er quite plain that man was made with wants and wishes and the power
to satisfy them, and so advance from good to better? Does not Aglootook
prove by his own conduct that he thinks so? He might make life easy by
sitting near his hut and killing for food the little birds that come
about our dwellings, but he goes on long hard journeys, and takes much
trouble, for he knows that slices of fat seal and walrus-ribs are better
than little birds!"

There was a general laugh at the expense of the magician, for his mental
powers were inferior to those of Cheenbuk, and he felt himself unable to
see through the entanglement of his logic.

"Boh!" he ejaculated, with a sweep of his long arm, as if to clear away
such ridiculous arguments. "What stuff is this that I hear? Surely
Cheenbuk has been smitten with the folly of the Fire-spouters. His
words are like a lamp with a very bad wick: it makes too much smoke, and
confuses everything near it."

"Aglootook is right," said Cheenbuk, who resolved to end the dispute at
this point, "many words are like the smoke of a bad lamp: they confuse,
especially when they are not well-understood, but the Fire-spouters
confuse themselves with real smoke as well as with words. See, here is
one of their things; the white traders call it a paip, or piep."

As he spoke he opened the fire-bag which Adolay had given him and took
out of it the clay pipe, tobacco, and materials for producing fire. The
medicine-man was instantly forgotten, and the mouths as well as the eyes
of the whole assembly opened in unspeakable wonder as Cheenbuk went
through the complex processes of filling and lighting the pipe. First
he cut up some of the Canada twist, which, he explained, was the tubuk
of the white men. Then having filled the pipe, he proceeded to strike a
light with flint and steel. In this he was not very successful at
first, not yet having had much practice. He chipped his knuckles a good
deal, and more than once knocked the flint and tinder out of his
fingers. But his audience was not critical. They regarded this as part
of the performance. When, however, he at last struck a succession of
sparks, he also struck an equal number of short, sharp expressions of
astonishment out of his friends, and when the tinder caught there was a
suppressed grunt of surprise and pleasure; but when he put the fire into
the pipe and began to smoke, there burst forth a prolonged shout of
laughter. To see a man smok