PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
285 
back by a wave ; and when the wind is on the side, they have the CHAP, 
greatest difficulty in keeping them in the right direction. 
The shallowness of the water obliged our boat to land a short August, 
distance from the village; and the natives, who by this time had hauled 
up their baidar, walked down to meet us with their arms drawn in from 
their sleeves, and tucked up inside their frocks. They were also very 
particular that every one of them should salute us, which they did by 
licking their hands, and drawing them first over their own faces and 
bodies, and then over ours. 'This was considered the most friendly 
manner in which they could receive us, and they were officiously desirous 
of ingratiating themselves with us ; but they would on no account suffer 
us to approach their tents; and, when we ui'ged it, seemed deter- 
mined to resist, even with their weapons, which were carefully laid out 
upon a low piece of ground near them. They were resolved, never- 
theless, that we should partake of their hospitality, and seating us upon 
a rising ground, placed before us strips of blubber in wooden bowls, 
and whortle berries mashed up with fat and oil, or some such hetero- 
geneous substance, for we did not taste it. Seeing we would not partake 
of their fare, they commenced a brisk traffic with dried salmon, of which 
we procured a great quantity. Generally speaking, they were honest 
in their dealings, leaving their goods with us, when they were in doubt 
about a bargain, until they had referred it to a second person, or more 
commonly to some of the old women. If they approved of it, our offer 
was accepted ; if not, they took back their goods. On several occasions, 
however, they tried to impose upon us with fish-skins, ingeniously put 
together to represent a whole fish, though entirely deprived of their 
original contents ; but this artifice succeeded only once : the natives, 
when detected in other attempts, laughed heartily, and treated the affair 
as a fair practical joke. Their cunning and invention were further ex- 
hibited in the great pains which they took to make us understand, before 
we parted, that the flour had been stolen by a party who had absconded 
on seeing the ship. Their gestures clearly intimated to us that the 
attention of this party had been attracted to the spot by the newly 
turned earth, though we had replaced it very carefully; on which, it 
appears, they began to dig, and, to their great surprise and joy no 
