THE HIDDEN ISLAND 9

only on certain occasions. There was the war-bonnet,
decorated with fox tails, painting, or embroidery.
There was the highly prized ceremonial hat worn by
royalty, with its towering crown of finely woven
cylinders, placed one above the other. The wide-
brimmed, high-crowned canoe hat, worn by all, often
bore the painted totemic design of the owner. It was
such a hat as this that Kilsa prized so highly because
it had been her mother’s.

“We shall soon recover your precious hat,” Kahala
promised. “It will not sink and we shall soon reach
aba

Nevertheless they did not catch up with the hat,
though they paddled steadily toward it. One long
swell after another carried the light object forward so
fast that, paddle as they would, it always remained at
about the same distance ahead of the canoe. Late in
the afternoon the sea became calmer and they bega1.
to gain upon it.

“We shall soon rescue it,” Kilsa declared, with a
sigh of relief. “See how we are gaining! We shall
soon reach it, Kahala.”

Scarcely had she spoken, however, when a big bird
with an orange crest swooped down out of the sky and
seized the hat in his curved bill. Away over the sea
he flew with it, his flight jerky and uncertain as the
wide hat flapped against his breast and wings. Kahala
seized his bow and arrows and would have shot it,
had not Kilsa seized his arm.