tasted and were made well I had mulcted Tummasook of his copper kettle
and kerosene can, and the woman Ipsukuk of her sugar and molasses, and
the other sick ones of goodly measures of flour. The shaman glowered
wickedly at the people around my knees, though he poorly concealed the
wonder that lay beneath. But I held my head high, and Moosu groaned
beneath the loot as he followed my heels to the shack.

"There I set to work. In Tummasook's copper kettle I mixed three quarts
of wheat flour with five of molasses, and to this I added of water twenty
quarts. Then I placed the kettle near the lamp, that it might sour in
the warmth and grow strong. Moosu understood, and said my wisdom passed
understanding and was greater than Solomon's, who he had heard was a wise
man of old time. The kerosene can I set over the lamp, and to its nose I
affixed a snout, and into the snout the bone that was like a gooseneck. I
sent Moosu without to pound ice, while I connected the barrel of his gun
with the gooseneck, and midway on the barrel I piled the ice he had
pounded. And at the far end of the gun-barrel, beyond the pan of ice, I
placed a small iron pot. When the brew was strong enough (and it was two
days ere it could stand on its own legs), I filled the kerosene can with
it, and lighted the wicks I had braided.

"Now that all was ready, I spoke to Moosu. 'Go forth,' I said, 'to the
chief men of the village, and give them greeting, and bid them come into
my igloo and sleep the night away with me and the gods.'

"The brew was singing merrily when they began shoving aside the skin flap
and crawling in, and I was heaping cracked ice on the gun-barrel. Out of
the priming hole at the far end, drip, drip, drip into the iron pot fell
the liquor--_hooch_, you know. But they'd never seen the like, and
giggled nervously when I made harangue about its virtues. As I talked I