"The Country of the Chilcats 



little ones circled around the fire, was very good. There 

 was no laughter when the strange singing commenced. 

 They only gazed like curious, intelligent animals. A 

 little daughter of the chief with the glow of the fire- 

 light on her eyes made an interesting picture, head 

 held aslant. Another in the group, with upturned 

 eyes, seeming to half understand the strange words 

 about God, might have passed for one of Raphael's 

 angels. 



The chiefs house was about forty feet square, of 

 the ordinary fort kind, but better built and cleaner 

 •than usual. The side-room doors were neatly paneled, 

 though all the lumber had been nibbled into shape 

 with a small narrow Indian adze. We had our tent 

 pitched on a grassy spot near the beach, being afraid 

 of wee beasties; which greatly offended Kadachan 

 and old Toyatte, who said, "If this is the way you are 

 to do up at Chilcat, we will be ashamed of you." We 

 promised them to eat Indian food and in every way 

 behave like good Chilcats. 



We set out direct for Chilcat in the morning against 

 a brisk head wind. By keeping close inshore and work- 

 ing hard, we made about ten miles by two or three 

 o'clock, when, the tide having turned against us, we 

 could make scarce any headway, and therefore landed 

 in a sheltered cove a few miles up the west side of 

 Lynn Canal. Here I discovered a fine growth of yellow 

 cedar, but none of the trees were very large, the tall- 

 est only seventy-five to one hundred feet high. The 

 flat, drooping, plume-like branchlets hang edgewise, 

 giving the trees a thin, open, airy look. Nearly every 



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