Ask yourselves -is it
not so?"
The Angakok seemed very much pleased with himself, and he looked
about, as if he expected every one else to be pleased with him
too. All the people were filled with wonder at his great power.
They began to talk among themselves.
"Yes, I remember the famine well," said Koko's father. "I was
away up the coast that season. Several died in our village for
lack of food."
Other men remembered things about other times when food had been
scarce.
"It is lucky," they said to each other, "that here we have a
great Angakok who understands all the secrets of the World and
who can save us from such dreadful things."
IV.
At last Kesshoo said, "Will you tell us, great Angakok, how you
make these wonderful journeys?"
"Do you really wish to know?" asked the Angakok. "If you do, I
will summon my guiding spirits to tell you, but they will speak
only in the darkness."
Kesshoo took the lamp at once and put it out in the tunnel. Then
he placed a thick musk-ox hide over the entrance, so that not a
single ray of light came into the room. The darkness could almost
be felt. Everybody sat very still and listened.
Soon a heavy body was heard to strike the floor with a dull thud,
and a strange voice said, "Who calls me?"
Another voice said, "You are called, mighty spirits, to tell
these children of the labors of their Angakok."
Then began all sorts of strange noises, as of different persons
speaking. All the voices sounded much like the Angakok's, and
they all said what a great medicine man the Angakok was, and how
every one in the village must be sure to do what he told them to!
At last the Angakok himself spoke, in his own voice.
Pages:
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57