﻿386 KUTCHIN. 



is attributed to sorcery, or, as the interpreters 

 render it, to " evil medicine." A strong party is 

 forthwith mustered, to seek the band which the 

 shamans have designated, and to demand blood- 

 money for their relative, or to avenge his death 

 should compensation be denied. The amount 

 claimed varies with the rank of the deceased, and 

 the estimation in which he was held, from twenty 

 "skins" of beads to thrice that quantity. Mr. Mur- 

 ray mentions a bloody instance of this superstition 

 which occurred in 1847. A woman oi i\\Q Kutcha- 

 Jcutchi tribe dying suddenly, her death was at first 

 attributed to the presence of white people on their 

 lands, but the matter being debated, this opinion 

 was overruled, and the blame was attached to a 

 band named Teytse-Jcutchi^ residing further down 

 the river, some of whom had a dispute with the 

 husband of the deceased. Upwards of thirty 

 warriors started on the blood-quest, and five of 

 the unsuspecting Teytse-kutchi happening to ap- 

 proach a sleeping place of the war-party were way- 

 laid. Four of them were despatched silently on 

 their landing, and the fifth, who was a little be- 

 hind the others, not seeing his companions when 

 he came up, suspected that evil had befallen them, 

 and, landing on a sand-bank, interrogated the 

 war-party across the stream. While his attention 

 was engaged by the conversation that ensued, two 



