were till he recovered strength enough to be
able to pay his contemplated visit.

Ippegoo spoke last. Indeed, it was not usual for him to raise his voice
in council, but as he had been the first to carry the important news,
and was known to be an ardent admirer and pupil of Ujarak, he felt that
he was bound to back his patron; and his arguments, though not cogent,
prevailed.

"Let us not doubt the wisdom of the angekok," he said. "His torngak
speaks. It is our business to obey. We have starved much for some
moons; let us now feast, and grow fat and strong."

"Huk!" exclaimed the auditors, who had been touched on their weakest
point.

"But Angut has not yet uttered his mind," said the jovial Simek, turning
with a bland expression to the man in question; "he is an angekok,
though he will not admit it. Has not his familiar spirit said anything
to him?"

Angut looked gravely at the speaker for a moment or two, and shook his
head. Dead silence prevailed. Then in a voice that was unusually soft
and deep he said: "I am no angekok. No torngak ever speaks to me. The
winds that whistle round the icebergs and rush among the hummocks on the
frozen sea speak to me sometimes; the crashing ice-cliffs that thunder
down the glens speak to me; the noisy rivulets, the rising sun and moon
and winking stars all speak to me, though it is difficult to understand
what they say; but no familiar spirit ever speaks to me."

The man said this quietly, and in a tone of regret, but without the
slightest intention of expressing poetical ideas, or laying claim to
originality of thought. Yet his distinct denial of being an angekok or
wise man, and his sentiments regarding the voices of Nature, only
confirmed his countrymen in their belief that he was the greatest
angekok they had ever seen or heard of.

"But surely," urged Simek, "if so many spirits speak to you, they must
tell you _something_?"

"They tell me much," replied Angut in a contemplative tone, "but nothing
about hunting."

"Have you no opinion, then, on that subject?"

"Yes, I have an opinion, and it is strong. Let all the hunters go south
after seals without delay; but I will not go. I shall go among the
icebergs--alone."

"He will go to hold converse with his numerous torngaks," whispered old
Kannoa to Pussimek.

"He will go to visit Okiok, and see the Kablunet, and court Nunaga,"
thought the jealous and suspicious Ujarak.

And Ujarak was right; yet he dared