The Eternal Maiden | Page 6

body crooned:
"Tassa quilivagit! Tassa quilivagit! My spirits are here--they are here!
Tassa quilivagit!"
Grasping a drum made of animal tissue strung over a rib-bone he began
to dance. He beat a slow, uneasy measure on the drum. His face
grinned hideously. His voice at times rose to a harsh shriek, then
suddenly it trailed away until it seemed like the voice of one speaking
very far off. In a curious sort of intermittent crooning and shrieking
ventriloquism he called down curses upon Ootah. His dance increased;
he beat the drum frenziedly. His legs twisted under him, he described
short running circles and jumped up and down in accesses of hysteria.
His scraggy arms, with their tattered clothes, writhed in the air as he
beat the drum above him. His head began to nod from side to side; his
eyes glowed like coals; his tongue hung from his mouth; foam gathered
at his lips.

"Ootah! Ootah! May his kaneg (head) swell with the great fire! May he
see horrors that do not exist--what the wicked dead dream in their frigid
hell! May the wrath of the spirits descend upon him! May the wrath of
the spirits descend upon him!"
Sipsu uttered short howls. Maisanguaq joined in the incantation, and
re-echoed the blighting curses.
"May he suffer from kangerdlugpoq (terrible body pains). May they
end not! May he lie awake forever! May he never sleep! May his teeth
chatter during the great dark!"
Sipsu groaned. He worked himself into an ecstasy of torture. His form
became a black whirling figure in the dim tent.
"May Ootah's eyes close, may the lids swell; may they burn with fire."
"May he never see the light of day--may he never aim the arrow--may
his harpoons strike forever in the darkness!" Maisanguaq replied
rancorously. "May the wrath of the spirits descend upon him!"
"May Ootah's tongue fasten to his mouth--may it be as the tongues of
dead ahmingmah (musk oxen)," chanted Sipsu. "May he never
speak--may Annadoah never hear his voice," chorused Maisanguaq.
"May Ootah lose his pungo (dogs); may they all die!"
Maisanguaq, caught by the evil contagion, began to sway his body in
rhythm to the weird dance.
"May Ootah become a cripple! May he break his bones! May he lie
helpless for years! May his shadow leave him! May he suffer with the
greatest of all pains!"
As he uttered this terrible curse, desiring that Ootah's shadow, wherein
exists the soul, might depart from his still-living body, and thus cause
the most excruciating bodily anguish, Sipsu sank exhausted to the
ground. He writhed in a paroxysm.
"May Ootah die slowly; may his legs die, may his hands die--yea, may
the spirits of his body be severed from one another as ice fields in the
breaking; may the spirit of his hands, the spirit of his feet, the spirit of
his lungs, the spirit of his head, the spirit of his heart wander
apart--may they be torn asunder as the clouds in a storm! May they
wander apart forever seeking and may they never find themselves! May
Ootah suffer as never suffered the unhappy dead!"
And Maisanguaq's deep voice growled hatefully:
"May Ootah's body lie unburied! May he rot upon the earth! May the

ravens peck out his eyes! May a murderer drink his blood! May the
wolves eat his heart! May the spirit of the fog grow fat upon his entrails!
And may the spirits of his body scatter--as the clouds in the wild anore
(winds) scatter! May his soul forever seek to find its kindred spirits
unavailingly and suffer in Sila, (throughout the universe) forever!"
From under a pile of skins Sipsu, his chant subsiding, brought forth a
bundle. Opening it, he revealed a collection of old bones; there were
the bones of musk oxen, seals, walrus and smaller animals.
"Yah-hah-hah! I shall create a tupilak!" he crooned vindictively. "I
shall create a tupilak! And from the depths of the waters the tupilak
shall see Ootah. Yah-hah-hah! I shall create a tupilak, and from the
hands of Sipsu it shall carry destruction to Ootah on the sea.
Yah-hah-hah!" He laughed crazily. Continuing his chant he constructed
of the bones a crude likeness to an animal skeleton. Over this he
sprinkled a handful of dried turf. Then, from beneath the cover of his
bed he brought a stone pot and from it poured a sluggish red liquid over
the strange object of his creation. This was a mixture of clotted animal
blood and water kept for such purposes of conjuration. This done, he
threw over the bones an aged sealskin. Then he rose to his feet, and in a
low voice uttered the secret formulas whereby, in the depths of the sea,
the result of his labor should take the form of an artificial