United States or Brazil ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !


The fall of Neewak was complete, for he lost all his possessions, his walrus- hide drums, his incantation tools everything. And in the end he became a hewer of wood and drawer of water at the beck and call of Moosu. And Moosu he set himself up as shaman, or high priest, and out of his garbled Scripture created new gods and made incantation before strange altars.

And of all they hunted I got the lion's share and stored it away. Nor was Moosu idle. He made himself a pack of cards from birch bark, and taught Neewak the way to play seven-up. He also inveigled the father of Tukeliketa into the game. And one day he married the maiden, and the next day he moved into the shaman's house, which was the finest in the village.

"'The shaman cannot send us to sleep with the gods, the people complained, stringing in and joining us, 'and only in thy igloo may the thing be done. "So I laughed to myself as I passed the hooch around and the guests made merry. For in the flour I had traded to Neewak I had mixed much soda that I had got from the woman Ipsukuk. So how could his brew ferment when the soda kept it sweet?

"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 Tummasook thinketh himself once again chief, and the people are hungry and rage up and down. "And a third one: 'And Neewak hath overthrown the altars of Moosu, and maketh incantation before the time-honoured and ancient gods. And all the people remember the wealth that ran down their throats, and which they possess no more.