'It's perfectly splendid! There you have a floor to dance upon, as flat
as a pancake, half-thawed snow, with moss. There were bones of whales
and Polar bears lying about; they looked like the legs and arms of
giants covered with green mould. One would think that the sun had never
shone on them. I gave a little puff to the fog so that one could see the
shed. It was a house built of wreckage and covered with the skins of
whales; the flesh side was turned outwards; it was all red and green; a
living Polar bear sat on the roof growling. I went to the shore and
looked at the birds' nests, looked at the unfledged young ones screaming
and gaping; then I blew down thousands of their throats and they learnt
to shut their mouths. Lower down the walruses were rolling about like
monster maggots with pigs' heads and teeth a yard long!'

'You're a good story-teller, my boy!' said his mother. 'It makes my
mouth water to hear you!'

'Then there was a hunt! The harpoons were plunged into the walruses'
breasts, and the steaming blood spurted out of them like fountains over
the ice. Then I remembered my part of the game! I blew up and made my
ships, the mountain-high icebergs, nip the boats; whew! how they
whistled and how they screamed, but I whistled louder. They were obliged
to throw the dead walruses, chests and ropes out upon the ice! I shook
the snow-flakes over them and let them drift southwards to taste the
salt water. They will never come back to Behring Island!'

'Then you've been doing evil!' said the mother of the winds.

'What good I did, the others may tell you,' said he. 'But here we have
my brother from the west; I like him best of all; he smells of the sea