In reply the boy gave his charm song and again the magic flames circled about the uncle like a clinging garment. “Oh nephew, I yield,” he cried and handed over the case.
After much haggling the old man opened his bed once assured that success would come if he withstood one more test,—that of bodily torture by cold. “Your uncle will dream tonight and his word will be satisfied only by causing you to be divested of all clothing and tied to a bark toboggan and dragged ten times around the long house where you dwell. I know not that you will endure, for your magic is equal.”
As predicted the old man dreamed that his nephew strip the next morning, though the weather was extremely cold. “I must drag you around the lodge ten times,” said the uncle, but first I must bind you securely with thongs.”
“It will be very easy,” said the boy. “Really, it is nothing at all.”
Emerging from the door the boy stood in the intense cold and stripped himself, throwing his garments back into the lodge. “Now I am ready,” said he, and his uncle then bound him tightly with thongs, placing him on the bark toboggan.
After the first trip around the uncle called out, “Oh nephew, are you still alive?” And the boy answered, “Yes, uncle,” in his loudest tones.
For a second time the uncle made a circuit of the long house, which was the longest in the world, and again called out, “Oh nephew, are you alive?” receiving an answer just a bit fainter, “Yes, uncle.”
Each time around the uncle asked the same question and each time the answer was fainter until the ninth time his nephew’s voice was scarcely audible. So he made another circuit, thinking as he made it, “This time he is frozen as stiff as an icicle.”
So when he had completed his tenth round he spoke again, “Oh nephew, are you alive?” And to his great surprise the boy called in the most sprightly tones, “Yes uncle,” whereupon he was released of the cords and entered the lodge.
All this the boy reported to the skull who said, “On this night you shall dream, and you shall demand that your wizard uncle submit to the same ordeal. Allow him no mercy, for if he gains in one point all is lost.”