from his eyes and from
his smiling lips in the form of hearty laughter and encouragement to
others--for in truth he was an unselfish man, preferring rather to draw
out his friends than to be drawn out by them.

"Tell us all about it, then, Ujarak," he cried. "Come, we are ready.
Our ears are open--yes; they are very _wide_ open!"

There was a slight titter at this sly reference to the magnitude of the
lies that would have to be taken in, but Ujarak's vanity rendered him
invulnerable to such light shafts. After glaring round with impressive
solemnity, so as to deepen the silence and intensify the expectation, he
began:--

"It was about the time when the ravens lay their eggs and the small
birds appear. My torngak had told me to go out on the ice, far over the
sea in a certain direction where I should find a great berg with many
white peaks mounting up to the very sky. There, he said, I should find
what I was to do. It was blowing hard at the time; also snowing and
freezing. I did not wish to go, but an angekok _must_ go forward and
fear nothing when his torngak points the way. Therefore I went."

"Took no food? no sleigh? no dogs?" asked Okiok in surprise.

"No. When it is a man's duty to obey, he must not think of small
things. It is the business of a wise man to do or to die."

There was such an air of stern grandeur about Ujarak as he gave
utterance to this high-flown sentiment, that a murmur of approval burst
from his believers, who formed decidedly the greater part of the
revellers, and Okiok hid his diminished head in the breast of his coat
to conceal his laughter.

"I had no food with me--only my walrus spear and line," continued the
wizard. "Many times I was swept off my feet by the violence of the
gale, and once I was carried with such force towards a mass of upheaved
ice that I expected to be dashed against it and killed, but just as this
was about to happen the--"

"Torngak helped--eh?" interrupted Okiok, with a simple look.

"No; torngaks never help while we are above ground. They only advise,
and leave it to the angekok's wisdom and courage to do the rest,"
retorted the wizard, who, although roused to wrath by these
interruptions of Okiok, felt that his character would be damaged if he
allowed the slightest appearance of it to escape him.

"When, as I said, I was about to be hurled against the berg of ice, the
wind seemed to bear me up. No doubt it was a long hollow at the foot of
th