“Ay, with a voice like thunder I cried aloud:  ’Behold, O ye people!  I am Lone Chief, slayer of Skolka, the false shaman!  Alone among men, have I passed down through the gateway of Death and returned again.  Mine eyes have looked upon the unseen things.  Mine ears have heard the unspoken words.  Greater am I than Skolka, the shaman.  Greater than all shamans am I. Likewise am I a greater chief than my father, the Otter.  All his days did he fight with the Mukumuks, and lo, in one day have I destroyed them all.  As with the breathing of a breath have I destroyed them.  Wherefore, my father, the Otter, being old, and Skolka, the shaman, being dead, I shall be both chief and shaman.  Henceforth shall I be both chief and shaman to you, O my people.  And if any man dispute my word, let that man stand forth!’

“I waited, but no man stood forth.  Then I cried:  ’Hoh!  I have tasted blood!  Now bring meat, for I am hungry.  Break open the caches, tear down the fish-racks, and let the feast be big.  Let there be merriment, and songs, not of burial, but marriage.  And last of all, let the girl Kasaan be brought.  The girl Kasaan, who is to be the mother of the children of Lone Chief!’

“And at my words, and because that he was very old, my father, the Otter, wept like a woman, and put his arms about my knees.  And from that day I was both chief and shaman.  And great honor was mine, and all men yielded me obedience.”

“Until the steamboat came,” Mutsak prompted.

“Ay,” said Lone Chief.  “Until the steamboat came.”

KEESH, THE SON OF KEESH

“Thus will I give six blankets, warm and double; six files, large and hard; six Hudson Bay knives, keen-edged and long; two canoes, the work of Mogum, The Maker of Things; ten dogs, heavy-shouldered and strong in the harness; and three guns—­the trigger of one be broken, but it is a good gun and can doubtless be mended.”

Keesh paused and swept his eyes over the circle of intent faces.  It was the time of the Great Fishing, and he was bidding to Gnob for Su-Su his daughter.  The place was the St. George Mission by the Yukon, and the tribes had gathered for many a hundred miles.  From north, south, east, and west they had come, even from Tozikakat and far Tana-naw.

“And further, O Gnob, thou art chief of the Tana-naw; and I, Keesh, the son of Keesh, am chief of the Thlunget.  Wherefore, when my seed springs from the loins of thy daughter, there shall be a friendship between the tribes, a great friendship, and Tana-naw and Thlunget shall be brothers of the blood in the time to come.  What I have said I will do, that will I do.  And how is it with you, O Gnob, in this matter?”

Gnob nodded his head gravely, his gnarled and age-twisted face inscrutably masking the soul that dwelt behind.  His narrow eyes burned like twin coals through their narrow slits, as he piped in a high-cracked voice, “But that is not all.”