e and gracious spirit of the waters all that
Ootah had been, all that he had done for the tribe; of his prowess, of
his love for her, of her own hardness, and how she had turned a deaf
ear to his pleading. Incident after incident she recalled. She told
of the long night, when Ootah went by moonlight into the mountains, how
he had braved the hill spirits, how they struck him in the frigid
highlands, and how the beneficent _quilanialequisut_ had brought him
home. Her exquisite voice rose to a splendid crescendo as she
described that valorous adventure, and in the chant ran the _motifs_ of
the hill spirit's anger, the brave leaping steps of Ootah, the tremor
of the mountains as they were struck, and the deep tenderness of
Ootah's love. In that customary chanting address to the spirits,
Annadoah told of Ootah's return from the mountains, of the suffering he
endured, and how, when she soothed him, she thought of the great trader
from the south. She recalled how he had staggered from the igloo, the
agony in his eyes, and how she heard him sobbing his heart-break in the
auroral silence without her igloo through the long sleep.

Extending her arms over the sea, Annadoah reiterated, after each
statement of Ootah's bravery, her plea to _Nerrvik_ that Ootah be given
back to her.

"_Nerrvik_! _Nerrvik_!" she called, "surely thou art kind! O thou
whom, when the great petrel raised a storm, wast cast into the depths
by those thou didst love, thou whose heart achest for affection--hear
me, hear me, and Annadoah will surely come to thee very soon and comb
thy hair in the depths of the cold, cold sea." [2]

Tears fell from her eyes. With self-reproach she told of her old
longing for Olafaksoah, the blond man from the south, whose grim,
fierce face had cowed her, yet whose brutality had thrilled her, to
whose beast-strength and to whose beast-passion all that was feminine
in her had surrendered itself. But he had left her--he said that he
would come back in the spring. Now, she knew he would not come
back--and she did not care. As if to convince the spirit of this, she
compared Olafaksoah with Ootah; she knew now that he had used her to
rob her people, that his heart was as stone. Ootah, she had once said,
had the heart of a woman; but now she realized the difference between
them. She knew the arms of Ootah were strong, that the words of Ootah
were true, that the heart of Ootah was kind. And she felt stirring in
her boso