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
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