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INVOKED THE SPIRITS "This fire protects you here, it will make even the wolves stay away," the old man said, the light from the flames reflected in his glasses. "It's like the trees all around us. They are the staff of life: the nether world of the roots below are connected to middle age, the trunk, and then the heavens are up above in the branches. Welcome." Vasily talks slowly, evenly, and often stops to mutter "eh-heh." Bill later remarks on how closely these mannerisms resemble those of the Eskimos several thousand miles to the east across the Bering Strait. |
