simmering with a singing noise. To the nose of 

 the can was affixed a rude kind of gooseneck, 

 contrived from a large, hollow bone; and from 

 this the barrel of a gun projected to one side, 

 passing through a kind of pan which Hoonakia 

 was heaping up with bits of ice. At the far end 

 of the gun-barrel, on the other side of the pan 

 of ice, was set a little copper kettle, into which 

 dripped a tiny stream of liquor. 



Hoonakia's broad, greasy face expanded in an 

 unctuous smile. She was partly intoxicated 

 herself, yet she was not so drunk that she could 

 not attend to the still — for that was what the 

 rude contrivance amounted to. 



" Yeh, yeh, yeh!" she cried, pointing to a 

 great basket, set near her, stuffed full of furs, 

 skin parkas, mittens, moccasins, and so forth, 

 which she had obtained in exchange for her 

 liquor. Then, laughing uproariously all the 

 while, she summoned the imperfect English she 

 had picked up from the whalemen, and said to me, 

 ' ' You come buj^? You want me glet you dlunk? " 



"Oh, the dreadful creature !" my wife mur- 

 mured, hopelessly. 



"All dlunk!" Hoonakia continued, pointing 

 gleefully to the prostrated natives about the 

 floor, and then patting her basket of furs, she 

 said: "Me glet good Mmo," which meant she 

 was driving good bargains. 



I approached to examine the still, and Hoona- 

 kia, laughing all the time, explained its work- 

 ings with great pride. 



Her method was to mix about five quarts of 

 molasses and three of wheat flour in five gallons 

 of water, and allow it to ferment in the warm 

 hut. The large can, containing the "brew," 

 was then placed over a cooking-lamp and boiled. 

 The vapor from the boiling mess was driven up 

 through the bone gooseneck and into the gun- 

 barrel, which served as the "woi'm." In the 

 gun-barrel, it was condensed by the constant 

 exterior application of ice, so that there dripped 

 out of the priming-hole end of the barrel as fiery 

 and mischievous a liquor as was ever distilled 

 by a Tennessee "moonshiner." 



We went home much depressed. There was, 

 indeed, cause for uneasiness. During the next 

 three w^eeks the village was in an uproar night 

 and day. One woman was beaten nearly to 

 death in a brawl. A man had been stabbed and 

 a girl, named Taskekia, had disappeared ; no one 

 knew where she had gone. 



It is almost needless to say that the school 

 suffered. Our pupils often failed to attend ; and 

 when they appeared they were hungry or ill 

 from exposure. At times intoxicated women 

 and men would come to the schoolhouse to take 

 away their children, and would berate and some- 

 times beat them. Altogether, the change in tlie 

 village was most lamentable. Many of the men 

 had altogether ceased to hunt, and had even ex- 

 changed their walrus lances and guns for liquor. 



With crafty forethouglit Hoonakia had traded 

 for every sack of wheat flour and all the molas- 



36 



