people of Akatan. So, when the moon was up, I went down to the house of her mother, and
looked upon the goods of Yash-Noosh, which were piled by the door,–the goods of
Yash-Noosh, a strong hunter who had it in mind to be the father of the children of Unga.
Other young men had piled their goods there, and taken them away again; and each young
man had made a pile greater than the one before.
“And I laughed to the moon and the stars, and went to my own house where my wealth
was
stored. And many trips I made, till my pile was greater by the fingers of one hand than the
pile of Yash-Noosh. There were fish, dried in the sun and smoked; and forty hides of the
hair seal, and half as many of the fur, and each hide was tied at the mouth and big-bellied
AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH
15
with oil; and ten skins of bear which I killed in the woods when they came out in the
spring.
And there were beads and blankets and scarlet cloths, such as I got in trade from the
people who lived to the east, and who got them in trade from the people who lived still
beyond in the east. And I looked upon the pile of Yash-Noosh and laughed; for I was head
man in Akatan, and my wealth was greater than the wealth of all my young men, and my
fathers had done deeds, and given laws, and put their names for all time in the mouths of
the people.
“So, when the morning came, I went down to the beach, casting out of the corner of my
eye
at the house of the mother of Unga. My offer yet stood untouched. And the women smiled,
and said sly things one to the other. I wondered, for never had such a price been offered;
and that night I added more to the pile, and put beside it a kayak of well-tanned skins
which
never yet had swam in the sea. But in the day it was yet there, open to the laughter of all
men. The mother of Unga was crafty, and I grew angry at the shame in which I stood
before
my people. So that night I added till it became a great pile, and I hauled up my oomiak,
which was of the value of twenty kayaks. And in the morning there was no pile.
“Then made I preparation for the wedding, and the people that lived even to the east came
for the food of the feast and the potlach token. Unga was older than I by the age of four
suns in the way we reckoned the years. I was only a stripling; but then I was a chief, and
the son of a chief, and it did not matter.
“But a ship shoved her sails above the floor of the ocean, and grew larger with the breath
of the wind. From her scuppers she ran clear water, and the men were in haste and worked
hard at the pumps. On the bow stood a mighty man, watching the depth of the water and
giving commands with a voice of thunder. His eyes were of the pale blue of the deep
waters, and his head was maned like that of a sea lion. And his hair was yellow, like the
straw of a southern harvest or the manila rope-yarns which sailormen plait.
“Of late years we had seen ships from afar, but this was the first to come to the beach of
Akatan. The feast was broken, and the women and children fled to the houses, while we
men strung our bows and waited with spears in hand. But when the ship’s forefoot smelt
the
beach the strange men took no notice of us, being busy with their own work. With the
falling of the tide they careened the schooner and patched a great hole in her bottom. So
the women crept back, and the feast went on.
“When the tide rose, the sea wanderers kedged the schooner to deep water, and then came
among us. They bore presents and were friendly; so I made room for them, and out of the
largeness of my heart gave them tokens such as I gave all the guests; for it was my
wedding day, and I was head man in Akatan. And he with the mane of the sea lion was
there, so tall and strong that one looked to see the earth shake with the fall of his feet. He
AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH
16
looked much and straight at Unga, with his arms folded, so, and stayed till the sun went
away and the stars came out. Then he went down to his ship. After that I took Unga by the
hand and led her to my own house. And there was singing and great laughter, and the
women said sly things, after the manner of women at such times. But we did not care.
Then
the people left us alone and went home.
“The last noise had not died away, when the chief of the sea wanderers came in by the
door. And he had with him black bottles, from which we drank and made merry. You see,
I
was only a stripling, and had lived all my days on the edge of the world. So my blood
became as fire, and my heart as light as the froth that flies from the surf to the cliff. Unga
sat silent among the skins in the corner, her eyes wide, for she seemed to fear. And he with
the mane of the sea lion looked upon her straight and long. Then his men came in with
bundles of goods, and he piled before me wealth such as was not in all Akatan. There were
guns, both large and small, and powder and shot and shell, and bright axes and knives of
steel, and cunning tools, and strange things the like of which I had never seen. When he
showed me by sign that it was all mine, I thought him a great man to be so free; but, he
showed me also that Unga was to go away with him in his ship. Do you understand?–that
Unga was to go away with him in his ship. The blood of my fathers flamed hot on the
sudden, and I made to drive him through with my spear. But the spirit of the bottles had
stolen the life from my arm, and he took me by the neck, so, and knocked my head against
the wall of the house. And I was made weak like a newborn child, and my legs would no
more stand under me. Unga screamed, and she laid hold of the things of the house with her
hands, till they fell all about us as he dragged her to the door. Then he took her in his great
arms, and when she tore at his yellow hair laughed with a sound like that of the big bull
seal
in the rut.
“I crawled to the beach and called upon my people; but they were afraid. Only Yash-
Noosh
was a man, and they struck him on the head with an oar, till he lay with his face in the sand
and did not move. And they raised the sails to the sound of their songs, and the ship went
away on the wind.
“The people said it was good, for there would be no more war of the bloods in Akatan; but
I
said never a word, waiting till the time of the full moon, when I put fish and oil in my
kayak,
and went away to the east. I saw many islands and many people, and I, who had lived on
the
edge, saw that the world was very large. I talked by signs; but they had not seen a
schooner nor a man with the mane of a sea lion, and they pointed always to the east. And I
slept in queer places, and ate odd things, and met strange faces. Many laughed, for they
thought me light of head; but sometimes old men turned my face to the light and blessed
me, and the eyes of the young women grew soft as they asked me of the strange ship, and
AN ODYSSEY OF THE NORTH
17
Unga, and the men of the sea.
“And in this manner, through rough seas and great storms, came to Unalaska. There were
two schooners there, but neither was the one I sought. So I passed on to the east, with the
world growing ever larger, and in the Island of Unamok there was no word of the ship, nor
in Kadiak, nor in Atognak. And so I came one day to a rocky land, where men dug great
holes in the mountain. And there was a schooner, but not my schooner, and men loaded