After we were seated, he still gazed into the
fire without taking the slightest notice of us for about ten or
fifteen minutes. The various members of the chief's family,
also, - men, women, and children, - went about their usual employment
and play as if entirely unconscious that strangers were in the house,
it being considered impolite to look at visitors or speak to them
before time had been allowed them to collect their thoughts and
prepare any message they might have to deliver.
At length, after the politeness period had passed, the chief slowly
raised his head and glanced at his visitors, looked down again, and
at last said, through our interpreter: -
"I am troubled. It is customary when strangers visit us to offer them
food in case they might be hungry, and I was about to do so, when I
remembered that the food of you honorable white chiefs is so much
better than mine that I am ashamed to offer it."
We, of course, replied that we would consider it a great honor to
enjoy the hospitality of so distinguished a chief as he was.
Hearing this, he looked up, saying, "I feel relieved"; or, in John
the interpreter's words, "He feels good now, he says he feels good."
He then ordered one of his family to see that the visitors were fed.
The young man who was to act as steward took up his position in a
corner of the house commanding a view of all that was going on, and
ordered the slaves to make haste to prepare a good meal; one to bring
a lot of the best potatoes from the cellar and wash them well;
another to go out and pick a basketful of fresh berries; another to
broil a salmon; while others made a suitable fire, pouring oil on the
wet wood to make it blaze.
