THE GREAT ALEUTIAN CHAIN. 171 



would cause the old preceptors to repeat over and over again the 

 same advice or legend in the course of a lecture. The respect of 

 the children, however, never allowed or occasioned an interruption 

 of such a senile oration. 



But to-day their education, in so far as the strict sense of the 

 term goes, is received from the priests and deacons of the Greek 

 Church. They seem to have abandoned all the shamanism, the 

 mummery and savagery of their primitive lives eagerly and willing- 

 ly for those practices and precepts of the Christian faith ; in this 

 strange accord the Kadiakers also joined. No recourse to violent 

 measures was ever resorted to by the Russian missionaries, who 

 were always met more than half-way by these singular heathen. 

 An Aleut is the better Christian when fairly compared with the 

 Kaniag the latter is not half as sincere or faithful. 



Stepan Glottov, in 1759, wintered, first of all white men, at 

 Oomnak Island, and he lived there then in perfect peace and quiet 

 with the natives ; so amicable were his relations with these people, 

 that he persuaded their chief to be baptized, and to allow a little 

 son to go with Glottov to Kamchatka, where the youth lived 

 several years, then returned, well versed in the Russian language, 

 and assumed the title of supreme chief of the Aleutians ; this is the 

 earliest record made of the conversion of these people. In 1795 the 

 first priest or missionary came among them ; and never, from that 

 time to the present moment, has a representative of that church 

 ever been treated otherwise than well by these islanders. 



The Aleutian brain has streaks of genuine philosophy and a 

 keen sense of humor. A priest once reproached an aged sire for 

 allowing a worthless son to worry and vex the household. "Why, 

 Ivan," said he, " do you, who are so good, and Natalie, your wife, 

 also most excellent, permit this rude child to so deport himself ? " 

 "Ah, father," replied the old man with great emotion, "not out of 

 every sweet root grows a sweet plant ! " 



This inherent religious disposition of the Aleut is the reason 

 why we find a Greek church or a chapel in every little hamlet 

 where his people live. The exclusion of all other sects, however, 

 is natural, since the character of the ornate service and frequent 

 " prazniks," or festivals of that chosen denomination, suits him best. 

 The Greek Catholic Bishop of the Alaskan diocese now resides in 

 Oonalashka. He used to make Sitka his headquarters, but the de- 

 population of the whites there after the transfer of the country 



