"Put your backs into it, trim the sails, catch the good wind!... The honored Priest in the sky said that if we go faster, once we reach the harbor up ahead, he'll reward us with gold!... Praise the gods and Buddhas, that's real gold and silver! All those ten-odd years you worked yourselves half to death before couldn't compare to what the lords are rewarding us with, this one catty of pure gold!..."
"Huh! The wind's changed again, blowing from the Kun position toward the Gen position?... How strange! All this way sailing east, the wind over the sea has kept changing, first blowing from the Xun position (southeast) toward the Qian position (northwest), then from the Wu position (due south) toward the Zi position (due north), and now from the Kun position (southwest) toward the Gen position (northeast)..."
The white sea stretched vast to the south, while glaciers ran on endlessly to the north. Upon this expanse of ocean far from the coast, there was only a single seagoing ship hung with sails, passing through the Alaska waters that had lain silent and desolate for tens of millions of years.
On the foredeck, sailmaker Park Sun-pan was holding a round disk in both hands. His eyes were wide as he looked now at the disk in his hands, now at the "Wind Vane" on the bow—a tied strip of cord. This cord weighed only five taels and could rotate to indicate the wind direction, so it was also called the "Five-Tael Spinner."
"Main God! The wind's been changing the whole way, it really is strange!... It's like... like... like the Wind Count dropped a wind top, and it's been spinning along over the southern sea with the turn of his hand, blowing all the while!..."
Park Sun-pan touched the