Allan and the Ice Gods by H. Rider Haggard Read Free Book Online Page A

this head, he set
    the grisly thing upon a rock at the foot of the glacier, muttering:
    “It bleeds and the gods love blood. Now I swear that, if I kill Henga,
    I will give them his carcass, which is better than the head of a
    wolf.”
    Then he knelt down, as men have ever done before that which they fear
    and worship, and began to pray after his rude fashion:
    “O Mighty Ones,” he said, “who have lived here since the beginning,
    and O Sleeper with a shape such as no man has ever seen, Wi throws out
    his spirit to you; hear ye the prayer of Wi and give him a sign. Henga
    the fierce and hideous, who kills his own children lest in a day to
    come they should slay him as he slew his father, rules the people and
    does evilly. The people groan, but according to the old law may not
    rebel, and to speak they are afraid. Henga would kill me, and my
    little daughter Fo-a he has killed, and her mother weeps. I, Wi, would
    fight Henga as I may do under the law, but he is strong as the wild
    bull of the forest, and if he prevails, not only will he kill me, he
    will also take Aaka, whom he covets, and will murder our son Foh and
    perhaps devour him. Therefore, I am afraid to fight, for their sakes.
    Yet I would be revenged upon Henga and slay him, and live in the cave
    and rule the People better, not devouring their food, but storing it
    up for them; not taking the women, but leaving them to be the wives of
    those who have none. I have brought you an offering, O Gods, the head
    of a wolf fresh slain, which bleeds, the best thing I have to give
    you, and if I kill Henga, I will bring you a richer one, that of his
    dead body, because our fathers have always said that you love blood.”
    Wi paused, for he could think of nothing more to say; then,
    remembering that as yet he had made no request, went on:
    “Show me what I must do, O Gods. Shall I challenge Henga in the old
    way and fight him openly for the rule of the tribe? or, since if I
    fear to do this I cannot stay here among the people, shall I fly away
    with Aaka and Foh and, perhaps, Pag, the wise dwarf, the Wolf-man who
    loves me, to seek another home beyond the woods, if we live to win
    through them? Accept my offering and tell me, O Gods. If I must fight
    Henga, let a stone fall from the crest of the glacier, and if I must
    fly to save the lives of Aaka and Foh, let no stone fall. Here, now, I
    will wait till an hour after sunrise. Then, if a stone falls, I shall
    go down to challenge Henga, and if it does not fall, I shall give it
    out that I am about to challenge him, and in the night I shall slip
    away with Aaka and Foh, and Pag if he chooses; whereby you will lose
    worshippers, O Gods.”
    Pleased with this master argument, which had come as an inspiration,
    since he had never thought of it before, and sure that it would appeal
    to gods whose followers were few and who therefore could not afford to
    lose any of them, Wi ceased praying, a terrible exercise which tired
    him more than a whole day’s hunting or fishing, and, remaining on his
    knees, stared at the face of ice in front of him. He knew nothing of
    the laws of nature, but he did know that heavy bodies, if once set in
    motion, moved very fast down a hill, going quicker and quicker as they
    came near to its foot. Indeed, once he had killed a bear by rolling a
    stone down on it, which overtook the running beast with wonderful
    swiftness.
    This being so, he began to marvel what would happen if all that mighty
    mass of ice should move in good earnest instead of at the rate of only
    a few handbreadths a year. Well, he knew something of that also. For
    once, when he was in the woods, he had seen an ice child born, a vast
    mass large as a mountain which suddenly rushed down one of the western
    valleys into the sea, sending foam flying as high as heaven. That had
    hurt no one, except, perhaps, some of the seal people which were
    basking in the bay, because there was no one to hurt. But if it had
    been the great central