68 THE BIG CANOE

about the ship, which is so much bigger than any of

bi the Haida canoes, and he wants to know all about the

gq sails and rigging. He wants to know where cedars

grow big enough to make a ship like this. He says,

too, that his father, the chief, is going to bring his

- warriors out to the ship in the morning, but that he

i desired to come on ahead of them so that he would
u be called the bravest of all.”

Weah soon lost his fear of the white strangers as
they pressed presents of knives and tools and strange
foods upon him. For hours the excited lad sat there
on the deck and devoured hard biscuits and molasses
which the sailors passed to him from time to time.
The grizzled old trader meanwhile questioned him
about the customs of the Haidas; about the halibut-
fishing; about the seal and otter skins; about the
different Haida tribes upon the great islands so far
from the mainland; about many other things which
the captain was eager to learn,

Weah was amazed to learn that the white men came
from a country far across the sea; from the country
where the sun hid in the night-time! As far away as
that! Weah did not know the shape of the earth, or
how many miles separated the British Isles from the
islands of the Haidas, but he knew it must be far
away, this strange country, because the Haidas had
never before heard of it, and the Haidas had been
farther north and south than any of the other Northern
tribes.