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Page 31
"Couldst thou cause the hill spirits to strike?" Maisanguaq asked
eagerly.
Sipsu faced Maisanguaq fiercely.
"In my youth I went unto the mountains and I heard the hill spirits
sing. Thereupon I became a great magician. They spoke to me; I was
silent; thereafter, when I called they answered. What wouldst thou?"
Maisanguaq indicated the blubber.
"I would thou call them now; that they release the glaciers, that Ootah
may be carried to his death. I hate Ootah, I would that he die." He
shook his fist.
Sipsu's body quivered from head to foot. "Ootah hath never consulted
my familiar spirits," he rejoined bitterly. "He despiseth them."
Rising from his sitting posture Sipsu seized his drum and began moving
his body. He groaned with extreme pain. By degrees his dance
increased. He improvised a monotonous spirit song. His face grimaced
demoniacally. As his conjuration approached the climax, his voice rose
to a series of shrieks. He shuddered violently; he seemed to suffer
agonies in his limbs. Finally he fell to the floor in a writhing
paroxysm.
"_Pst_!" Maisanguaq's eyes lighted.
Outside he heard the sharp barking of dogs. "_Huk_! _Huk_!" Ootah's
voice called. Others joined in the clamor. The entire tribe seemed to
wake as from a sleep of the dead.
"He starts for the mountains," said Maisanguaq. "Thinkest thou the
spirits will strike?"
Sipsu opened his eyes--and glared wildly at Maisanguaq.
"Speak," Maisanguaq demanded. "Hast thou not the power?"
"Did I not once go to the bottom of the sea to _Nerrvik_, she who rules
over the sea creatures? Hath she not only one hand, and is she not
powerless to plait her hair? Doth she not obey me? For did I not
plait her hair? Did I not carry wood for weapons to the spirits of the
mountains? And have they not answered for nigh a thousand moons?"
"Yet there is doubt in thy voice, Sipsu!"
"Yea, to be truthful with thee, Maisanguaq, there is dispute among the
spirits. I cannot determine what they say." He bent his head as if
listening. Then he asked:
"Doth Ootah not go that Annadoah may have food?"
Maisanguaq nodded assent.
"And the tribe?"
Maisanguaq again nodded.
As though he suddenly heard some terrifying converse among his
familiars the necromancer's face blanched. He struggled to his feet.
"Take thy food," he flung the blubber to Maisanguaq. "I dare not take
thy gift. I am afraid."
Maisanguaq sprang at the old man. "Revoke not thy curse," he breathed,
his fingers sinking into the _angakoq's_ throat. "Will the hill
spirits strike?"
"Yea," the old man gasped, "but they say----"
Maisanguaq's fingers loosened. "What?" he demanded.
"That there is . . . some other power . . . which is very
strange--which----"
"Yea, yea----"
"Protecteth Ootah . . . It concerneth . . . Annadoah. I do not wish
thy gift. I fear the spirits. The magic of Ootah--what it is . . . I
cannot tell thee . . . But the spirits say . . . it . . .
concerneth . . . Annadoah. And against it none of the _tornarssuit_
can prevail." Maisanguaq threw the old man fiercely to the floor and,
disgusted, left the igloo.
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