Several of the women disappeared and soon returned with a bit of walrus
blubber. This, having undergone a process of fermentation in the
earth, possessed the intoxicating qualities of alcohol. It is used by
the natives for purposes of stimulation in such cases and in their
celebrations. Ootah with difficulty ate this.

He felt stronger, and rose.

"Thou art ill," said Annadoah, approaching him, and gently touching his
wounded face. "Enter, Annadoah will care for thee."

Her face was perilously near him; it was very wan and beautiful in the
auroral light--Ootah felt his heart beat wildly. But it was pity, not
love, that shone softly from Annadoah's eyes.

"Thy igloo is cold, thy lamp unlighted," Annadoah insisted. "Come!
The others will prepare thy couch and light thy lamps. Until then my
bed is thine. It is warm within."

With difficulty Ootah bent low and followed Annadoah through the
underground entrance of her igloo. His dogs, which the men had
unhitched, and as many as could enter the small enclosure, followed.
The stench of the oil lamp at first almost suffocated him. He sank to
Annadoah's couch from sheer weakness, and his dogs, licking his face
and hands, crept about him.

Meanwhile Annadoah began melting snow over her lamp. The others plied
Ootah with questions. Did he go far into the mountains? Were there
many _ahmingmah_? Did Koolotah perish? Was he in the mountains when
the spirits struck? To all of this he could only move his head in
response. While he sipped the warm water gratefully, Annadoah cut away
his leather boots and bathed his injuries. His flesh was torn and one
ankle was sprained--by a miracle not a bone had been broken in the
fall. With unguents left years before by white men, Annadoah treated
his many cuts and bruises and bound them securely with clean leather.
After he lay back on the couch she bathed his face, and rubbed into the
wounds salves which her father had given to her mother and which for
years had been preciously preserved.

Ootah lay with his eyes closed; he seemed to float in the auroral skies
without, in the very happy land of the dead. He forgot the pain in his
limbs, the furnace in his forehead. He felt only the soothing touch of
Annadoah's dear hands, and her breath at times very near, fanning his
face; he heard her voice murmuring to the onlooking natives. Not
satisfied with these ministrations, in which they really had little
faith, the other