THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE INDIAN 505 



Guwitlka nasukwin patlke! 

 Great woman chief ! 



On a Sunday afternoon, which is the holiday of the week among those 

 Indians more or less under the influence of the Roman Catholic mis- 

 sions, the Lower Kootenays indulge in horse-racing, or, more properly, 

 horse-running, on the great grassy plains beside the Kootenay river. 

 Their whole herd is collected in an open space near the camp and 

 then driven in all directions over the prairie and through the bushes, 

 chased by laughing and shouting Indians, armed wdth quirts, willow 

 gads, etc. The horses are run down, tripped, lassooed, driven into the 

 water. Some of the Indians took particular delight in driving the 

 horses as close as possible, in full course, to the writer's tent, to his 

 evident embarrassment, which they keenly enjoyed. As horse after 

 horse thundered past, at very close quarters, shouts and peals of 

 laughter would fill the air, accompanied by remarks in the native 

 language provocative of still more amusement. While all this is going 

 on, the children sport about in the bushes, or caper about in the plain, 

 seemingly in imminent danger of life or limb. It is very interesting 

 to see them chase one another with long whips, or try to lassoo each 

 other. Often they attempt to run down or lassoo the colts or the tamer 

 horses, and the skill some of them develop in so doing is really sur- 

 prising. 



Many of the Indians are quite fond of their horses and treat them 

 better than do the white men. Some, however, use only too readily 

 the spur and the heavy whip of the whites. The Indian Amelu, when 

 out on the trail with the writer, even when- the horses had no packs 

 to carry, would walk them up and down the steep grades and was in 

 other little ways 'merciful unto his beast.' In the Upper Kootenay 

 country, an Indian was seen to beat cruelly with his whip the dog of 

 a Chinaman, which had tried to bite the toe of his moccasin, after 

 having been teased for a long time. Some of the younger Indians are 

 rather companionable with their horses, and it is worth noting that 

 they have coined a few slang words, such as k'ddla, instead of 

 Vldtlalidatltsin, ' horse,' and mistak'ddla, ' colt.' The Kootenay name 

 of the horse bears witness to its exotic origin, for it signifies literally 

 ' elk-dog,' these Indians having had recourse to the aspect of these two 

 animals already familiar to them, in order to assign a name to the 

 new creature, the horse, introduced by the neighboring Indians directly 

 or indirectly through the whites. Other animals not originally natives 

 of the Indian country have sometimes very interesting names. Thus, 

 the cow is ' the variegated horned animal ' ; the pig, ' the cut-off nosed ' ; 

 the mule, ' the big ear ' ; the hen ' the variegated tail,' or ' the spotted 

 tail,' or, again, ' the prominent tail' — these names applying particularly 

 to the ' rooster.' Some of the names of plants new to the Kootenays 



