THE ISLAND HOME OF KALITAN
SWIFT and even were the strokes of the paddles as the canoes sped over
the water toward Kalitan's island home. Ted was so excited that he could
hardly sit still, and Tyee Klake gave him a warning glance and a
muttered "Kooletchika."[7]
The day before a big canoe had come to the camp, the paddlers bearing
messages for the Tyee, and he had had a long conversation with Mr.
Strong. The result was astonishing to Teddy, for his father told him
that he was to go for a month to the island with Kalitan. This delighted
him greatly, but he was a little frightened when he found that his
father was to stay behind.
"It's just this way, son," Mr. Strong explained to him. "I'm here in
government employ, taking government pay to do government work. I must
do it and do it well in the shortest time possible. You will have a far
better time on the island with Kalitan than you could possibly have
loafing around the camp here. You couldn't go to many places where I am
going, and, if my mind is easy about you, I can take Chetwoof and do my
work in half the time. I'll come to the island in three or four weeks,
and we'll take a week's vacation together, and then we'll hit the trail
for the gold-fields. Are you satisfied with this arrangement?"
"Yes, sir." Ted's tone was dubious, but his face soon cleared up. "A
month won't be very long, father."
"No, I'll wager you'll be sorry to leave when I come for you. Try and
not make any trouble. Of course Indian ways are not ours, but you'll get
used to it all and enjoy it. It's a chance most boys would be crazy
over, and you'll have tales to tell when you get home to make your
playmates envy you. I'm glad I have a son I can trust to keep straight
when he is out of my sight," and he laid his hand affectionately on the
boy's shoulder. Ted looked his father squarely in the eye, but gave only
a little nod in answer, then he laughed his clear, ringing laugh.
"Wouldn't mother have spasms!" he exclaimed. Mr. Strong laughed too, but
said:
"You'll be just as well off tumbling around with Kalitan as falling off
a glacier or two, as you would be certain to do if you were with me."
Teddy felt a little blue when he said good-bye to his father, but
Kalitan quickly dispelled his gloom by a great piece of news.
"Great time on island," he said, as the canoe glided toward the dim
outline of land to which Ted's thoughts had so often turned. "Tyee's
whale came ashore. We go to see him cut up."
"Hurrah!" cried Ted, delighted. "To think I shall see all that! What
else will we do, Kalitan?"
"Hunt, fish, hear old Kala-kash stories. See berry dance if you stay
long enough, perhaps a potlatch; do many things," said the Indian.
One of the Indian paddlers said something to Kalitan, and he laughed a
little, and Ted asked, curiously: "What did he say?"
"Said Kalitan Tenas learned to talk as much as a Boston boy," said
Kalitan, laughing heartily, and Ted laughed, too.
The canoes were nearing the shore of a wooded island, and Ted saw a
fringe of trees and some native houses clustered picturesquely against
them at the crest of a small hill which sloped down to the water's
edge, where stood a group of people awaiting the canoes.
[Illustration: "A GROUP OF PEOPLE AWAITING THE CANOES."]
"My home," said Kalitan, pointing to the largest house, "my people."
There was a great deal of pride in his tone and look, and he received a
warm welcome as the canoes touched land and their occupants sprang on
shore. The boys crowded around the young Indian and chattered and
gesticulated toward Ted, while a bright-looking little Malamute sprang
upon Kalitan and nearly knocked him down, covering his face with eager
puppy kisses.
The girls were less boisterous, and regarded Teddy with shy curiosity.
Some of them were quite pretty, and the babies were as cunning as the
puppies. They barked every time the dogs did, in a funny, hoarse little
way, and, indeed, Alaskan babies learn to bark long before they learn to
talk.
The Tyee's wife received Teddy kindly, and he soon found himself
quite at home among these hospitable people, who seemed always friendly
and natural. Nearly all spoke some English, and he rapidly added to his
store of Chinook, so that he had no trouble in making himself understood
or in understanding. Of course he missed his father, but he had little
time to be lonely. Life in the village was anything but uneventful.
At first there was the whale to be attended to, and all the village
turned out for that. The huge creature had drifted ashore on the farther
side of the island, and Ted was much interested in seeing him gradually
disposed of. Great masses of blubber were stripped from the sides to be
used later both for food and fuel, the whalebone was carefully secured
to be sold to the traders, and it seemed to Ted that there was not one
thing in that vast carcass for which the Indians did not have some use.
Ted soon tired of watching the many things done with the whale, but
there was plenty to do and see in the village.
The village houses were all alike. There was one large room in which the
people cooked, ate, and slept. The girls had blankets strung across one
corner, behind which were their beds. Teddy was given one also for his
corner of the great room in the Tyee's house.
He learned to eat the food and to like it very much. There was dried
fish, herons' eggs, berries, or those put up in seal oil, which is
obtained by frying the fat out of the blubber of the seal. The Alaskans
use this oil in nearly all their cooking, and are very fond of it. Ted
ate also dried seaweed, chopped and boiled in seal oil, which tasted
very much like boiled and salted leather, but he liked it very well.
Indeed he grew so strong and well, out-of-doors all day in the clear air
and bright sunshine of the Alaskan June, that he could eat anything and
tramp all day without being too tired to sleep like a top all night,
and wake ready for a new day with a zest he never felt at home.
Fresh fish were plentiful. The boys caught salmon, smelts, and
whitefish, and many were dried for the coming winter, while clams,
gum-boots, sea-cucumbers, and devil-fish, found on the rocks of the
shore, were every-day diet.
Kalitan's sister and Ted became great friends. She was older than
Kalitan, and, though only fifteen, was soon to be married to Tah-ge-ah,
a fine young Indian who was ready to pay high for her, which was not
strange, for she was both pretty and sweet.
"At the next full moon," said Kalitan, "there will be a potlatch, and
Tanana will be sold to Tah-ge-ah. He says he will give four hundred
blankets for her, and my uncle is well pleased. Many only pay ten
blankets for a wife, but of course we would not sell my sister for that.
She is of high caste, chief's daughter, niece, and sister," the boy
spoke proudly, and Ted answered:
"She's so pretty, too. She's not like the Indian girls I saw at Wrangel
and Juneau. Why, there the women sat around as dirty as dogs on the
sidewalk, and didn't seem to care how they looked. They had baskets to
sell, and were too lazy to care whether any one bought them or not. They
weren't a bit like Tanana. She's as pretty as a Japanese."
Kalitan smiled, well pleased, and Ted added, "I guess the Thlinkits must
be the best Indians in Alaska."
Kalitan laughed outright at this.
"Thlinkits pretty good," he said. "Tanana good girl. She learned much
good at the mission school, marry Tah-ge-ah, and make people better. She
can weave blankets, make fine baskets, and keep house like a white
girl."
"She's all right," said Ted. "But, Kalitan, what is a potlatch?"
"Potlatch is a good-will feast," said his friend. "Very fine thing, but
white men do not like. Say Indian feasts are all bad. Why is it bad when
an Indian gives away all his goods for others? That is what a great
potlatch is. When white men give us whiskey and it is drunk too much,
then it is very bad. But Tyee will not have that for Tanana's feast. We
will drink only quass,[8] as my people made it before they learned evil
drinks and fire-water, which make them crazy."
"I guess Tyee Klake was right when he said all men were alike," said
Ted, sagely. "It seems to me that there are good and bad ones in all
countries. It's a pity you have had such bad white ones here in Alaska,
but I guess you have had good ones, too."
"Plenty good, plenty bad, Thlinkit men and Boston men," said Kalitan,
"all same."
FOOTNOTES:
[7] "Dangerous channel."
[8] Quass is a native drink, harmless and acid, made with rye and water
fermented. The bad Indians mix it with sugar, flour, dried apples, and
hops, and make a terribly intoxicating drink.