216 THE BIG CANOE

top from time to time and put away in wooden boxes
to cool.

As soon as their task was completed, Oala and
her companions hurried toward the roaring driftwood
fires around which nearly all the slaves in the vil-
lage were gathered. Here, in the warmth of the blaze,
Oala rested for a while beside her beloved twin,
Kona, the crippled one, who sat with his back against
a chest of grease, carving masks for his Niska masters.
For a time the brother and sister conversed in low
tones, unheeded by any of the others; Oala, eager
and enthusiastic, her eyes shining with excitement;
Kona, sullen and listless.

When they were alone together, the twins always
discussed the subject nearest Kona’s heart. Year after
year when the tribes gathered on the Nass in the
springtime, he had watched the Haidas from afar,
admiring their chiefs and the happy, contented faces
of their people. He had longed to live among those
Haida warriors ever since that dreadful day when
he and Oala, alone of all their tribe, had been spared
by a fierce and relentless enemy in a raid on his
father’s village. Twin children of a great chief, they
had been honored and respected until that day, as
twins have always been reverenced among the Tsim-
shians from ancient times. Even after their capture
they had been treated well by the enemy who feared
their magic powers, so that they had known nothing