and the hunters fell to gambling among themselves.  Tummasook beat his wife horribly, and his mother’s brother objected and smote him with a tusk of walrus till he cried aloud in the night and was shamed before the people.  Also, amid such diversions no hunting was done, and famine fell upon the land.  The nights were long and dark, and without meat no hooch could be bought; so they murmured against the chief.  This I had played for, and when they were well and hungry, I summoned the whole village, made a great harangue, posed as patriarch, and fed the famishing.  Moosu made harangue likewise, and because of this and the thing I had done I was made chief.  Moosu, who had the ear of God and decreed his judgments, anointed me with whale blubber, and right blubberly he did it, not understanding the ceremony.  And between us we interpreted to the people the new theory of the divine right of kings.  There was hooch galore, and meat and feastings, and they took kindly to the new order.

“So you see, O man, I have sat in the high places, and worn the purple, and ruled populations.  And I might yet be a king had the tobacco held out, or had Moosu been more fool and less knave.  For he cast eyes upon Esanetuk, eldest daughter to Tummasook, and I objected.

“‘O brother,’ he explained, ’thou hast seen fit to speak of introducing new institutions amongst this people, and I have listened to thy words and gained wisdom thereby.  Thou rulest by the God-given right, and by the God-given right I marry.’

“I noted that he ‘brothered’ me, and was angry and put my foot down.  But he fell back upon the people and made incantations for three days, in which all hands joined; and then, speaking with the voice of God, he decreed polygamy by divine fiat.  But he was shrewd, for he limited the number of wives by a property qualification, and because of which he, above all men, was favoured by his wealth.  Nor could I fail to admire, though it was plain that power had turned his head, and he would not be satisfied till all the power and all the wealth rested in his own hands.  So he became swollen with pride, forgot it was I that had placed him there, and made preparations to destroy me.

“But it was interesting, for the beggar was working out in his own way an evolution of primitive society.  Now I, by virtue of the hooch monopoly, drew a revenue in which I no longer permitted him to share.  So he meditated for a while and evolved a system of ecclesiastical taxation.  He laid tithes upon the people, harangued about fat firstlings and such things, and twisted whatever twisted texts he had ever heard to serve his purpose.  Even this I bore in silence, but when he instituted what may be likened to a graduated income-tax, I rebelled, and blindly, for this was what he worked for.  Thereat, he appealed to the people, and they, envious of my great wealth and well taxed themselves, upheld him.  ’Why should we pay,’ they asked, ’and not you?  Does not the voice of God speak through the lips of Moosu, the shaman?’ So I yielded.  But at the same time I raised the price of hooch, and lo, he was not a whit behind me in raising my taxes.