deeper
simplicity than ever.

The wizard, without raising his head, and stuffing his mouth full to
prevent the power of speech, glanced keenly about the floor. Observing
the fresh skin in a corner, and one or two ribs, he bolted the bite, and
said--

"O yes. My torngak is kind; he tells me many things without being
asked. He said to me two days ago, `Okiok is a clever man. Though all
the people are starving just now, he has killed a seal and a bear.'"

"Can torngaks make mistakes?" asked Okiok, with a puzzled look. "It was
_yesterday_ that I killed the seal and the bear."

"Torngaks _never_ make mistakes," was the wizard's prompt and solemn
reply; "but they see and know the future as well as the past, and they
sometimes speak of both as the present."

"How puzzling!" returned the other meekly. "He meant you, then, to
understand that I was _going_ to kill a seal and a bear. Glad am I that
I am not an angekok, for it would be very difficult work for a stupid
man,--enough almost to kill him!"

"You are right. It is difficult and hard work. So you see the torngak
told me go feast with Okiok, and at his bidding of course I have come,
on purpose to do so."

"That's a lie. You came to see my Nunaga, and you hope to get her; but
you never will!" said Okiok. He said it only to himself, however, being
far too polite to say it to his guest, to whom he replied
deferentially--

"If they are starving at your village, why did you not bring your mother
and your father? They would have been welcome, for a seal and a bear
would be enough to stuff us all quite full, and leave something to send
to the rest."

For some minutes the wizard did not reply. Perhaps he was meditating,
perchance inventing.

"I brought no one," he said at last, "because I want you and your family
to return with me to the village. You know it is only two days distant,
and we can take the seal and the bear with us. We are going to have a
great feast and games."

"Did you not say the people were starving?" asked Okiok, with a look of
gentle surprise.

"They _were_ starving," returned Ujarak quickly; "but two walruses and
four seals were brought in yesterday and my torngak has told me that he
will point out where many more are to be found if I consult him on the
night of the feast. Will you come back with me?"

Okiok glanced at the Kablunet.

"I cannot leave my guest," he said.

"True, but we can take him with us."

"Impossible.