se upon the beach. Then we
were greeted by what seemed rather too warm a reception--a shower of
bullets falling unpleasantly around us. Instinctively Muir and I ceased
to paddle, but Tow-a-att commanded, "_Ut-ha, ut-ha!_--pull, pull!" and
slowly, amid the dropping bullets, we zigzagged our way up the channel
towards the village. As we drew near the shore a line of runners
extended down the beach to us, keeping within shouting distance of each
other. Then came the questions like bullets--"_Gusu-wa-eh?_--Who are
you? Whence do you come? What is your business here?" And Stickeen John
shouted back the reply:

"A great preacher-chief and a great ice-chief have come to bring you a
good message."

The answer was shouted back along the line, and then returned a message
of greeting and welcome. We were to be the guests of the chief of
Yin-des-tuk-ki, old Don-na-wuk (Silver Eye), so called because he was in
the habit of wearing on all state occasions a huge pair of silver-bowed
spectacles which a Russian officer had given him. He confessed he could
not see through them, but thought they lent dignity to his countenance.
We paddled slowly up to the village, and Muir and I, watching with
interest, saw the warriors all disappear. As our prow touched the sand,
however, here they came, forty or fifty of them, without their guns this
time, but charging down upon us with war-cries, "_Hoo-hooh, hoo-hooh_,"
as if they were going to take us prisoners. Dashing into the water they
ranged themselves along each side of the canoe; then lifting up our
canoe with us in it they rushed with excited cries up the bank to the
chief's house and set us down at his door. It was the Thlinget way of
paying us honor as great guests.

Then we were solemnly ushered into the presence of Don-na-wuk. His house
was large, covering about fifty by sixty feet of ground. The interior
was built in the usual fashion of a chief's house--carved corner posts,
a square of gravel in the center of the room for the fire surrounded by
great hewn cedar planks set on edge; a platform of some six feet in
width running clear around the room; then other planks on edge and a
high platform, where the chieftain's household goods were stowed and
where the family took their repose. A brisk fire was burning in the
middle of the room; and after a short palaver, with gifts of tobacco and
rice to the chief, it was announced that he would pay us the
distinguished honor of feasting us first