’And the women smiled, and said sly things one to the other.  I wondered, for never had such a price been offered; and that night I added more to the pile, and put beside it a kayak of well-tanned skins which never yet had swam in the sea.  But in the day it was yet there, open to the laughter of all men.  The mother of Unga was crafty, and I grew angry at the shame in which I stood before my people.  So that night I added till it became a great pile, and I hauled up my oomiak, which was of the value of twenty kayaks.  And in the morning there was no pile.

’Then made I preparation for the wedding, and the people that lived even to the east came for the food of the feast and the potlatch token.  Unga was older than I by the age of four suns in the way we reckoned the years.  I was only a stripling; but then I was a chief, and the son of a chief, and it did not matter.

’But a ship shoved her sails above the floor of the ocean, and grew larger with the breath of the wind.  From her scuppers she ran clear water, and the men were in haste and worked hard at the pumps.  On the bow stood a mighty man, watching the depth of the water and giving commands with a voice of thunder.  His eyes were of the pale blue of the deep waters, and his head was maned like that of a sea lion.  And his hair was yellow, like the straw of a southern harvest or the manila rope yarns which sailormen plait.

’Of late years we had seen ships from afar, but this was the first to come to the beach of Akatan.  The feast was broken, and the women and children fled to the houses, while we men strung our bows and waited with spears in hand.  But when the ship’s forefoot smelled the beach the strange men took no notice of us, being busy with their own work.  With the falling of the tide they careened the schooner and patched a great hole in her bottom.  So the women crept back, and the feast went on.

’When the tide rose, the sea wanderers kedged the schooner to deep water and then came among us.  They bore presents and were friendly; so I made room for them, and out of the largeness of my heart gave them tokens such as I gave all the guests, for it was my wedding day, and I was head man in Akatan.  And he with the mane of the sea lion was there, so tall and strong that one looked to see the earth shake with the fall of his feet.  He looked much and straight at Unga, with his arms folded, so, and stayed till the sun went away and the stars came out.  Then he went down to his ship.  After that I took Unga by the hand and led her to my own house.  And there was singing and great laughter, and the women said sly things, after the manner of women at such times.  But we did not care.  Then the people left us alone and went home.