)
to know what one's enemies are planning and plotting, and all their
tricks and darkened paths; and in this Glooskap went beyond them all,
for before his time every one went his own way, even in wickedness. But
Glooskap first of all threw out his soul unto others.
And when he came to Ogumkeok he found a hut, and in it, seated over a
fire, the ugliest old hag he had ever seen, trembling in every limb, as
if near death, dirty, ragged, and loathsome in all ways. Looking up at
him with bleared eyes, she begged him to gather her a little firewood,
which he did. And then she prayed him to free her from the _wah
gook_(M.), or vermin, with which she was covered, and which were
maddening her with their bites. These were all devils in disguise, the
spirits of foul poison, such as she deemed must kill even the Master.
Now Glooskap, foreseeing all this, had taken with him, as he came, from
a bog many cranberries. And bidding Pook-jin-skwess bend over, he began
to take from her hair the hideous vermin, and each, as he took it,
became a horrid porcupine or toad. [Footnote: In the Eskimo mythology,
_Arnarkuagsak_, the old woman of the sea, is tormented by vermin
about her head. These are really the souls of still-born or murdered
infants, who have become imps. The first thing which the _angakok_
or sorcerer, who visits her must do is to free her from these pests.
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