But I took it from him, smiling close in his face.
Even then he did not understand. So I made to drink from black
bottles, and to build high upon the snow a pile--of goods, and to
live again the things which had happened on the night of my
marriage. I spoke no word, but he understood. Yet was he
unafraid. There was a sneer to his lips, and cold anger, and he
gathered new strength with the knowledge. It was not far, but the
snow was deep, and he dragged himself very slow.
'Once he lay so long I turned him over and gazed into his eyes.
And sometimes he looked forth, and sometimes death. And when I
loosed him he struggled on again. In this way we came to the
fire. Unga was at his side on the instant. His lips moved without
sound; then he pointed at me, that Unga might understand. And
after that he lay in the snow, very still, for a long while. Even
now is he there in the snow.
'I said no word till I had cooked the ptarmigan. Then I spoke to
her, in her own tongue, which she had not heard in many years.
She straightened herself, so, and her eyes were wonder-wide, and
she asked who I was, and where I had learned that speech.
'"I am Naass," I said.
'"You?" she said.
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