“But Moosu understood dimly, till the shaman came forth, with eyes flashing and a threatening note in his voice, and demanded to trade with me.  ‘For look you,’ he cried, ’there be of flour and molasses none in all the village.  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 bubbled, and the steam journeyed through the gooseneck even as thy steam, and even as thine it became water where it met the ice, and dropped into the pot at the far end.  And Neewak gave us to drink, and lo, it