hing in that place in which a new life was to come
into being must by an unwritten law be freshly made and never used
before. He built a bed of ice, laid it thick with moss, and over this
tenderly placed, in turn, first walrus hides, then thick reindeer and
warm fox skins. He brought to the igloo a supply of walrus meat, and
then, fearful to be present at an event in which he had no right of
participation, prepared to depart to the mountains to hunt game.

Before leaving he crept half fearfully into Annadoah's old igloo and
told her all was ready. She smiled fondly and reached forth her little
hands. "Thou art very kind, Ootah," she said, "thou art brave and
kind." Ootah was at a loss for words, but his heart beat high, and he
was very glad.

The natives watched Annadoah, as, arrayed in her immaculate garments,
she made her way, with bowed head, to her new home; they whispered
among themselves as they saw the _ilisitok_ (wise woman) follow later.

When she sank on the new and wonderful couch, gratitude filled
Annadoah's heart, and she murmured over and over again: "Thou art very
kind, Ootah: thou art brave and kind." Somehow the bright igloo became
black and she seemed to be floating on clouds. She remembered the
Eskimo women wailing in the moonlight . . . by the open sea . . . and
the curse they invoked upon her through the dead. She trembled and
felt inordinately cold. But she knew it was spring, for outside the
igloo, with blithesome and silvery sweetness, a bunting was singing.

When Annadoah awoke from her delirium of agony she saw that the wise
woman had left her. The walls of the igloo sparkled as the flames of
the lamp flickered. Over it a pot sizzled with walrus meat frying in
fat. In her half-waking condition Annadoah realized that something lay
by her, and turning, softly, she found a tiny, naked baby. Its skin
was pale golden, its hair, unlike that of other babies, was of the
color of the rays of the sun. With half-fearful gentleness she turned
it over and over. Speechless with wonder, an inexplicable stirring in
her bosom, she regarded its face--she observed its nose, the contour of
its cheeks, the arrogance of its little chin; she noted in her child
that curious and often brief resemblance of the new-born to the
father--and this immediately recalled vividly and achingly the face of
Olafaksoah. This was her child, and his. Surely, surely, with great
joy she understood! With this thou