THE BIG CANOE

, my father’s house; I thought of the happy evenings
1 among my people. I thought of all these things and
7 could hardly resist the temptation to turn southward.
= One night I dreamed that I was sitting upon a rock
by the shore, utterly discouraged, when a seal climbed
up beside me and spoke to me in the Haida tongue,
asking the reason for my sorrow. When I replied, tell-
ing her my story, she gazed at me with eyes that
seemed to look into my heart, and spoke these words:

“Far up in the Northland there are animals which
no Haida has ever looked upon,” she said. ‘‘We seals
call them the Ancient Ones, because they have stood
there in a great ice cave for more moons than there
are seals in the ocean; they have stood there, with-
out doubt, since the very beginning of time. Strange
and terrible to look upon are these animals. If you
have the strength and courage to journey to this far-
off cave, you will see for yourself that I speak truly
when I say that there are no other animals in all the
land like these.”

“I will go!” I cried out eagerly. “Only tell me
where the cave may be found and I will at once begin
a search for it.”

“Go north, always north,” the seal directed, “fol-
lowing the shore all the way until you come to the
land of ice and snow where the years are divided into
two seasons—one long day and one long night. That
is the land where the magic tongues of flame stream
high into the heavens and snap and crackle like an