island,--nine men and
eleven women, adults: the remaining seventeen ranged from one to
eighteen years apparently. So far as we could learn, they kept little
or no record of their ages. One man, whom they called _Shug-la-wina_,
seemed to exercise a sort of authority over the rest; but whether it
was from any hereditary claim to power, or simply from the fact that
he was rather larger in stature than the others, was not very clear.
Another, the little dark chap whom Donovan had punished for his
snappishness, was almost continually slapping and cuffing the rest
about. His name was _Twee-gock_. Besides _Wutchee_ and _Wunchee_,
there were, of the girls, one named _Coonee_,--a very laughing little
creature,--and another called _Iglooee_ ("hut-keeper" or
"house-keeper"). Neither of these was so large nor so handsome as
_Wutchee_ or _Wunchee_. The last two were Kit and Wade's favorites.

They were quaint little creatures, just about four feet and a half in
height; chubby, and rather fleshy; and would have weighed rising a
hundred pounds, probably. Their faces were rather larger in proportion
than our American girls, rounder and flatter; noses inclined to the
pug order; eyes black, and pretty well drawn up at the inner corners;
cheek-bones rather high, though their flesh prevented them from
appearing disagreeably prominent; mouths large, showing large white
teeth; ears big enough to hear well; hair black, straight, and
occasionally pugged up behind; complexion swarthy, though, in their
case, tolerably clear; feet very small; and hands sizable. Add to this
description an ever-genial, pleased expression of countenance, with
considerable sprightliness of manner dashed with something like
_naivete_; then picture them in trousers and jackets, with their
hoods, and those irresistibly comical "tails,"--and you have _Wutchee_
and _Wunchee_, the belles of our island kingdom.

After our supper of eggs, of which they soon brought as many as seven
or eight dozen, Raed proposed that we should take a look at the
interior of some of their huts. So, leaving the two sailors with Guard
on sentinel duty, we went along to the hut belonging to
_Shug-la-wina_, and by signs expressed our desire to go in. He pulled
aside the flap in front, and we stepped under. The tent-frame was of
small sticks of the yellow pine, with a straight ridge-pole. Over the
frame was thrown a covering of cured seal-skin or walrus-skin. A stone
lamp, suspended by seal-skin