Читать книгу Nine Dragons - George Herman - Страница 12

“I do not know,” said the hunter.

“Some throw blankets into the sea.

Perhaps these are gifts for the Wide Water, and so it feeds them.”

“Blankets?” frowned the Elder.

“Is the Wide Water so cold?”

“I do not know,” replied the hunter.

“The blankets were full of holes. If I were the Wide Water,

I would not think it such a fine present.”

“The blankets were full of holes?”

“Like the webs of spiders. And some of the men stabbed at the sea

with a split wand with sharp points.

Perhaps they threaten the Wide Water.”

“Is the Wide Water frightened by a split wand?

I would think it would swallow it without resisting.

Is that not the lesson taught us by the Wide Water?

To win by yielding?”

Confused, Grandfather Elder turned to his people.

“One here has climbed the high mountains,

and he says there is a village on the other side of this island

where they are fed by the Wide Water.

I am told they are a strange people

who snare their food with blankets made of holes,

and they stab the Wide Water with pointed spears as if it angered them.”

“What kind of people would threaten the Wide Water that feeds them?”