A MYSTERY EXPLAINED. 
193 
" My father soon heard that he was a descendant of 
many generations of medicine-men in that tribe ; that 
he had in his possession many old pieces of skin, covered 
with strange marks, that had been handed down from 
father to son for many hundred years. The whole tribe 
believed that when Alaska was made, and raised up out 
of the ocean, the Ayans crossed the great waters from the 
west, and took possession of the new land." 
The Lost Tribes of Judaea ! " shouted Richard, almost 
upsetting the tent in his eagerness, as he sprang up and 
paced to and fro. Don't you remember, Ella, that one 
of the theories of scholars is that the tribes crossed 
Behring's Straits, and gradually changed their character 
as they became more fitted to the climate, until they 
were such men as we see now among the North American 
Indians ? " 
"Yes," replied Mrs. Button, no less eagerly, "and I 
noticed particularly that those two Ayans who camped 
with us the first night had a strong Jewish cast of coun- 
tenance. Go on, Peeschee! " 
The Fox had waited quietly, during these exclamations 
of surprise, and now continued. 
" One night the old Long Gray Beard fell asleep before 
his kettle, in which he was boiling herbs. One of those 
strange pieces of skin lay near him, forgotten for the 
moment. My father copied it exactly on a strip of birch 
bark, using a black coal from the fire. Before the medi- 
cine-man awoke, he had hidden this copy under his 
