All that day the people visited the tree to look at the branch which the
chief had pulled out, and in choosing the strongest men among them who
had bathed with him in the sea, to hunt the sea-lions. The store of meat
they had in the town was nearly exhausted, and it was time they
collected more; but the island on which the animals lived was very
slippery, and it was not easy for the men to climb over the rocks.
* * * * *
That night Blackskin took one more bath and then he went to his uncle's
wife, who never made fun of him like the rest, and said:
'Will you give me a clean shirt and something for my hair?'
'Have you been bidden to the hunt?' asked the wife, and Blackskin made
reply:
'No; I have not been bidden, but I am going.' So she got ready some food
and tied it up in a small package for him, and gave him the clean shirt
and what he wanted for his hair.
He was the last to reach the canoe, and the men who were seated in it
cried when they beheld him:
'Don't let him come! Don't let him come!' But Blackskin was determined
to get in, and seized the canoe as they were pushing it off. In vain
they struck his fingers to force him to let go; and to their amazement
he easily dragged back the canoe, till it was near enough for him to
jump in. Finding they could not keep him out, the men began to speak
rudely to him, till the chief stopped them.
'Let him alone,' he said; 'he can bale out the water if it should come
in;' so Blackskin sat in the seat of the man that bales, wondering
within himself if his uncle had suspected anything when he had pulled
back the canoe with the men in it. But as the chief said nothing,
Blackskin supposed he had been thinking of something else at the time.
When they were close to the island, the chief waited till the canoe was
lifted by a wave, and then he leaped on shore. He seized one sea-lion
and killed it, and managed to seat himself on the back of another; but
the sea-lion gave a sudden spring and threw the chief high into the air,
and he fell down heavily striking his head against a rock, so that he
died at once.
Blackskin had seen it all, and was sorry. He opened his bundle of
clothes and put on his shirt and his hair ornament, while the rest stood
round watching.
'I am the man who pulled out that branch and twisted that tree,' he
said, 'and now, bring the canoe closer in!' As he spoke he walked the
length of it upon the seats, which broke under him, so that those who
were sitting on them were thrown to the bottom. Very frightened they all
were when they heard the crash, lest he should revenge himself on them
for the way they had treated him. But he did not even look at them, only
jumped ashore as his uncle had done, and climbed straight up the tall
cliff, hitting some sea-lions on the head as he passed. When he reached
the big one which had killed his uncle, he slew that also, and carried
them all to the shore, piling them up in the canoe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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