lage. The like have you gathered with a shrewd hand from my
people, who have slept with your gods and who now have nothing save large
heads, and weak knees, and a thirst for cold water that they cannot
quench. This is not good, and my voice has power among them; so it were
well that we trade, you and I, even as you have traded with them, for
molasses and flour.'

"And I made answer: 'This be good talk, and wisdom abideth in thy mouth.
We will trade. For this much of flour and molasses givest thou me the
caddy of "Star" and the two buckets of smoking.'

"And Moosu groaned, and when the trade was made and the shaman departed,
he upbraided me: 'Now, because of thy madness are we, indeed, lost!
Neewak maketh _hooch_ on his own account, and when the time is ripe, he
will command the people to drink of no _hooch_ but his hooch. And in
this way are we undone, and our goods worthless, and our igloo mean, and
the bed of Moosu cold and empty!'

"And I answered: 'By the body of the wolf, say I, thou art a fool, and
thy father before thee, and thy children after thee, down to the last
generation. Thy wisdom is worse than no wisdom and thine eyes blinded to
business, of which I have spoken and whereof thou knowest nothing. Go,
thou son of a thousand fools, and drink of the hooch that Neewak brews in
his igloo, and thank thy gods that thou hast a white man's wisdom to make
soft the bed thou liest in. Go! and when thou hast drunken, return with
the taste still on thy lips, that I may know.'

"And two days after, Neewak sent greeting and invitation to his igloo.
Moosu went, but I sat alone, with the song of the still in my ears, and
the air thick with the shaman's tobacco; for trade was slack that night,
and no one dropped in but Angeit, a young hunter that had faith in me.
Later, Moosu came back, his speech thick with chuckling and his eyes
wrinkling with laughter.

"'Thou art a great man,' he said. 'Thou art a great man, O master, and
because of thy greatness thou wilt not condemn Moosu, thy servant, who
ofttimes doubts and cannot be made to understand.'

"'And wherefore now?' I demanded. 'Hast thou drunk overmuch? And are
they sleeping sound in the igloo of Neewak, the shaman?'

"'Nay, they are angered and sore of body, and Chief Tummasook has thrust
his thumbs in the throat of Neewak, and sworn by the bones of his
ancestors to look upon his face no more. For behold! I went to the
igloo, and the brew simmered and b