The Aleutian Islands in October have clear and open skies, strong and cold north winds, and undulating seas. Mid-autumn at this moment may be the most suitable time of year for sailing among the islands.
According to the local Unanga tribe, ice floes will continue to drift from the north of the island from the beginning of November. And by the end of November, it may be a cold wave overnight or a blizzard, and the entire sea area will be frozen.
!From that time on, it was a long winter, with heavy snowstorms, big storms, big cold waves, and long polar nights... All the creatures on the island had to hibernate in their nests. Until the end of April or early May of the next year,
Only then will warm winds and sea currents arrive from the south, breaking up the freeze in the port and announcing the belated arrival of spring!
However, the arrival of warm spring will bring another obstacle to navigation, which is the sea fog that permeates the entire island chain. The Unanga people do not know the cause of the sea fog, but according to their experience passed down from generation to generation
, this kind of sea fog is the "spirit of the Southern Wind God" and is related to the warm wind blowing from the south. Sea fog will appear in spring and reach its peak in summer. At its peak, it covers from morning to night, only in the two days at noon
Time dissipates. And when autumn comes, the south wind turns to the north, and the sea fog will become less and less. However, with the cold north wind, it will bring the "spirit of the northern wind god", that is
Roaring cold storms and tides!…
"The Lord God bless you! Therefore, only the gap between the Southern Wind God and the Northern Wind God, that is, May and October every year, are the days that are relatively more suitable for sailing in this island chain! ... So, we are going west now.
, it’s just the right time! Praise the Lord God! He protects us!…”
"Praise the Lord God! God bless the fleet!"
Mikey the Knowledgeable stood on the bow of the long supply ship, looking at the rough sea, the flagship leading the way, and the Kami Takayama Port gradually heading east. An unknown fear welled up in his heart. However, his
His face was red from the cold, but he still maintained the calmness and piety of the leader.
When the sun rose into the sky, Mikey the Knowledgeable prayed loudly to the Lord God, boosting the morale of the entire longship. His wife, White Bear Gaowa, blushing, took the lead and sat on the oar seat at the bow of the ship.
She rowed a thick and long oar, and the muscles of her arms bulged hard. Every time she paddled, it seemed to suppress the undulating waves by half a meter!
"The Lord God guides us! Move forward! Along the extending island, move towards the island in the west!..."
On the flagship of the Big Snow Wolf, the exploration captain Zuvallo showed another kind of enthusiasm, taking the lead. He personally sat on the oar position at the bow of the ship, while looking at the sea in front of him, while rowing the oar vigorously, and saying:
He shouted excitedly. The sixty oars behind him were filled with strong, hard-working kingdom warriors and Northland sailors. As for the twenty reserve crew members, they tied their bodies to the deck.
He lay down to rest, breathing heavily.
"God bless you! Rest for two quarters of an hour! Replace with the next team!..."
The eighty people on the boat were divided by Zuvalo into four teams of twenty. Each team could only rest for two-quarters of an hour during each hour of rowing. On the sea surface of the archipelago in October, there were only about five and a half hours of rest.
The days are long, and the time you can row is usually four hours. In fact, in the Ancestral Islands where the sea conditions are difficult and the waves are choppy, in order to maintain the fleet's emergency strength, the stable speed of the kingdom's longships is about 30 or more per hour.
miles, only about 120 miles can be drawn in one day.
And when evening comes, according to the thousands of years of survival experience of the local Unanga tribe, we must approach the shore and find a sheltered camp as soon as possible! Because on such a dangerous ocean, it is difficult to see what is happening in the distance while rowing at night.
, the risk will be unimaginably great. If you encounter large rocks along the coast, or a sudden storm, the ship will definitely be destroyed and everyone will die!…
Under the guidance of Unanga's guide, the two long boats rowed westward for three days at a speed of 120 miles per day, from the sacred mountain island 'Atka' (Atka) extending hundreds of miles to the equally vast
'Adak' Island (Adak).
"Atka! The ancestral mountain giant! Adak! The ancestral two-headed giant! Two heads, two smoking mountains!..."
Listening to the guide's description, Mickey the Knowledgeable blinked his eyes and looked at Adak Island in the evening under the glow of the setting sun. This island is quite large and is almost connected to Shen Takayama Island. And the largest island is
The characteristic is that there are two volcanoes separated by a hundred miles from east to west, located on two protrusions on the north side of the island, just like a two-headed giant!
"Well, the two-headed giant 'Adak'...witnessed by the Lord God! Then let's call it God Twin Peaks Island!..."
"Pfft! Ahem!..."
Upon hearing such a name, Zuvalo, who was drinking water, instantly squirted out a mouthful of water, turning it into a faint white mist in the cold wind.
"This! Mickey? This name..."
"Ah? Zuvalo, what's wrong with you?"
Mickey the Knowledgeable was startled, looked at the two volcanoes on the east and west, then looked at Zuvalo who was wiping his face, and asked doubtfully.
"These two peaks are very clear navigation signs! Isn't this name appropriate?"
Zuvalo, the exploration captain, widened his eyes and looked at the two volcanoes that were symmetrical from east to west and almost of the same height, and then looked at the protrusions where the two volcanoes were located, which happened to be surrounded by the harbor... He was silent for a while and murmured
He whispered softly.
"Lord God! It's very appropriate! Mickey, you are really a genius at naming! It turns out that the ancestor giant sleeping here is a female giant..."
Shenshuangfeng Island has two volcanoes, warm hot springs, and the small Unanga tribe that relies on the hot springs to survive the winter. The largest Unanga tribe, with about a hundred people, is camped under the west peak.
The bay occupies the warmest embrace of giants. The two longships of the kingdom visited the leader of this tribe, presented them with copper axes, salt and flint, and also recruited two local guides. Then the fleet only
After staying for a day, we continued westward.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! After passing the Shen Shuangfeng Island 'Adak' (Adak), dozens of miles to the west, there is the staggered island extending for two hundred miles, 'Kanaga'
'(Kanaga), 'Tanaga' (Tanaga). In local tribal mythology, these are two twin giants who sank in the cold sea. Their heads turned into volcanoes, and their bodies turned into
Islands, entangled with each other and dying together...
"Blessed by the Lord God! There are so many volcanoes on the islands here! Well... these two intertwined islands are called the 'Shen Twin Sister Islands'!... Hey! Twin sisters, twin peaks, why does it feel a little wrong?
That's right! In the mythology of the Unanga people, the influence of matrilineal tradition is somewhat too obvious..."
However, the matrilineal influence in the Unanga people's mythology seems to have just begun. A day's distance westward from Shenshuangnu Island is a volcanic island that suddenly appears. The area of this island is very small, and
The height of the volcano's emergence is about three to four hundred meters. There is only a small tribe of dozens of people on the entire island. They call this island "Little Girl", which is the dead young female giant.
"Well, after passing Kamikoono Island, and going west for another two to three hundred miles, there is another larger volcanic island, the Kaminao Island in tribal legend!..."
"Going further west from Kamina Island, the voyage becomes more and more difficult, and there are fewer and fewer islands that can indicate the direction! From Kamina Island, we found a group of Unanga with forty or fifty people.
The small tribe also has an old guide who has been to the western seas, Wu Baiya..."
"Then, we spent eighty kilograms of whale meat and one hundred kilograms of flint to exchange this old guide from the tribe! He is the oldest grandfather in the tribe. He was originally going to...
He committed suicide this winter. The reason why we gave so much whale meat is because as the oldest man in the tribe, his body was supposed to be the tribe's spare rations to survive the winter. This custom of committing suicide and sharing food,
It is the tradition of these island tribes, everything is for the continuation of the tribe!…”
The twilight is golden and red, and the vast ocean stretches as far as the eye can see from east to west, north and south. A small island less than ten miles in radius hangs lonely in the middle of the sea, revealing low rolling hills and small volcanoes. This sea is difficult to find.
The small and medium-sized islands are the key anchorage on the voyage to the west. They are also the shelter islands that the old guide Wu Baiya led the fleet to accurately find!
Right now, two longships from the kingdom are docked on this small island, waiting alone for the night, for the rising sun, and for the adventure to set sail tomorrow morning to the next big island in the ancestral island chain.
"Mother Island" more than 400 miles away!
"Hey, Naga! The sun has risen, shining on the little daughter of the ancestors, in the east, east, east!...Hey, Naga! The sun has risen, shining on the eldest daughter of the ancestors, where I am going...
Hey Yo Naga! The sun sets, and I see the mother of my ancestors, that is the hometown where I was born... Hey Yo Naga! The sun sets into the sea, and I meet my last grandmother, in the west, west, west!"
As the sun set, the old guide Wu Baiya sat on the low hills, looking at the red sunset in the west, as if he saw his dead ancestors and himself who should have died. His old muddy eyes reflected the sunset.
The blood was red, flashing with long-lasting memories, and also reflecting those ancient, desolate times. In the low and hoarse Unanga language, he sang the songs passed down by his ancestors, and the songs floated in the cold sea breeze.
At this moment, the exploration captain Zuvalo, the knowledgeable Mickey, and the white bear Gaowa were all patient and listened attentively. Of course, the first two were just filling in, and only the white bear Gaowa could truly listen.
Understand. When she heard the end of the song, her eyes suddenly widened and she exclaimed "Yeah!"
"Hey Naga! Behind my grandmother, there is the tomb of the giants of our ancestors, where the sun sleeps! The sleeping snow, the sleeping mountains, the sleeping land, the sleeping sun, bury the dead giants
…Hey, Naga! O giants of death, there are so many corpses, the cold is endless, and the vastness is endless!”
This chapter has been completed!