing +across the moonlit spars that towered above their heads. + +And Ghibba said softly, jerking up his bundle and peering around him +from beneath his eye-bandage: "Courage, my kinsmen! it is the +danger-song of Tishnar we hear, who loves the fearless." + +At this one of the Men of the Mountains thrust up his pointed chin, and +said, wagging his head: "Why do we march like this at night, +Mulla-moona? These are not our mountain-passes. Let us camp here while +we are still alive, and burn a great watch-fire till morning." + +"You have faggots, Cousin of a Skeeto," said Ghibba. "Kindle a fire for +yourself, and catch us up at daybreak." + +The Mountain-men laughed wheezily, for now the singing had died away. On +they pushed again. But now the thorn-trees gathered yet closer together, +so that the Mulgars could no longer walk in company, but had to straggle +up by ones or twos as best they could. Still up and up they clambered, +laying hold of the thick tufts of leaves sticky with poison to drag +themselves forward. Many times they had to pause to recover their +breath, and Nod turned giddy to look down on the moon-dappled forest +through which they had so heavily ascended. Thus they continued, until, +quite without warning, Thumb, who was leading, broke out into one loud, +hard, short bark of fear, for he suddenly found himself standing beneath +contorted branches on the verge of another and wider plateau of snow. He +stood motionless, leaning heavily on his cudgel, the knuckles of his +other hand resting in the snow, his breath caught back, and his head +stooping forward between his shoulders, staring on and on between +astonishment and fear. + + [Illustration: FOR THERE ... STOOD AS IF FROZEN IN THE MOONLIGHT + THE MONSTROUS SILVER-HAIRED MEERMUTS OF MULGARMEEREZ, GUARDING + THE ENCHANTED ORCHARDS OF TISHNAR.] + +For there, all along the opposite ridge, as it were on the margin of an +enormous platter, stood as if frozen in the moonlight the monstrous +silver-haired Meermuts of Mulgarmeerez, guarding the enchanted orchards +of Tishnar. Thumb stood in deep shadow, for instantly, at sight of these +shapes, as one by one the travellers came straggling up together, they +quenched their hissing torches in the snow. No sign made the Meermuts +that they had seen the little quaking band of lean and ragged Mulgars. +But even a squirrel cracking a nut could have been heard across these +windless and icy altitudes. And even now it seemed that bark of fear +went echoing from spur to spur. The wretched Mulgars could only stand +and gaze in helpless confusion at the phantoms, whose eyes shone +dismally in the moon beneath their silver hair and great purple caps. +The Meermuts stood, as it were, for a living rampart all down the +untrodden snow towards the great Pit of Mulgarmeerez till lost in the +faint grey mists of the mountains. + +"What's to be done now, Prince of Ladder-makers?" said Thumb presently. +"Are we not weary of wandering? There's room for us all in those great +shadowy bellies." + +"Itthiluthi thoth 'Meermut' onnoth anoot oonoothi," lisped one of the +Moona-mulgars--that is to say, in their own language, "But maybe these +Meermuts gnaw before swallowing." + +As for Ghibba, he feigned that his eyes were too weak and sore, and +peered in vain beneath his bandages. "Tell me what's to be seen, +Mulla-mulgar," he said. "Why do we linger? The frost's in my toes. Up +with fresh torches and go forward." + +Thumb grunted, but made no answer. Then Ghibba drew softly back into the +deeper shadow, and the rest of the Mulgars, who by now were all come +up, stood whispering, some in perplexity, not knowing what to do; some +itching and sniffing to go forward, and one or two for turning back. One +Moona-mulgar, indeed, mewing like a cat in his extreme fear, when he had +heard Thumb's sudden bark, had turned lean shanks and hairy arms and +fled down by the way they had come. Fainter and fainter had grown the +sounds of snapping twigs, until all again was silent. + +"What wonder our father Seelem stumbled as he ran?" muttered Nod to +Thumb. + +But Ghibba stood thinking, the skin of his forehead twitching up and +down, as is the habit of nearly all Mulgars, high and low. "This is our +riddle, O Mulla-mulgars," he said: "If we turn back and climb slowly +upward, so as to creep round in hiding from these giant Meermuts, we +shall only come at last to batter our heads against the walls of +M[=o][=o]t. And M[=o][=o]t I know of old: there the Gunga-moonas make +their huddles. And the other way, under the moon, there juts a precipice +five thousand Mulgars deep, through which, so the old news goes, creeps +slowlier than moss Tishnar's never-melting Obea of ice. Here, then, is +our answer, Princes: The valleys must be yet many long days' journey. +Either, then, we go straight forward beneath the feet of Tishnar's +Orchard-meermuts, like forest-mice that gambol among a Mutti of +Ephelantoes, or else, like shivering Jack-Alls, we go back, to live out +the rest of this littlest of lives itching, but having nowhere to +scratch. What thinks the Mulgar Eengenares?" + +And at that Nod remembered what the watchman had said, when they were +talking together by the eagles' watch-fires. He touched Thumb, speaking +softly in Mulgar-royal. "Thumb, my brother, what of the Wonderstone? +what of the Wonderstone? Shall we tell this Moona-mulgar of that?" + +Thumb laughed sulkily. "Seelem kept all his wits for you, Jugguba," he +answered; "rub and see!" + +So Nod spread open his pocket-flap and fetched out the Wonderstone, +wrapped in its wisp of wool and the stained leaf of paper from Battle's +little book. He held it out in his brown, hairless palm to Ghibba +beneath the thorn. "What think you of that, Mulla-moona?" he said. And +even Ghibba's dim eyes could discern its milk-pale shining. They talked +long together in the shadow of the thorns, while the rest of the skinny +travellers sat silent beside their bundles, coughing and blinking as +they mumbled their mouldy cheese-rind. + +Ghibba said that, as Nod was a Nizza-neela, they should venture out +alone together. "I am nothing but a skin of bones--nothing to pick," he +said, "and all but sand-blind, and therefore could not see to be +afraid." + +"No, no, no, Mulla-moona," Thumb grunted stubbornly. "If mischief came +to my brother, how could I live on, listening to the chittering of his +mother's Meermut asking me, 'Where is Nod?' Stay here and guard my +brother, Thimbulla, who is too sick and weak to go with us; and if we +neither of us return before morning, deal kindly with him, Mulla-moona, +and have our thanks till you too are come to be a shadow." + +So at last it was agreed between them. And Thumb and Nod returned +together to the edge of the wood and peered out once more towards the +phantom-guarded orchards. Nod waited no longer. He wetted his thumb once +more, and rubbed thrice, droning or crooning, and stamping nimbly in the +snow, till suddenly Thumb sprang back clean into the midst of a +thorn-tree in his dismay. + +"Ubbe nimba sul ugglourint!" he cried hollowly. For the child stood +there in the snow, shining as if his fur were on fire with silver light. +About his head a wreath of moon-coloured buds like frost-flowers was +set. His shoulders were hung with a robe like spider-silk falling behind +him to his glistening heels. But it was Nod's shrill small laughter that +came out of the shining. + +"Follow, oh follow, brother," he said. "I am Fulby, I am Oomgar's +M'keeso; it is a dream; it is a night-shadow; it is Nod Meermut; it is +fires of Tishnar. Hide in my blaze, Thumb Mulgar. And see these Noomas +cringe!" + +Thumb grunted, beat once on his chest like a Gunga, and they stepped +boldly out together, first Nod, then black Thumb, into the wide +splendour of the waste. And the Men of the Mountains watched them from +between the spiky branches, with eyes round as the Minimuls', and mouths +ajar, showing in their hair their catlike teeth. + +Out into the open snow that borders for leagues the trees of Tishnar's +orchard stepped Nod, with his Wonderstone. And, as he moved along, the +frost-parched flakes burned with the rainbow. But if the phantoms of +Mulgarmeerez were not blind, they were surely dumb. They made no sign +that they perceived this blazing pigmy advancing against them. Nod's +light heels fell so fast Thumb could scarcely keep pace with him. He +came on grunting and coughing, plying his thick cudgel, his great dark +eyes fixed stubbornly upon the snow. And lo and behold! when next Nod +lifted his face he saw only moonlight shining upon the smooth trunks of +trees, which in the higher branches were stooping with coloured fruit. +He laughed aloud. "See, Thumb," he said, "my magic burns. M'keeso +chatters. These Tishnar Meermuts are nought but trunks of trees!" + +But Thumb stared in more dismal terror still, for he saw plainly now +their huge and shadowy clubs, their necklets of gold and ivory, and the +hideous, purple-capped faces of the ghouls gloating down on him. "Press +on, Ummanodda; your eyes burn magic, and trees to you are sudden death +to me." His hair stood out in a grisly mantle around him, for sheer fear +and horror of these gigantic faces as they passed. But Nod edged lightly +through, like mantling swan or peacock, seeing only Tishnar's lovely +orchards. No snow lay here in these enchanted glades, but the grass was +powdered with pure white flowers that caught the flame of him in their +beauty as he passed. The strange small voices the travellers had heard +on the hillside seemed haunting the laden boughs of the orchard. But to +Thumb all was darkness, and frozen snow, spiked thorn-trees, a-roost +with evil birds, and the horror of the motionless phantoms behind him. +He seemed ever and again to hear their stride between the twigs, and to +feel a terrific thumb and finger closing over his matted scalp. + +In a little while the path the two Mulgars thridded led out from under +the boughs, and they found themselves at the foot of the great peak they +had all night been approaching. And Nod saw fountains springing in foam +amid the flowery grasses, and all about them were trees laden with +fruit, and the music of instruments and distant voices. But not on these +near things was his mind set, but on the secret paths of Mulgarmeerez, +winding down from the crested peak above. + +"O brother, my brother! Tishnar is walking on the hills," he said. But +Thumb, though he rubbed his eyes, could see nothing but the towering and +desolate scaurs of ice and snow and a kind of snow-choked ridge girdling +the abrupt mountain-side. But Nod came to a stand, half crouching, +amazed, and watched, as it seemed to him, the Middens of Tishnar riding +more beautiful than daybreak in the moonlight of her hills. And he heard +a clear voice within him cry: "Have no fear, Nizza-neela, Mulla-mulgar +jugguba Ummanodda, neddipogo, Eengenares; feast and be merry. Tishnar +watches over the brave." And he told Thumb what the voice had said to +him. + +And Thumb grew angry, for he was tired out of his courage. "Have it as +you will," he said. "It is easy to fear nothing and to see what is not +here when you meddle with magic, and shine like a fish out of water. But +as for me, I go back to my brother Thimble, and to my friends, the Men +of the Mountains." And he stumped sullenly off, crouching low over his +cudgel. + +Then Nod said softly: "Wonderstone, Wonderstone! call back my brother +and open his eyes." Instantly Thumb stopped and stood upright. Thorn and +snow, blain and ache and bruise, were gone. He saw the meadows alight +with starry flowers, the fountains and the fruit. And he smelled the +smoke of nard and soltziphal burning in the cressets of the servants of +Tishnar. Nod laughed silently, and said: "Bring, too, O Wonderstone, my +brother Thimbulla on his litter, and the Prince Ghibba and his kinsfolk +to feast with me." + +For there, in the midst between the fountains, was a long low table +spread with flowers and strange fruits and nuts, and lit with clear, +pear-shaped flames floating in the air like that of the Wonderstone, but +of the colours of ivory and emerald and amethyst; with nineteen platters +of silver and nineteen goblets of gold. And presently they heard in the +distance the grasshopper voices of the Hill-mulgars, as they came +stubbling along with Thimble's litter in their midst, carrying their +heavy faggots and bottles and bundles, their pink eyes blinking, their +knees trembling, not knowing whether to be joyful or afraid. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XX + + +They cast off their burdens into the flowery meadows and besprinkled +themselves with the pools of crystal water beneath the fountains. And +Nod himself bathed Ghibba's eyes in the fountain-pool, so that he, too, +could see, looking close, the wandering flames lighting the platters and +goblets and fruits and nuts and flowers. + + [Illustration: THEY FEASTED ON FRUITS THEY NEVER BEFORE HAD TASTED + NOR KNEW TO GROW ON EARTH] + +The travellers sat down, all the nineteen of them, Nod at the head of +the table--that is, looking towards Mulgarmeerez--and Thumb at the foot, +with Thimble propped up on the one side and Ghibba on the other. Many of +the Mountain-mulgars, however, who eat always sitting on the ground, +soon found this perching on stools at a table irksome for their +pleasure, and squatted themselves down in the thick grasses for +Tishnar's supper. And they feasted on fruits they never before had +tasted nor knew to grow on earth: one, rosy and red and round and small, +with a long, slender stalk and a little pale hard stone, of the colour +of amber, in the middle; one very sweet and globular, jacketed in a +yellow rind, the inside all divided into little juicy wedges as if for a +mouthful each; another rough like lichen, with a tuft of leaves in a +spike, rusty without and pale within; yet another with a hard, smooth +coat like faded copper, but inside a houseful of hundreds of tiny fruits +like seeds of the colour of blood, and running over with pleasant +juices; also Manakin-figs, keeries, and love-apples, quinces, juleeps, +xandimons, and grapes. + +There were nuts also--green, coral, and cinnamon, long and little, +hairy, smooth, crinkled, rough, in pairs, dark and double, round-ribbed +and nuggeted--every kind of nut the pouch of Mulgar knows. And they +drank from their goblets thin sweet wine, honey-coloured, and lilac. And +while they ate and drank and made merry, lifting their cups, cracking +their nuts, hungrily supping, a distant and beautiful music clashed in +the air around the feasting travellers, like the music of cymbal and +dulcimer. Nod sat silken-silvery, with every hair enlustred, his +wrinkles gone, his small right hand feeding him, while with his +woman-hand he clasped his Wonderstone, his little face bright as a +child's, with topaz eyes. Rejoiced were the sad-faced Mountain-mulgars +that they had not forsaken the wandering Princes and gone home. They +feasted like men. + +And at last, when all were refreshed, they rose and raised their voices +to Tishnar, hoarse, and shrill, turning their faces towards the vast and +silent peak of Mulgarmeerez, that jutted to the stars above their heads. +Then they laid themselves down in the sweet Immanoosa-scented meadow, +and soon, lulled by the noise of the fountains and the faint, wandering +orchard music, they fell asleep. Nod, too, lay down, ruffled with fire, +burning like touchwood, amid the enchanted flowers. But as deeper and +deeper he sank to sleep, his small brown fingers loosened and unclasped +about his Wonderstone; it fell to the bottom of his sheep-skin pocket, +and then, like a dream, vanished, gone, were fountain, feast, and music. +And deep in snow, encircled by poison-thorns, slumbered the nineteen +travellers in their rags and solitude, come out of magic, though they +knew it not. + +One by one they awoke, stiff and dazed from so deep a sleep. They made +no stay here, lest Tishnar should be angered with them. And to some the +night seemed a dream; some even whispered, "N[=o][=o]manossi." And all, +turning their faces, with daybreak broadening on their cheeks, hastily +took up their workaday bundles again and hurried off. + +But when Nod lifted his eyes to Mulgarmeerez, it seemed as if many +phantom faces were looking down on them as they hastened, like some +small company of hares or coneys, straggling across the whiteness. Being +refreshed with sleep and Tishnar's phantom supper, the Mountain-mulgars +did not stay to take their "glare," but just screened their feeble eyes +against the sunbeams with eagle feathers, and, with Thimble swinging in +his litter, scurried on across these smoother slopes. By night +Mulgarmeerez, last of the seven peaks of Arakkaboa, was left behind +them, and it seemed the wind blew not so sharply out of the haze on this +side of the haunted woods. The travellers towards evening slept in a dry +cavern. But it was a fidgety sleep, for this cave was the haunt of an +odd and wily sand-flea that made the most of a Mulgar-supper, more +toothsome than anything it had feasted on for many a day. + +Near about the middle of the next morning the travellers came in their +descent to a stream of water rushing swiftly but smoothly in the channel +it had graven for its waters out of the rock. This torrent was green, +icy, and deep. On its farther side the rock rose steep and smooth. The +travellers kindled themselves a fire and warmed their cold bones. Then, +having emptied their skin-bottles, they set off along the bank, or as +near to it as they could walk at ease. Thimble's shivering was now gone, +and he marched along with his brothers, rather hobbledy, but in very +good spirits. He took good care, however, to keep well in front of the +Mountain-mulgars, for if he so much as faintly sniffed their cheese, he +fell sick. Ever downward now they were marching. A warm wind was blowing +out of the valley, the snows were melting, and rills trickling +everywhere into the green and swirling water. And after a march all +morning, they came to a village of the Fishing-mulgars. + +These are a peaceable and ugly tribe of Mulgars, with extremely long and +sinewy tails, which are tufted at the tip, like those of the +Moona-mulgars, with a bunch of fine silky hair. They smear upon this +tuft the pulp of a fruit that grows on a bush hanging over the water, +called Soota, which the fish that swim in this torrent never weary of +nibbling. Then, sitting huddled up and motionless in some little inlet +or rocky hole in the bank, the Fishing-mulgar pays out his long tail and +lets it drift with the stream. By-and-by, maybe, some hungry fish comes +swimming by that way and smells the pounded Soota. He softly stays, +nibbling and tasting. Very slowly the Fishing-mulgar, who instantly +perceives the least commotion in his tail-tuft, draws back his bait +without so much as blinking an eyelid. And when he has enticed the fish +quite close to the bank, still all intent on its feeding, he stoops in a +flash, and, plunging his sharp-nailed hands in the water, hooks the +struggler out. + +They swarm about water, these Mulgars, and teach their tiny babies to +fish, too, by scooping out a hole or basin in the rock, which they fill +from the torrent. In this they set free two or three little half-grown +fish. These, with their infant tails, the children catch again and +again, and are rewarded at evening, according to their skill, with a +slice of roe or a backbone to pick. An old and crafty Fishing-mulgar +will sit happy all day in some smooth hollow, and, having snared perhaps +four or five, or even, maybe, as many as nine or twelve fat fishes, home +he goes to his leaf-thatched huddle or sand-hole, and eats and eats till +he can eat no more. After which his wife and children squat round and +feed on what remains. Some eat raw, and those of less gluttony cook +their catch at a large fire, which they keep burning night and day. Here +the whole village of them may be seen sitting of an evening toasting +their silvery supper. But, although they are such greedy feeders, there +is something in the fish that keeps these Mulgars very lean. And the +more they eat the leaner they get. + +Sometimes, Ghibba told Nod, Fishing-mulgars, who have given up all +fruits and nuts to gluttonize, and live only on fish, have been known by +much feeding to waste quite away. Moreover, a few years of this cold +fishing paralyses their tails. And so many go misshapen. On being +questioned as to where they had learned to make fire, the +Fishing-mulgars told Ghibba that a certain squinting Môh-mulgar had come +their way once along the torrent, tongue-tied and trembling with palsy. +By the fire he had made for himself the Fishing-mulgars, after he was +gone, had stacked wood, and this was the selfsame fire that had been +kept burning ever since. Did once this fire die out, not knowing of, nor +having any, first-sticks, it would be raw fish for the tribe for +evermore. On hearing this, the travellers looked long at one another +between gladness and dismay--gladness to hear that their father Seelem +(if it was he) had come alive out of the Orchards, and dismay for his +many ills. + +They made their camp for two nights with these friendly people. They are +as dull and stupid in most things as they are artful at fishing. But +they are, beyond even the Munza-mulgars, mischievous mimics. Even the +little ones would come mincing and peeping with wisps of moss and grass +stuck on their faces for eyebrows and whiskers, their long tails cocked +over their shoulders, their eyes screwed up, in imitation of the Men of +the Mountains. Lank old Thimble laughed himself hoarse at these +children. At night they beat little wood drums of different notes round +their fires, making a sort of wearisome harmony. They also play at many +sports--"Fish in the Ring," "A tail, a tail, a tail!" and "Here sups +Sullilulli." But I will not describe them, for they are just such games +as are played all the world over by Oomgar and Mulgar alike. They are +all, however, young and old, hale and paralysed, incorrigible thieves +and gluttons, and rarely comb themselves. + +All along the rocky banks of the torrent the travellers passed next day +the snug green houses of these Fishing-mulgars. Nod often stayed awhile +to watch their fishing, and almost wished he had a tail, so that he, +too, might smear and dangle and watch and plunge. But their language Nod +could not in the least understand. Only by the help of signs and +grimaces and long palaver could even Ghibba himself understand them. But +he learned at least that, for some reason, the travellers would not long +be able to follow the river, for the Fishing-mulgar would first point to +the travellers, then to the water, and draw a great arch with their +finger in the air, shaking their little heads with shut eyes. + +Ghibba tried in vain to catch exactly what they meant by these signs, +for they had no word to describe their meaning to him. But after he had +patiently watched and listened, he said: "I think, Mulla-mulgars, they +mean that if we keep walking along these slippery high banks, one by +one, we shall topple head over heels into the torrent, and be +drowned--over like that," he said, and traced with his finger an arch in +the air. + +But this was by no means what the Fishing-mulgars meant. For, about +three leagues beyond the last of their houses, the travellers began to +hear a distant and steady roar, like a faint, continuous thunder, which +grew as they advanced ever louder and louder. And when the first faint +flowers began to peep blue and yellow along the margin where the sun had +melted the snow, they came to where the waters of the torrent widened +and forked, some, with a great boiling of foam and prodigious clamour, +whelming sheer down a precipice of rock, while the rest swept green and +full and smooth into a rounded cavern in the mountain-side. + +Here, as it was now drawing towards darkness, the travellers built their +fire and made their camp. Next morning Ghibba decided, after long +palaver, to take with him two or three of the Mountain-mulgars to see if +they could clamber down beside the cataract, to discover what kind of +country lay beneath. Standing above, and peering down, they could see +nothing, because, with the melting of the snow, a thick mist had risen +out of the valley, and swam white as milk beneath them, into which great +dish of milk the cataract poured its foam. Ghibba took at last with him +five of the nimblest and youngest of the Moona-mulgars, not knowing what +difficulties or dangers might not beset them. But he promised to return +to the Mulla-mulgars before nightfall. + +"But if," he said, "the first star comes, but no Ghibba, then do you, O +Royalties, if it please you, build up a big fire above the waters, so +that we may grope our way back to you before morning." + +So, with bundles of nuts and a little of the mountain cheese that was +left, when the morning was high, Ghibba and his five set off. The rest +of the travellers sat basking in the sunshine all that day, dressing +their sores and bruises, dusting themselves, and sleeking out their +matted hair. Some even, so great was the neglect they had fallen into, +took water to themselves to ease their labour. But for the most part +Mulgars use water for their insides only (and that not often, so juicy +are their fruits), never for their out. But dusk began to fall, the +stars to shine faintly, darkness to sally out of the forest upon the +mountain-side, and Ghibba had not returned. The travellers heaped on +more wood, of which there was abundance, and lit a fire so fiery bright +that to the Rock-folk looking down--wolf, and fox, and eagle, and +mountain-leopard--it seemed like a great "palaver" of Oomgar-nuggas, who +had had their villages in this valley many years before the +Witzaweelw[=u]lla. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XXI + + +When they could no longer see the hilltop for cloud and mist, Thumb lit +a second fire on the isle of rock upon the verge of the cataract, where +the water could not scatter on it. But no sign came of Ghibba and his +five Moona-men, and Nod began to fret, and could eat no supper, for fear +that some evil had overtaken them. But he said nothing, because he knew +well enough by now that Thumb had much the same stomach for distrust as +himself, though he kept a still tongue in his head, and that it only +angered him to be pestered with questions no Mulgar-wit could answer. He +sat by the watch-fire in his draggled sheep's-jacket, his hands on his +knees, and wished he had lent Ghibba his Wonderstone. "But no," he +thought, "Mutta-matutta bade me 'to no one.' Ghibba is cunning and +brave; he will come back." + +The Men of the Mountains coiled themselves up by the fire. They fear +neither for themselves nor for one another. "We die because we must," +they say. Yet none the less they raise, as I have said, long ululatory +lamentations over their dead, and N[=o][=o]manossi is their enemy as +much as any Mulgar's. Thimble, still a little weak and hazy in his head +after his sickness, fell quickly asleep; and soon even Thumb, with head +wagging from side to side, though he sat bolt upright on his heels in +front of the fire, was dozing. + +Nod alone could not close his eyes. He watched his brother's great face; +lower, lower would drop his chin, wheel round, and start up again with a +jerk. "Good dreams, old Thumb," he whispered; "dreams of Salem that +bring him near!" + +And all the while that these thoughts were stirring in his head he heard +the endless echoing and answering voices of the cataract. Now they +seemed the voices of Mulgars quarrelling, shouting, and fighting near +and far; and now it seemed as if a thousand thousand birds were singing +sweet and shrill beneath the leaves of a great forest. The shadows of +the fire danced high. But the night was clear. He could see a great blue +star shining right over their thin column of smoke, winding into the +air. And now from the ravine into which Ghibba had gone down with his +five Moona-men the milk-pale mists began softly to overflow, as if from +a pot filled to the brim. If only Ghibba would come back! + +Nod scrambled up, and rather warily shuffled past the sleepers over to +the other beacon-fire they had kindled. A few strange little +night-beasts scuttled away as he drew near, attracted by the warmth of +the fire, or even, perhaps, taking refuge in its shine from the +night-hunting birds that wheeled and whirred in the air above them. +"Urrckk, urck!" croaked one, swinging so close that Nod felt the fan of +its wings on his cheek. "Starving Mulgars, urrckk, urck!" it croaked. + +He heaped up the fire. But he could not see a hand's breadth into the +ravine. Calm and still the mist lay, and softer than wool. Nod wandered +restlessly back, passed again the camping Mulgars, and hobbled across +till he came to the rocky bank of the torrent near to where it forked. +Here a faint reflection of the flamelight fell, and Nod could see the +drowsy fish floating coloured and round-eyed in the sliding water. And +while he was standing there, he thought, like the sound of an ooboë +singing amid thunder, he seemed to hear on the verge of the roar of the +cataract a small wailing voice, not of birds, nor of Mulgars, nor like +the phantom music of Tishnar. He crept softly down and along the +water-side, under a black and enormous dragon-tree. And beneath the +giant sedge he leaned forward his little hairy head, and as his +flame-haunted eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, he perceived in the +dark-green dusk in which she sat a Water-midden sitting low among the +rushes, singing, as if she herself were only music, an odd little +water-clear song. + + "Bubble, Bubble, + Swim to see + Oh, how beautiful + I be. + + "Fishes, Fishes, + Finned and fine, + What's your gold + Compared with mine? + + "Why, then, has + Wise Tishnar made + One so lovely, + Yet so sad? + + "Lone am I, + And can but make + A little song, + For singing's sake." + +Her slim hands, her stooping shoulders, were clear and pale as ivory, +and Nod could see in the rosy glimmering of the flames her narrow, +beautiful face reflected amid the gold of her hair upon the formless +waters. Mutta-matutta once had told Nod a story about the Water-middens +whom Tishnar had made beyond all things beautiful, and yet whose beauty +had made beyond all things sad. But he could never in the least +understand why this was so. When, by the sorcery of his Wonderstone, he +had swept all glittering the night before across the jewelled snow, he +had never before felt so happy. Why, then, was this Water-midden--by how +much more beautiful than he was then!--why was she not happy, too? He +peered in his curiosity, with head on one side and blinking eyes, at the +Water-midden, and presently, without knowing it, breathed out a long, +gruff sigh. + +The still Water-midden instantly stayed her singing and looked up at +him. Not in the least less fair than the clustering flowers of Tishnar's +orchard was her pale startled face. Her eyes were dark as starry night's +beneath her narrow brows. She drew her fingers very stealthily across +the clear dark water. + +"Are you, then, one of those wild wandering Mulgars that light great +fires by night," she said, "and scare all my fishes from sleeping?" + +"Yes, Midden; I and my brothers," said Nod. "We light fires because we +are cold and hungry. We are wanderers; that is true. But 'wild'--I know +not." + +"'Cold,' O Mulgar, and with a jacket of sheep's wool, thick and curled, +like that?" + +Nod laughed. "It was a pleasant coat when it was new, Midden, but we are +old friends now--it and me. And though it keeps me warm enough marching +by day, when night comes, and this never-to-be-forgotten frost sharpens, +my bones begin to ache, as did my mother's before me, whose grave not +even Kush can see." + +"The Mulgar should live, like me, in the water, then he, too, would +never know of cold. Whither do you and your brothers wander, O Mulgar?" + +"We have come," said Nod, "from beyond all Munza-mulgar, that lies on +the other side of the river of the saffron-fearing Coccadrilloes--that +is, many score leagues southward of Arakkaboa--and we go to our Uncle, +King Assasimmon, Prince of the Valleys of Tishnar--that is, if that +Mountain-prince, my friend Ghibba, can find us a way." + +The Water-midden looked at Nod, and drew softly, slowly back her smooth +gold locks from the slippery water. "The Mulla-mulgar, then, has seen +great dangers?" she said. "He is very young and little to have travelled +so far." + +Nod's voice grew the least bit glorious. "'Little and young,'" he said. +"Oh yes. And yet, O beautiful Water-midden, my brothers would never +have been here without me." + +"Tell me why that is," she said, leaning out of her heavy hair. + +"Because--because," Nod answered slowly, and not daring to look into her +face--"because Queen Tishnar watches over me." + +The Water-midden leaned her head. "But Tishnar watches over all," she +said. + +"Why, then, O Midden, has, as your song said, Tishnar made you so sad?" + +"Songs are but songs, Mulla-mulgar," she answered. "It is sad seeing +only my own small loneliness in the water. Would not the Mulgar himself +weary with only staring fish for company?" + +"Are there, then, no other Water-middens in the river?" said Nod. + +"Have you, then, seen any beside me?" + +"None," said Nod. + +The Water-midden turned away and stooped over the water. "Tell me," she +said, "why does the Queen Tishnar guard so closely _you_?" + +"I am a Nizza-neela, Midden--Mulla-mulgar Ummanodda Nizza-neela +Eengenares--that is what I am called, speaking altogether. Other names, +too, I have, of course, mocking me. Who is there wise that was not once +foolish?" + +"A Nizza-neela!" said the Midden, leaning back and glancing slyly out of +her dark eyes. + +"Oh yes," said Nod gravely; "but besides that I carry with me...." + +"Carry with you?" said she. + +"Oh, only the Wonderstone," said Nod. + +Then the Water-midden lifted both her hands, and scattered back her long +pale locks over her narrow shoulders. "The Wonderstone? What, then, is +that?" + +Nod told her, though he felt angry with himself, all about the +Wonderstone, and what magic it had wrought. + +"O most marvellous Mulla-mulgar," she said, "I think, if I could see but +once this Wonderstone--I think I should be never sad again." + +Nod turned away, glancing over his shoulder to where, leaning amid the +stars, hung the distant darkness of Mulgarmeerez. He slowly unfastened +his ivory-buttoned pocket and groped for the Wonderstone. Holding it +tight in his bare brown palm, he scrambled down a little nearer to the +water, and unlatched his fingers to show it to the Midden. But now, to +his astonishment, instead of glooming pale as a little moon, it burned +angry as Antares. + +The Water-midden peeped out between her hair, and laughed and clapped +her hands. "Oh, but if I might but hold it in my hand one moment, I +think that I should never even sigh again!" said she. Nod's fingers +closed on the Wonderstone again. + +"I may not," he said. + +"Then," said the Water-midden sorrowfully, "I will not ask." + +"My mother told me," said Nod. + +But the Water-midden seemed not now to be listening. She began to smooth +and sleek her hair, sprinkling the ice-cold water upon it, so that the +drops ran glittering down those slippery paths like dew. + +"Midden, Midden," said Nod quickly, "I did not mean to say any +unkindness. You would give me back my Wonderstone very quickly?" + +"Oh, but, gentle Mulla-mulgar," said the Midden, "my hands are cold; +they might put out its fiery flame." + +"I do not think so, most beautiful Midden," Nod said. "Show me your +fingers, and let me see." + +Both sly tiny hands, colder than ice-water, the beautiful Water-midden +outstretched towards him. He gazed, stooping out of his ugliness, into +those eyes whose darkness was only shadowy green, clearer than the +mountain-water. For an instant he waited, then he shut his eyes and put +the burning Wonderstone into those two small icy hands. "Return it to me +quickly--quickly, Midden, or Tishnar will be angered against me. How +must the Meermut of my mother now be mourning!" + +But the Midden had drawn back amid the reeds, holding tight the ruby-red +stone in her small hands, and her eyes looked all darkened and slant, +and her small scarlet mouth was curled. "Can you not trust me but a +moment, Prince of the Mulgars?" + +And suddenly a loud, hoarse voice broke out: "Nod ho, Nod ho! Ulla ulla! +Nod ho!" Nod started back. + +"Oh, Midden, Midden!" he said, "it is my brother, Mulla Thumma, calling +me. Give me my Wonderstone; I must go at once." + +But the Midden was now rocking and floating on the shadowy water, her +bright hair sleeking the stream behind her. Her face was all small +mischief. "Let me make magic but once," said she, "and I will return it. +Stop, Prince Ummanodda Nizzanares Eengeneela!" + +"I cannot wait, not wait. Have pity on me, most beautiful Midden. I did +but put it into your hands for friendship's sake. Return it to me now. +Tishnar listens." + +"Ummanodda! Ahôh, ahôh, ahôh!" bawled Thumb's harsh voice, coming +nearer. + +"Oh, harsh and angry voice," cried the Midden, "it frightens me--it +frightens me. To-morrow, in the night-time, Mulla-mulgar, come again. I +will guard and keep your Wonderstone. Call me, call me. I will come." + +There was a sudden pale and golden swirl of water. A light as of amber +floated an instant on the dark, gliding clearness of the torrent. Nod +stood up dazed and trembling. The Water-midden was gone. His eyes +glanced to and fro. Desolate and strange rose Tishnar's peak. He felt +small and afraid in the silence of the mountains. And again broke out, +hollow and mournful, Thumb's voice calling him. Nod hobbled and hid +himself behind a tree. Then from tree to tree he scurried in, hiding +under great ropes of Cullum and Samarak, until at last, as if he had +been wandering in the forest, he came out from behind Thumb. + +"What is it, my brother?" he asked softly. "Why do you call me? Here is +Nod." + +Thumb's eyes gladdened, but his face looked black and louring. "Why do +you play such Munza tricks," he said--"hiding from us in the night? How +am I to know what small pieces you may not have been dashed into on this +slippery Arakkaboa? What beasts may not have chosen Mulla-skeeto for +supper? Come back, foolish baby, and have no more of this creeping and +hiding!" + +Nod burned with shame and rage at his jeers, but he felt too miserable +to answer him. He followed slowly after his brother, his small, lean, +hungry hand thrust deep into his empty pocket. "O Midden, Midden!" he +kept saying to himself; "why were you false to me? What evil did I do to +you that you should have stolen my Wonderstone?" + +A thick grey curtain hung over the night, though daybreak must be near. +A few heavy hailstones scattered down through the still branches. And +athwart M[=o][=o]t and Mulgarmeerez a distant thunder rolled. "Follow +quick, Walk-by-night," said Thumb; "a storm is brewing." + +The men of the Mountains were all awake, squatting like grasshoppers, +and gossiping together close about their watch-fire. Wind swept from the +mountain-snows, swirling sparks into the air, and streamed moaning into +the ravines. And soon lightning glimmered blue and wan across the +roaring clouds of hail, and lit the enormous hills with glimpses of +their everlasting snows. The travellers sheltered themselves as best +they could, crouched close to the ground. Nod threw himself down and +drew his sheep-skin over his head. His heart was beating thick and fast. +He could think of nothing but his stolen Wonderstone and the dark eyes +of the yellow-haired Water-midden. "Tishnar is angry--Tishnar is angry," +he kept whispering, beneath the roar of the hail. "She has forsaken me, +Noddle of Pork that Nod is." + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XXII + + +When at last day streamed in silver across the peaks, the storm had +spent itself. But Nod did not stir, nor draw near to the fire to drink +of the hot pepper-water the travellers had brewed against the cold. +Thumb came at last and stooped over him. "Get up now, Ummanodda, little +brother, and do not mope and sulk any more. I was angry because I was +afraid. How should we have gone a day in safety without the Nizza-neela +and his Wonderstone? Come nearer to the fire, and dry your sodden +sheep's-coat." + +Nod crept forlornly to the fire, and sat there shivering. He could not +eat. He crouched low on his heels, nor paid any heed to what was said or +done around him. And presently he fell into a cold, uneasy sleep, full +of dreadful dreams and voices. When he awoke, he peered sullenly out of +his jacket, and saw Ghibba with three of the five Moona-mulgars that he +had taken with him sitting hunched up round the fire. They had come back +bruised and bedraggled, and torn with thorns. One of them, stumbling in +the gloom on the green rocks, had fallen headlong into the cataract, and +had not been seen again; and one had been pounced on and carried off by +some unknown beast while they were hobbling back in the torchless +darkness towards the beacon above the cataract. There was no way beyond +the ravine. All was dense low forest, rocks and thorns, and pouring +waterways. And the travellers knew not what to be doing. + +Nod could not bear to look at them nor listen to their lisping, mournful +voices. He covered up his face again, weary of the journey and of the +dream of Tishnar's Valleys, weary of his brothers, of the very daylight, +but weariest of himself. + +After long palaver, Ghibba came shuffling over to him, and sat down +beside him. + +"Is the Mulla-mulgar ill, that he sits alone, hiding his eyes?" he said. + +Nod shook his head. "I am in my second sleep, Mountain-mulgar. A little +frost has cankered my bones. It is the Harp Nod hears, not Zevvera's +z[=o][=o]ts." + +Ghibba sat with a very solemn look on his grey scarred face. "The +Mulla-mulgars say there can be no turning back, Nizza-neela. And, by the +way I have come, it is certain that there is no going onward. Then, say +they, being Mulgars-of-a-race, we must float with the mountain-water +into the great cavern, and trust our hearts to the fishes. Maybe it will +carry us to where every shadow comes at last; maybe these are the waters +of the Fountains of Assasimmon." + +"I see no boat," yapped Nod scornfully. "The only boat my brothers ever +floated in was an old Gunga's Oomgar-nugga's bobberie that now is a nest +in Obea-Munza for Coccadrilloes' eggs." + +"Already my people are gathering branches," said Ghibba, "to make +floating mats or rafts, such as I saw one of the Fishing-mulgars +squatting on while he dangled his tail for fish-bait. Comfort your weary +bones, then, Eengenares. Tishnar, who guards you, Tishnar, whose Prince +you are, Tishnar, who feasted even Utts like me on fruits of +sleeping-time, will not forsake us now." + +Nod turned cold, and trembling, as if to tell this solemn Man of the +Mountains that his Wonderstone was gone. But he swallowed his spittle, +and was ashamed. So he rose up and listlessly hobbled after him to where +the rest of the travellers were toiling to gather branches for their +rafts. + +The storm had snapped and stripped off many branches from the trees. +These the travellers dragged down to the water. Others they hauled down +with Cullum ropes, and some smaller saplings they charred through with +fire at the root. When they had heaped together a big pile of boughs and +Samarak, Cullum and all kinds of greenery, Ghibba and Thumb bound them +clumsily one by one together, letting them float out on to the water, +until the raft was large and buoyant enough to bear two or three Mulgars +with their bags. For one great raft that would have carried them all in +safety would have been too unwieldy to enter the mouth of the cavern, +besides being harder for these ignorant sailors to navigate. The torrent +flowed swiftly into the cavern. And if but two or three sailed in +together, Fortune might drown or lose many in the dark windings of the +mountain-water, but one or two at least might escape. + +They toiled on till evening, by which time four strong green rafts +bobbed side by side at their mooring-ropes on the water. Then, tired +out, sore and blistered with their day's labours, the travellers heaped +up a great watch-fire once more, and supped merrily together, since it +might be for many of them for the last time. Nor did the +mountain-mulgars raise their drone for their kinsfolk beneath the +cataract, wishing to keep a brave heart for the dangers before them. + +Only Nod sat gloomy and downcast, waiting impatiently till all should be +lying fast asleep. One by one the outwearied travellers laid themselves +down, with the palms of their feet towards the fire. Nod heard the +calling of the beasts in the ravine, and ever and again from far up the +mountain-side broke out the long hungry howl of the little wolves. Only +Nod and the Mountain-mulgar whose turn it was to keep watch were now +awake. He was a queer old Mulgar, blind of one eye, but he could stand +wide awake for hours mumbling in his mouth a shaving of their blue +cheese-rind. And when he had turned his back for a moment on the fire, +Nod wriggled softly away, and, hobbling off into the forest, soon +reached the water-side. + +He crept forward under the gigantic dragon-tree, and down the steep bank +to the little creek where he had first heard the singing of the +Water-midden. All was shadowy and still. Only the dark water murmured in +its stony channel, and the faint night-wind rustled in the sedge. Nod +leaned on his belly over the water, and, gazing into it, called as +softly and clearly as his harsh voice could: "Water-midden, +Water-midden, here am I, Ummanodda, come as you bade me." + +No one answered. He stooped lower, and called again. "It is me, the +Mulla-mulgar, child of Tishnar, who trusted to you his Wonderstone, +beautiful Midden. Nod, who believed in you, calls--your friend, the +sorrowful Nod!" + +"Sing, Mulla-mulgar!" croaked a scornful sedge-bird. "The Princess loves +sweet music." + +A lean fish of the changing colours of a cherry swam softly to the +glimmering surface and stared at Nod. + +"Tell me, Jacket-of-Loveliness," whispered Nod, "where is thy mistress +that she does not answer me?" + +The fish stared solemnly on wavering fin. + +"Hsst, brother," said Nod, and let fall a bunch of Soota-berries into +the stream. The fish leapt in the water, and caught the little fruit in +its thin, curved teeth, and nibbled greedily till all was gone. +Whereupon, staring solemnly at Nod once more, he let the leaves and +stalk float onward with the stream, then with a flash and flicker of +tail dived down, down, and was gone. All again was silent. Only the +blazing stars and the shadowy phantoms of the distant firelight moved on +the water. + +"O Tishnar," muttered the little Mulgar to himself, "help once this +wretched Nod!" + +Suddenly, as he watched, as if it were the amber or ivory beam of a +lantern in the water, he saw a pale brightness ascending. And all in a +moment the Water-midden was there rocking on the dark green water +beneath the arching sedge. But her hands, when Nod looked to see, were +empty, floating like rose-leaves open on the water. But he spoke gently, +for he could not look into her beautiful wild face, and her eyes, that +were like the forest for darkness and the moonlit mountains of Tishnar +for loveliness, and still be angry, nor even sad. + +"Tell me, O Water-midden, where is my Wonderstone?" he said. + +The Water-midden smoothed slowly back her gold locks. "You told me +false, Mulla-mulgar," she answered. "All day long have I been sitting +rubbing, rubbing with my small tired thumb, but no magic has answered. +It is but a common water-pebble roughened into the beasts' shapes. It +means nothing, and I am weary." + +And Nod guessed she had been rubbing the Wonderstone craft to cudgel, +and not as the magic went, sama-weeza--right to left. + +"If it is but a water-pebble, give it back to me, then, Midden, for it +was my mother who gave it me." + +But the Midden smiled with her red lips. "You did deceive me, then, +Mulla-mulgar, so that you might seem strange and wonderful, and far +above the other hoarse-voiced travellers, the beloved of Tishnar? You +may deceive me again, perhaps. I think I will not give you back your +stone. Perhaps, too," she said, throwing back her tiny chin, so that her +face lay like a flower in leaves of gold--"perhaps I rubbed not wisely. +You shall tell me how." + +"Show me, then, my Wonderstone. I am tired out for want of sleep, and +long no more for Tishnar's fountains." + +Then the Midden floated out into the middle of the stream, and with one +light hand kept herself in front of Nod, her narrow shoulders slowly +twirling the while in the faintly-rosied starlight. She took with the +other a long thick strand of her hair, and, unwinding it slowly, +presently out of it let fall into her palm the angry-flaming +Wonderstone. "See, Mulla-mulgar, here is your Wonderstone. Now in +patience tell me how to make magic." + +And Nod said softly: "Float but a span nearer to me, Midden--a span and +just a half a span." + +And the Water-midden drew in a little, still softly twirling. + +"Oh, but just a thumb-nail nearer," said Nod. + +Laughing, she floated in closer yet, till her beautiful eyes were +looking up into his bony and wrinkled face. Then with a sudden spring he +thrust his hand deep into the silken mesh of her hair and held tight. + +She moved not a finger; she still looked laughing up. "Listen, listen, +Midden," he said: "I will not harm you--I could not harm you, beautiful +one, though you never gave me back my Wonderstone again, and I wandered +forsaken till I died of hunger in the forest. What use is the stone to +you now? Tishnar is angry. See how wildly it burns and sulks. Give it, +then, into my hand, and I promise--not a promise, Midden, fading in one +evening--I will give you any one thing else whatsoever it is you ask." + +And the Water-midden looked up at him unfrightened, and saw the truth +and kindness in his eyes. "Be not angry with me, little brother," she +answered. "I did not pretend with you, sorrowful Nizza-neela!" And she +dropped the Wonderstone into his outstretched hand. + +Tears sprang up into Nod's tired, aching eyes. He smoothed softly with +his hairy fingers the golden strands floating in the ice-cold water. +"Till I die, O beautiful one," he said, "I will not forget you. Tell me +your wish!" + +Then the Water-midden looked long and gravely at him out of darkling +eyes. She put out her hand and touched his. "This shall be my sorrowful +wish, little Mulgar: it is that when you and your brothers come at last +to the Kingdom of Assasimmon, and the Valleys of Tishnar, you will not +forget me." + +"O Midden," Nod answered, "it needed no asking--that. It may be we shall +never reach the Valleys. For now we must plunge into the water-cavern on +our floating rafts, and all is haste and danger. But I mind no danger +now, Midden. That Mulla-mulgar, my father Seelem, chose to wander, and +not to sit fat and idle with Princes. So, too, would I. Tell me a harder +wish. Ask anything, Water-midden, and my Wonderstone shall give it you." + +And the Water-midden gazed sorrowfully into his face. "That is all I +ask, Mulla-mulgar," she repeated softly--"that you will not forget me. I +fear the Wonderstone. All day it has been crickling and burning in my +hair. All that I ask, I ask only of you." So Nod stooped once more over +that gold and beauty, and he promised the Water-midden. + +And she drew out a slender, fine strand of her hair, and cut it through +with the sharp edge of a little shell, and she wound it seven times +round Nod's left wrist. "There," she said; "that will bid you remember +me when you come to the end. Have no fear of the waters, Nizza-neela; my +people will watch over you." + +And Nod could not think what in his turn to give the Water-midden for a +remembrance and a keepsake. So he gave her Battle's silver groat with +the hole in it, and hung it upon a slender shred of Cullum round her +neck, and he tore off also one of the five out of his nine ivory buttons +that still clung to his coat, and gave her that, too. + +"And if my brothers stay here one day more, come in the darkness, O +Water-midden; I shall not sleep for thinking of you." And he said +good-bye to her, kneeling above the dark water. But long after he had +safely wrapped his Wonderstone in the blood-stained leaf from Battle's +little book again, and had huddled himself down beside the slumbering +travellers, he still seemed to hear the forlorn singing of the +Water-midden, and in his eyes her small face haunted, amid the darkness +of his dreams. + +All the next morning the travellers slaved at their rafts. They made +them narrow and buoyant and very strong, for they knew not what might +lie beyond the mouth of the cavern. And now the sun shone down so +fiercely that the Mulgars, climbing, hacking, dragging at the branches, +and moiling to and fro betwixt forest and water, teased by flies and +stinging ants, hardly knew what to do for the heat. Thumb and Thimble +stripped off the few rags left of their red jackets, and worked in their +skins with better comfort. And they laughed at Nod for sweating on in +his wool. + +"Look, Thumb," laughed Thimble, peering out from under a tower of +greenery, "the little Prince is so vain of his tattered old +sheep's-jacket that he won't walk in his bare an instant, yet he is so +hot he can scarcely breathe." + +Nod made no answer, but worked stolidly on, bunched up in his hot +jacket, because he feared if he went bare his brothers would see the +thin strand of bright hair about his wrist, and mock at the Midden. +When the sun was at noon the Mulgars had finished the building of their +rafts. They lay merrily bobbing in a long string moored to an Ollaconda +on the swift-running water. They tied up bundles of nuts, and old +Nanoes, roots, and pepper-pods, and scores of torches, and bound these +down securely to the smallest of the rafts. Then, wearied out, with +sting-swollen chops and bleeding hands, they raised their +shadow-blankets, and having bound up their heads with cool leaves, all +lay down beside the embers of their last night's fire for the "glare." + +There were now seventeen travellers, and they had built nine light +rafts--two Mulgars for every raft, except two; one of which two was wide +enough to float in comfort three of the lighter Moona-mulgars, who weigh +scarce more than Meermuts at the best of times; the other and least was +for their bundles and torches and all such stuff as they needed, over +and above what each Mulgar carried for himself. + +In the full and stillness of afternoon they ate their last meal this +side of Arakkaboa, and beat out their fire. A sprinkle of hail fell, +hopping on their heads as they stood in the sunshine making ready to put +off. It seemed as if there would never come an end to their labour, and +many a strange face stared down on them from the brooding galleries of +the forest. + + + + +[Illustration] + +CHAPTER XXIII + + +At last, after fixing a lighted torch between the logs of each raft, the +Mulgars began to get aboard. On the first Ghibba and Thimble embarked, +squatting the one in front and the other astern, to keep their craft +steady. With big torches smoking in the sunshine, they pushed off. +Tugging on a long strand of Samarak which they had looped around the +smooth branch of a Boobab, they warped themselves free. Soon well +adrift, with water singing in their green twigs, they slid swiftly into +the stream, shoving and pulling at their long poles, beating the green +water to foam, as they neared the fork, to keep their dancing catamaran +from drifting into the surge that would have toppled them over the +cataract. The rest of the travellers stood stock-still by the +water-side, gazing beneath their hands after the green ship and its two +sailors, dark and light, brandishing their poles. They followed along +the bank as far as they could, standing lean in the evening beams, +wheezing shrilly, "Illaloothi, Illaloothi!" as Moona and Mulla-mulgar +floated into the mouth of the cavern and vanished from sight. + +One after another the rest swept off, their rafts dancing light as corks +on the emerald water, each with its flaming torch fast fixed, and its +two struggling Mulgars tugging at their long water-poles. And as each +raft drifted beneath the lowering arch of the cavern, the Mulgars aboard +her raised aloft their poles for farewell to Mulgarmeerez. Last of all +Thumb loosed his mooring-rope, and with the baggage-raft in tow cast off +with Nod into the stream. Pale sunshine lay on the evening frost and +gloom of the forests, and far in the distance wheeled Kippel, capped +with snow, as the raft rocked round the curve and floated nearer and +nearer to the cavern. Nod squatted low at the stern, his pole now idly +drifting, while behind him bobbed the baggage-raft, tethered by its rope +of Cullum. He stared into the flowing water, and it seemed out of its +deeps, faintly echoing, rang the voice of the sorrowful Water-midden, +bidding him farewell. And when Thumb's back was for a moment turned, he +tore out of the tousled wool of his jacket another of his ivory buttons, +and, lying flat in the leafy twigs, dropped it softly into the stream. +"There, little brother," he whispered to the button, "tell the beautiful +Midden I remembered her last of all things when the hoarse-voiced +Mulgars sailed away!" + +Green and dark and utterly still Arakkaboa's southern forests drew +backward, with the westering sun beaming hazily behind their nameless +peaks. Nod heard a sullen wash of water, the picture narrowed, faded, +darkened, and in a moment they were floating in an inky darkness, lit +only by the dim and wavering light of the torches. + +The cavern widened as the rafts drew inward. But the Mulgars with their +poles drove them into the middle of the stream, for here the current ran +faster, and they feared their leafy craft might be caught by overhanging +rocks near the cavern walls. A host of long-eared bats, startled from +sleep by the echoing cries and splashings, and the smoke of the torches, +unhooked their leathery hoods, and, mousily glancing, came flitting this +way, that way, squeaking shrilly as if scolding the hairy sailors. They +reminded Nod of the chattering troops of Skeetoes swinging on their +frosty ropes in the gloom of Munza-mulgar. When with smoother water the +raftsmen's shouts were hushed, a strange silence swept down upon the +travellers. Nod glanced up uneasily at the faintly shimmering roof hung +with pale spars. Only the sip and whisper of the water could be heard, +and the faint crackle of the dry torch-wood. Thumb flapped the water +impatiently with his long pole. "Ugh, Ummanodda, this hole of darkness +chills my bones. Sing, child, sing!" + +"What shall I sing, Thumb?" + +"Sing that jingling lingo the blood-supping Oomgar-mulgar taught you. +How goes it?--'Pore Benoleben.'" + +So in the dismal water-caverns of Arakkaboa Nod sang out in his seesaw +voice, to please his brother, Battle's old English song, "Poor Ben, old +Ben." + + "Widecks awas' + Widevry sea, + An' flyin' scud + For companee, + Ole Benporben + Keepz watcherlone: + Boatz, zails, helmaimust, + Compaz gone. + + "Not twone ovall + 'Is shippimuts can + Pipe pup ta prove + 'Im livin' man: + One indescuppers + Flappziz 'and, + Fiss-like, as you + May yunnerstand. + + "An' one bracedup + Azzif to weat, + 'Az aldy deck + For watery zeat; + Andwidda zteep + Unwonnerin' eye + Ztares zon tossed sea + An' emputy zky. + Pore Benoleben, + Pore-Benn-ole-Ben!" + +When Nod's last quavering drawl had died away, Thumb lifted up his own +hoarse, grating voice in the silence that followed, and as if with one +consent, the travellers broke into "Dubbuldideery." + +It seemed as if the walls would shatter and the roof come tumbling down +at their prodigious hullabaloo. The bats raced to and fro. Scores of +fishes pushed up their snouts round Nod's raft, and gazed with curious +faces into the torchlight. The water was all astir with their +disquietude. But in the midst of the song there sounded a shrill and +hasty cry: "Down all!" + +Only just in time had Ghibba seen their danger, and almost before the +shrill echo had died away, and Thimble had cast himself flat, their raft +was swirled under a huge rock, blossoming with quartz, that hung down +almost to the surface of the water. Thimble's jacket was ripped collar +to hem as he slid under, lying as close as he could. And the bobbing +raft of baggage behind them was torn away in a twinkling, so that now +all the food and torches the Mulgars had was what each carried for +himself. They dared not stir nor lift their heads, for still the fretted +roof arched close above the water. And so they drifted on and on, their +torches luckily burnt low, until at length the cavern widened, the roof +lifted, and they burst one by one into a great chamber of smooth water, +its air filled strangely with a faint phosphorescence, so that every +spar and jag of rock gleamed softly with coloured light as they paddled +their course slowly through. In this great chamber they stayed awhile, +for there was scarcely any current of water against its pillared sides. +With their rafts clustering and moored together, they shared out equally +what nuts, dry fruit, and unutterably mouldy cheese remained, and +divided the torches equally between them, except that Ghibba, who led +the way, had two for every one of the others. + +These thin grey waters swarmed with fish, but all, it seemed, nearly +blind, with scarcely visible eyes above their snouts. Some of the bigger +fish, with clapping jaws, cast themselves in range or hunger against the +rafts. And the Mulgars, seeing their teeth, took good heed to couch +themselves close in the midst of their rafts. The longer they stayed, +the thicker grew the concourse of fish drawn together by the noise and +smell of the travellers, until the cavern echoed with their restless +fins and a kind of supping whisper, as if the fish had speech. So the +Mulgars pushed off again, laying about them with their poles to scare +the bolder monsters off as they gilded softly into the sluggish current, +until the channel narrowed again, and their speed freshened. + +On and on they drifted. On and on the shimmering walls floated past +them, now near, now distant. They lost all time. Some said night must be +gone; some said nay, night must have come again; and to some it seemed +like an evil dream, this drifting, without beginning or end. When sleep +began to hang heavily on Thumb's eyelids, he bade Nod lie down and take +his fill of it first, while he himself kept watch. Nod very gladly lay +down as comfortably as he could on the rough and narrow raft, and Thumb +for safety tied him close with a strand of Cullum. He dreamed a hundred +dreams, rocked softly on the sliding raft, all of burning sunshine, or +wild white moonlight, or of icy and dazzling Witzaweelw[=u]lla; but the +Water-midden's beauty haunted all. + +He woke into almost pitch-black gloom, and, starting up, could count +only four torches staining the unrippling water with their flare. And, +being very thirsty, he stooped over with hollowed hand, as if to drink. + +"No, no," said Thumb drowsily; "not drink, Nod. Sleepy water--sleepy +water. Moona-mulgars there, drunk and drunk; thirstier and thirstier, +torches out--all dead asleep--all dead asleep." + +"But my tongue's crackling dry, Thumb. Drink I must, Thumb." + +"Nutshells," said Thumb--"suck nutshells, suck them." + +Nod took out the last few nuts he had. And in the faint glowing of the +distant torches he could see Thumb's great broad-nosed face turned +hungrily towards them. + +"How many nuts left have you, my brother?" Nod said. + +Thumb tapped his stomach. "Safe, safe all," he said. "Nod slept on and +on." + +"Why did you not wake me, Thumb? Lie down now. I am not hungry, only a +little thirsty. Have these few crackle-shells before you sleep, old +Thumb." He gave Thumb nine out of his thirteen nuts, and partly because +he was ravenously hungry, partly because their oiliness a little +assuaged his thirst, Thumb crunched them up hastily, shells and all. +Then he lay down on the raft, and Nod tied his great body on as safely +as he could. + +There seemed to be some tribe of creatures dwelling in this darkness. +For Thumb had but a little while lain down, when the stream bore the +rafts along a smoother wall of rock, which rose, as it were, to a ledge +or shelf; and all along this rocky shelf Nod could see dim, rounded +holes, of a breadth to take with ease the body of a Mullabruk or +Manquabee. He fancied even he saw here and there shadowy figures +stooping out. And now and then in the hush he heard a flappity rustle, +as of some hairy creature scampering quickly along the ledge on four +naked feet. But he called and called in vain. No answer followed, except +a feeble hail from Thimble's raft far ahead, with its torches feebly +twinkling. + +Only three of the nine rafts now showed lights, and the last of these +had drifted in, and become entangled in some jutting rock or in the +long, leathery weed that hung like lichen-coloured grass along the sides +of the cavern. As Nod drew slowly near, he saw that on this raft both +its Mulgars lay flat on their faces, lost in their second sleep from +drinking of the water. He pushed hard at his long pole, and, leaning +over, caught their strand of trailing Samarak, and hauled the raft +safely into mid-stream again. He stirred and pommelled the Mulgars with +his pole. But they made no sign of feeling, except that their mouths +fell a little ajar. Then he lit the last but one of his own torches by +the failing flame of theirs. But it hovered sullen and blue. The air was +thick. Each breath he took was heavy as a sigh. He was shrunk very +meagre with travel, and his little breathing bosom was nothing but a +slender cage of bones above his heart. He crouched down in the +whispering solitude. His lips were cracked, his tongue like tinder. He +mumbled his shells in vain between his teeth. But from first sleep to +the second sleep is but a little journey, and thence to the last the way +runs all downhill. + +He chafed his eyes, he clenched his teeth, he crooned wheezily all the +songs Battle had taught him. And now once more the cavern opened into a +wide and still lagoon, over whose grey floor phantom lights moved +cloudily before the advancing rafts. Its roof wanly blazed with +crystals. And there was no doubt now of Mulgar inhabitants. They sat +unmoved upon their rocky ledges and parapets, with puffed-out, furry +bodies and immense round, lustrous eyes, with which they steadily +surveyed the worn and matted Mulgars, some stretched in stupid slumber, +some fevered and famished, with burning eyes, drifting slowly past their +glistening grottoes. But none so much as stirred a finger or paid any +heed to the Mulgars' entreaties for food. Only their long ears, which +peaked well out of their wool, twitched and nodded, as if their +ducketings were a kind of secret language between them. + +Nod's raft swam last across this weed-mantled lagoon amid the moving +light-wisps. He called with swollen tongue: "O ubjar moose soofree! +ubjar, ubjar, moose soofree!" But there came no answer, not the least +stir in the creatures; only the owl-eyes stared steadily on. He lifted +himself on trembling legs, and called: "Walla, walla!" + +These Arakkaboans only gloated on him, and slowly turned their round +heads, still twitching their ears at one another, as if in some strange +talk. + +And Nod fell into a Munza rage at sight of them. He danced and gibbered, +and at last caught up his long water-pole, as if to strike at them; but +it was too heavy for him after his long thirst; he over-balanced, threw +out the pole, and fell headlong on to the raft. Thumb muttered in his +sleep, wagging his head. And with parched lips, so close to that +faint-smelling water, Nod could bear his thirst no longer. He leaned +over, cupped his hands, and sucked in one, two, three delicious +mouthfuls. Water, cavern, staring Arakkaboans, seemed to float away into +the distance, as in a dream. And in a little while, with head lolling at +Thumb's feet, he lay faintly snoring beside his brother. + + * * * * * + +Out of the heaviness of that long sleep Nod opened his eyes, to find +Thumb's great body stooping over him with anxious face, shaking and +pommelling him, and muttering harshly: "Wake, wake, Nugget of clay! +Wake, Mulla-slugga! The Valleys! The Valleys, little Ummanodda! Taste, +taste! Ummuz, ummuz, UMMUZ!" + +Something sweeter than honey, something that at one taste wakened in +memory Mutta, and Seelem, and the little Portingal's hut, and Glint's +towering Ukka-tree, and all his childhood, was pushed between his teeth. +Nod sneezed three times, struggled, and sat up. + +For a moment the light blinded him. Then at last he saw all among a long +low stretch of rushes, in still, green water, between the rafts, a +picture of the sky. A crescent moon hung like a shell in the pale green +quiet of daybreak. He scrambled to his feet, still gnawing his +Ummuz-cane. He saw Thimble mumbling like a hungry dog over his food, and +the lean shapes of the Moona-mulgars shuffling to and fro. On one side +rose the forests of the northern slopes of Arakkaboa. A warm, sweet wind +was moving with daybreak, and only on the heights next the green of the +sky shone Tishnar's unchanging snows. Flowers bloomed everywhere around +him, not vanishing flowers of magic now. And as far as his round eyes +could see, golden with Ummuz and Immamoosa, and silver with dreaming +waters, stretched the long-sought, lovely Valleys of Tishnar. This, +then, was the Mulgars' journey's end! + +Nod flung himself down in the long grasses, and cried as if his heart +would break. And still with his oozy stick of Ummuz clutched between his +fingers, he fell asleep. + +But soon came Ghibba to waken him. Thumb and Thimble and all the +Moona-mulgars were squatting together round a little fire they had +kindled beneath an enormous tree by the water-side. Bees, that might, +indeed, be honey-makers from Assasimmon's hives, were droning in the +tree-blossoms overhead, and tiny Tominiscoes flitting among the +branches. It was a wonder, indeed, that birds should draw near such +scarecrow travellers. More like the N[=o][=o]mad of Jack-Alls they sat +than honest Mulgars; some toasting the last paring of their beloved +cheese to eat with their Nanoes, some with stones pounding Ummuz, some +at their scratching and combing, and one or two worn out, bonily +sprawling in the comfort of the sunbeams streaming upon them now from +far across Arakkaboa. + +Beneath them lay the shallows of the green lagoon in the morning. But +near at hand rose up a gigantic grove of Ollacondas into the windless +sky, so that beyond these the travellers could see nothing of the +farther country. + +When they had eaten and drunk, and were well rested, Thumb and Nod, +taking again cudgels in their hands, started off towards the hills that +rose above the cavern, of purpose, if need be, to climb into the higher +branches of some tree, from which they might descry, perhaps, what lay +on the other side of this great grove. + +Through the thick dews they stumped along together, their eyes roving +this way and that, in wonder and curiosity of their way. And in a while +they had climbed up through the thick undergrowth on to a wide green +ledge, on which were playing and scampering in the fresh shadows a host +of a kind of Weddervols, but smaller and furrier than those of Munza. +And now they could see beneath them the huge arch through which their +rafts had floated out while they lay snoring. + +White flocks of long-legged water-birds were preening their wings in the +shadows, in which rock and boughs and farthest snow stood glassed. There +the two Mulgars stood, ragged and worn, snuffing the sweet air, while a +faint surge of singing rose from the forests above their heads. + +"It is a big nest Tishnar's water-birds build," said Nod suddenly. + +Thumb's great head turned on his stooping shoulders, and, with mouth +ajar, he stared long and closely at what seemed to be a heap of tangled +boughs washed up in the water far beneath them. + +"No nest, Ummanodda," he said at last; "it is some Mulgar's tree-roost +fallen into the water. Its leaves are dry, and the feet of that +long-legs stand deep in Spider-flower." + +"To my eyes," said Nod slowly, "it looks to me, Thumb, just like such +another as one of our water-rafts." + +"Wait here a little while, Nizza-neela," grunted Thumb suddenly; "I go +down to look for eggs." + +Nod watched his brother pushing his way down through the sedge and +trailing Samarak. "Eggs," he whispered--"eggs!" and broke out into his +little yapping laughter, though he knew not why he laughed. + +Up, up, on sounding wings flew a bird as white as snow from its lodging +as Thumb drew near. And there he was, stooping, paddling, pushing with +his cudgel, and peering into the tangle at the water-side. + +Nod turned his head, filled with a sudden weariness and loneliness. And +in the silence of the beautiful mountains he fell sad, and a little +afraid, as do even Oomgar travellers resting awhile in the journey that +has no end. + +Out of his Mulgar dreams he was startled by a sudden, sharp, short +Mulgar bark from far beneath, that might be fear or might be sudden +gladness. + +And, in a moment, Thumb, having cast down his cudgel, and with something +clutched in his great hand, was swinging and scrambling back through the +thick, flowery undergrowth of the hillside by the way he had come. + +Nod watched him, with head thrust forward and side-long, and at last he +drew near, sweating and coughing. + +"S[=o][=o]tli, s[=o][=o]tli!" he muttered. "Magic, magic!" and held out +in the sunlight an old red, rotted gun. + +Rusty, choked with earth, its butt smashed, its lock long gone, the two +Mulgars stood with the gun between them. + +"Oomgar's gun, Thumb?--Oomgar's?" grunted Nod at last. + +Thumb opened wide his mouth, still panting and trembling. + +"Noos unga unka, Portingal, Ummanodda. Seelem arggutchkin! Seelem! kara, +kara! Seelem mugleer!" + +And even as that last Seelem was uttered, and back to Nod's mind came +that morning leagues, leagues away, and himself sitting on his father's +shoulder, clutching the long cold barrel of the little Portingal's +gun--even at that moment a faint halloo came echoing across the steeps, +and, turning, the Mulla-mulgars saw climbing towards them between the +trees Thimble and Ghibba. But not only these. For between them walked +on high in a high, hairy cup, with a band of woven scarlet about his +loins, and a basket of honeycombs over his shoulder, a Mulgar of a +presence and a strangeness, who was without doubt of the Kingdom of +Assasimmon. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration: ... A MULGAR OF A PRESENCE AND A STRANGENESS, WHO WAS +WITHOUT DOUBT OF THE KINGDOM OF ASSASIMMON.] + + + + + ENVOY + + "Long--long is Time, though books be brief: + Adventures strange--ay, past belief-- + Await the Reader's drowsy eye; + But, wearied out, he'd lay them by. + + "But, if so be he'd some day hear + All that befell these brothers dear + In Tishnar's lovely Valleys--well, + Poor pen, thou must that story tell! + + "But farewell, now, you Mulgars three! + Farewell, your faithful company! + Farewell, the heart that loved unbidden-- + Nod's dark-eyed, beauteous Water-midden!" + + + + +A NOTE ON THE TYPE IN WHICH THIS BOOK IS SET + + +_This book is composed (on the Linotype), in Scotch. There is a +divergence of opinion regarding the exact origin of this face, some +authorities holding that it was first cut by Alexander Wilson & Son, of +Glasgow, in 1837; others trace it back to a modernized Caslon old style +brought out by Mrs. Henry Caslon in 1796 to meet the demand for modern +faces brought about by the popularity of the Bodoni types. Whatever its +origin, it is certain that the face was widely used in Scotland, where +it was called Modern Roman, and since its introduction into America it +has been known as Scotch. The essential characteristics of the Scotch +face are its sturdy capitals, its full rounded lower case, the graceful +fillet of its serifs and the general effect of crispness._ + +[Illustration] + + SET UP, ELECTROTYPED, PRINTED, AND + BOUND BY THE VAIL-BALLOU PRESS, INC., + BINGHAMPTON, N.Y. · ILLUSTRATION + PLATES ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY + ZEESE-WILKINSON COMPANY, INC., + LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. · + PAPER MANUFACTURED BY THE + TICONDEROGA PULP AND + PAPER CO., TICONDEROGA, + N.Y., AND FURNISHED + BY W. F. ETHERINGTON + & CO., NEW YORK. + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + + In the List of Illustrations, closing quotation marks have been + added to "with fingers of frost" and "enchanted orchards of Tishnar". + + Spelling and punctuation have been retained as in the original + publication except as follows: + + Page 23 + + sibbetha eena manga Môh!" _changed to_ + sibbetha eena manga Môh!'" + + Page 45 + + through the green twlight _changed to_ + through the green twilight + + Page 62 + + as for the Water-midden's song _changed to_ + as for the Water-middens' song + + Page 73 + + said the Fish-catcher." _changed to_ + said the Fish-catcher. + + Page 113 + + awhile with this Oongar _changed to_ + awhile with this Oomgar + + Page 128 + + shakes noonday with fear _changed to_ + shakes noonday with fear, + + shakes noonday with fear changed to + shakes noonday with fear. + + Page 233 + + and runing over with _changed to_ + and running over with + + Page 245 + + and your brothers, wander _changed to_ + and your brothers wander + + Page 258 + + seven time round Nod's left _changed to_ + seven times round Nod's left + + Page 273 + + as do even Ooomgar _changed to_ + as do even Oomgar + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Three Mulla-mulgars, by Walter De La Mare + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE MULLA-MULGARS *** + +***** This file should be named 32620-8.txt or 32620-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/6/2/32620/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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