They may be pleasant or unpleasant things , but not even the sorcerers care to speak about Quiquern . He makes the dogs go mad . Like the Spirit-Bear , he has several extra pairs of legs , -- six or eight , -- and this Thing jumping up and down in the haze had more legs than any real dog needed . Kotuko and the girl huddled into their hut quickly . Of course if Quiquern had wanted them , he could have torn it to pieces above their heads , but the sense of a foot-thick snow-wall between themselves and the wicked dark was great comfort . The gale broke with a shriek of wind like the shriek of a train , and for three days and three nights it held , never varying one point , and never lulling even for a minute . They fed the stone lamp between their knees , and nibbled at the half-warm seal-meat , and watched the black soot gather on the roof for seventy-two long hours . The girl counted up the food in the sleigh ; there was not more than two days ' supply , and Kotuko looked over the iron heads and the deer-sinew fastenings of his harpoon and his seal-lance and his bird-dart . There was nothing else to do . `` We shall go to Sedna soon -- very soon , '' the girl whispered . `` In three days we shall lie down and go . Will your tornaq do nothing ? Sing her an angekok 's song to make her come here . '' He began to sing in the high-pitched howl of the magic songs , and the gale went down slowly . In the middle of his song the girl started , laid her mittened hand and then her head to the ice floor of the hut . Kotuko followed her example , and the two kneeled , staring into each other 's eyes , and listening with every nerve . He ripped a thin sliver of whalebone from the rim of a bird-snare that lay on the sleigh , and , after straightening , set it upright in a little hole in the ice , firming it down with his mitten . It was almost as delicately adjusted as a compass-needle , and now instead of listening they watched . The thin rod quivered a little -- the least little jar in the world ; then it vibrated steadily for a few seconds , came to rest , and vibrated again , this time nodding to another point of the compass . `` Too soon ! ''
said XXXXX .
Kotuko Sedna Spirit-Bear bird-snare hours mitten nights seal-meat sleigh snow-wall