218 THE BIG CANOE

to show any interest in her plan, she told him that
she was going to visit the Haida encampments down
the bay and stole cautiously from the village before
old Doul could set her some other task. Along the
shore she hurried, careful to keep out of sight as
much as possible, until she reached a secret hiding-
place above the beach.

Here she sat down behind a huge boulder and
drew from a hole beneath it a small wonderfully
carved wooden doll with arms and legs that were
jointed and bound together with thongs of deerskin.
Very lifelike was this doll. Its face was round and
smiling, its lips were as red as ripe strawberries, its
eyes were pieces of blue abalone shell, and its head
was covered with real hair. Most wonderful of all,
it could make strange noises like those of a happy
baby—cooing, gurgling, laughing noises which had
won for it the name of the Talking Doll.

Famous was this doll among all the tribes far
up the Skeena. Among them the story of its origin
was known far and wide. Legend said that it was
the very first doll ever seen in the land of the Tsim-
shians; that Thaimshim himself had brought it from
his home across the sea and presented it to a lonely
maiden, one of Oala’s ancestors, in the days when
the world was still young and no doll had ever been
seen in the land.

Be that as it may, Oala knew that the doll had

been handed down from princess to princess in her