SKAI AND THE DANCING BEAR 141

could hardly stand still while the smiling trader
dressed him in the suit and cap, painted his face with
white chalk, added blue and red circles around the
eyes, made his mouth look larger, and drew strange
symbols on his cheeks and forehead and chin. When
the Haida lad was allowed to look at himself in the
mirror he could not believe that the face he saw was
really his own. When the trader assured him that it
was, he was horrified.

“How can it be mine?” he demanded, trembling
with fear. What magic had Mr. Williams performed
that caused him to look so different?—-so like a ter-
rible evil spirit! What awful thing had happened to
his skin, his eyes? Would he ever look like himself
again? Not until the amused trader had painted his
own face, showing the frightened lad how it was done,
and had explained that the clowns on the queen’s
island always appeared thus, was Skai comforted.

Finally Mr. Williams made him see that it was just
a trick of the white and red and blue sticks—“chalk,”
the trader called it—which could change one instantly
into a different, most appalling person. He was clever
enough, too, to grasp the possibilities of the wonder-
working sticks, and made up his mind that he would
learn to paint his face as Mr. Williams had done.
What fun it would be! He would frighten all the
village into believing that he was an evil spirit, that
he was Kali Koustli himself. How surprised they
would be when they found that it was only Skai the