te to demonstrate his horror of what he calls "the white man's
unkindness." In a very wide and varied experience with many tribes, I
have yet to find even one instance of avarice, and I have encountered
but one single case of a "stingy Indian," and this man was so marked
amongst his fellows that at mention of his name his tribes-people
jeered and would remark contemptuously that he was like a white
man--hated to share his money and his possessions. All red races are
born Socialists, and most tribes carry out their communistic ideas to
the letter. Amongst the Iroquois it is considered disgraceful to have
food if your neighbor has none. To be a creditable member of the
nation you must divide your possessions with your less fortunate
fellows. I find it much the same amongst the Coast Indians, though
they are less bitter in their hatred of the extremes of wealth and
poverty than are the Eastern tribes. Still, the very fact that they
have preserved this legend, in which they liken avarice to a slimy
sea-serpent, shows the trend of their ideas; shows, too, that an Indian
is an Indian, no matter what his tribe; shows that he cannot or will
not hoard money; shows that his native morals demand that the spirit of
greed must be strangled at all cost.

The Chief and I had sat long over our luncheon. He had been talking of
his trip to England and of the many curious things he had seen. At
last, in an outburst of enthusiasm, he said: "I saw everything in the
world--everything but a sea-serpent!"

"But there is no such thing as a sea-serpent," I laughed, "so you must
have really seen everything in the world."

His face clouded; for a moment he sat in silence; then looking directly
at me said, "Maybe none now, but long ago there was one here--in the
Inlet."

"How long ago?" I asked.

"When first the white gold-hunters came," he replied. "Came with
greedy, clutching fingers, greedy eyes, greedy hearts. The white men
fought, murdered, starved, went mad with love of that gold far up the
Fraser River. Tillicums were tillicums no more, brothers were foes,
fathers and sons were enemies. Their love of the gold was a curse."

"Was it then the sea-serpent was seen?" I asked, perplexed with the
problem of trying to connect the gold-seekers with such a monster.

"Yes, it was then, but----"--he hesitated, then plunged into the
assertion, "but you will not believe the story if you think there is no
such thing as a sea-serpent."