﻿MANBOTE OR BLOOD MONEY. 387 



of Ills foes carried a canoe through the willows to 

 the other side of a point higher up the stream, and, 

 having embarked, drifted leisurely down the river, 

 as if they belonged to another party. On approach- 

 ing the sand-bank, they called to the Teytse-kutchi 

 man, that they were going further down, and would 

 be glad of his company. He waited till they came 

 up, and as he was stepping into his canoe, one of 

 the Kutcha-kutchi tripped him up, and the other 

 stabbed him to the heart as he lay. Having ac- 

 complished these murderous feats, the war-party 

 resumed their voyage, but meeting afterwards only 

 with numerous bodies of the Teytse-kutchi, they 

 concealed their evil intentions, and returned to 

 their own lands. 



Mr. Thomas Simpson, in his "Narrative of Disco- 

 veries in the Polar Sea," relates an instance of the 

 Peel River Kutchin demanding blood-money from 

 the Eskimos, and receiving it for several years, for 

 one of their countrymen, whom they asserted had 

 died of wounds received in a contest between the 

 two nations. The Eskimos having at length dis- 

 covered that the man for whose death they had 

 been paying was still living, reviled the Kutchin 

 for their falsehood and extortion, and then took 

 their revenge by killing three of the party who 

 had come to demand the compensation for the 

 following year. 



c c 2 



