296 THE ESKIMO ABOUT BERING STRAIT [ETH. ANN. 18 
the food supply at their own home had been exhausted. They were a 
strong, energetic set of men, and, being bold and dishonest, did not 
hesitate to bully and otherwise terrify the more peaceable villagers into 
supplying them with food. 
In the morning after my arrival at Sledge island a knife was stolen 
from my box of trading goods, and on making this known to the head- 
man he sent out a small boy, who returned in a few moments with the 
knife, everyone apparently knowing who had committed the theft. 
A little later one of the King island men, who was sitting close by 
me, and who had traveled down the coast with the trader and myself 
the previous day, tried to steal a small article from me but was 
detected in the act, and I at once ordered him to leave the house. To 
this he paid no attention. I then seized him by the right arm, and 
when he saw that I was in earnest his face grew dark with passion, but 
he did not hesitate to take up his mittens and leave the room. He did 
not return during the day, but that evening when the people had left the 
room and the trader and myself were preparing for bed, we noticed that 
the headman of the village was still seated by the entrance way on the 
other side of the room, although everyone else had left and the family 
occupying the house were asleep. Making down our beds upon the 
floor, we wrapped ourselves in the blankets. We had a suspicion that 
the cause of the headmaw’s presence was due to the trouble that I had 
had with the King islander during the day, and I awoke several times 
during the night and found him sitting wakeful by the entrance hole. 
About 3 oclock the next morning I was awakened by a slight noise, 
and, raising my head cautiously, heard someone creeping in through the 
passageway. A moment later the head of the thief whom I had sent 
out and shamed before his companions the day before was thrust into 
the room. In an instant the watchful headman had taken him by the 
shoulder and spoke rapidly to him in an undertone. In a few minutes 
the King islander drew back and went away. The headman remained 
in his place until we arose in the morning. During the day we left 
the island and at a hut on the mainland encountered the same King 
islander, he having left the village immediately after going out of the 
house. 
I have always considered that the watch kept by the headman dur- 
ing that night was all that prevented an attempt by the King islander 
to obtain revenge for my having offended him. 
When we came to the first hut on the mainland, upon our return 
from the island, the Eskimo living there urged us to remain all night, 
and when we refused to do this he insisted on our going in to eat some 
crabs and dried fish with him before resuming our journey. 
Near Cape Darby we were welcomed in a cordial way and made to 
join in a feast of freshly killed seal, and in villages on the lower Yukon 
I met the same hospitable treatment. 
At some other places our reception was the reverse of this. In the 
