THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE INDIAN 509 



stories without any deviation from the original text, since he could 

 often write down the word correctly, when he could hardly satisfy the 

 Indian's requirement in the way of pronunciation. 



The Indians have their ' chatter ' and ' nonsense ' as well as the 

 whites. Amelu was very fond of chanting and talking to himself in 

 somewhat waggish fashion. This he called, in the Chinook jargon, 

 * cultus wawa ' (nonsense). As he sped along the trail he would sing 

 to his horse, slapping it on the flanks, or making rhythmic motions 



with his hands: 



To to to to! 



Turn turn turn turn ! 



Ta ta ta ta 



Tai tai tai tai! 



The repetition was ad libitum, according to his mood, or his fancy. 

 Another refrain, which had an ' infinite variety ' of inflection, intona- 

 tion, etc., was the following, which he sang with great animation: 



Hai ya ! ha he yau ! 

 E ya! ha. ha hai yau! 

 He ya! ho yo! 



This sounds a good deal like some of the refrains used in the 

 gambling games of the Kootenays. Another refrain, which he chanted 

 as the fire was being spoiled by the scattering of the burning logs, was : 



Hum ke pupum! 

 Hum ke pupum! 



An interesting procedure, indulged in often by Amelu, was the 

 mispronunciation and distortion of words, amounting not seldom to 

 real punning. Thus for saiwasko, the name of a species of dragon-fly, 

 he would repeat : Saiwdsukw' , sauwdtsho, sauivdsho, saiwdseJco, sai- 

 wdtshJco, etc. Sometimes when the Indians were telling legends in 

 their own language, they would deliberately mispronounce or distort 

 words to see if the writer noticed the difference — if he did not at the 

 time they would generally tell him, and have a little fun over it. 

 When they came to the parts of the stories where the animals played 

 tricks on one another they would stop to laugh over it, making fun of 

 those who couldn't talk very well. The Indians would laugh to them- 

 selves when the writer used a proper Kootenay term, and one of the 

 other white men about a slang or jargon term without knowing it. 



While the writer and Amelu were out botanizing and sampling 

 every edible berry (the Indian, of course, tasting first), they ran across 

 the ' soap-berry ' (Shephardia canadensis), the gopdtetl of the Koote- 

 nays. The wry faces made by him as he chewed up a few of the 



