102 Snapshots from the North Pactfe.

blue line on the sea, a proof of a coming breeze. So we
hurried back to the boat, and before we could push off the
cat’s-paw reached us. How it cooled our brows! My
broad brims shaded me from the sun’s direct rays, but their
reflections from the sea-mirror came up from the deep to
tan us. Indians used to believe that spirits lived under
water, and during storms, especially in a tide race, caused
the trouble. Here was a sun-god, as fishlike as Dagon,
bathing in the calm deep, but the breeze brings
him to the surface. The hght sparkling on the waves
in the line of the sun they call shiwm giamuk, or the feet
of the sun.

“The only sound now breaking the ocean silence since
we parted from the birds was from the wavelets lapping
against the bow of the boat and the creaking boom. We
lapsed into silence. JI was steering. Near me sat the
Haida counting eggs, and beyond sat the Zimshian, one
of my former pupils who had lived under my roof nearly
eight years. ‘May I read?’ he asked. ‘Certainly,’ I
replied. He was absorbed. ‘Let me hear what you read ;
what is it?’ Turning the back of the octavo towards me
he said, ‘Pearson on the Creed. I am reading the second
article.’ So there we were borne slowly along on the broad
Pacific by the gentle breath of heaven, while an Indian,
whose parents had been Heathen, read with intelligence to
his Bishop the proofs that ‘ Jesus is Lord’ and ‘our’ Lord!
He would occasionally stop to ask the meaning of hard
words, such as ‘ presage,’ ‘ invalid,’ ‘economical,’ “ immarces-
sible.’ Suddenly looking up, he asked, ‘ What is the differ-
ence between attrition and contrition?’ “Why do you
ask? It is not on that page.’ ‘Oh, I came to them in my
reading some time ago, and my dictionary said both meant
“rubbing.” I couldn’t understand it.’ ‘Well,’ said I,
‘attrition means fecling a little sorry about some bad thine :
contrition is real sorrow for felt sin. ‘ Ah, one is the crying
of the eyes, the other of the heart.’ I assented. “What are
the tripods of Vulean?’ ‘What?’ I exclaimed. ‘The

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