THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE INDIAN 511 



This sense of humor is collective as well as individual. The writer 

 was present beside the camp-fire one night, when one of the Indians 

 was giving, for his benefit, an account of a government official who 

 had recently ' inspected ' the Canadian Kootenays. This individual 

 was said to have insisted on taking with him all the appurtenances and 

 conveniences of civilization, including a cook-stove, a feather bed, etc., 

 and the group of listeners expressed loudly their merriment, as the 

 speaker touched off the white man's peculiarities. The Indians were 

 fully conscious of the fact that another official (likewise another white 

 man, a storekeeper) was really very much afraid of them. They made 

 this known to the writer in sarcastically humorous fashion. Indeed, 

 the white settlers hardly are aware how much the Indians comment 

 upon their appearance, their character and their actions, especially in a 

 quasi-humorous way. One Indian actually told the writer, with ' fun ' 

 in his eye, however, the order in which the white people would be killed 

 off, should trouble ever occur — a certain settler, who could see nothing 

 good in the Indians, was to be the first victim, and the writer (if he 

 had to be included) was to be the last. 



The Kootenays take delight in playing tricks, not only upon one 

 another, but also upon the whites. The writer had complained of 

 the first horse procured from them as being altogether too fast for his 

 liking and too ' wild,' so the next time he asked for a horse he was 

 given a creature, which, except when he was in the company of other 

 Indian horses, went at less than the proverbial snail's pace. The 

 writer's indignant remonstrances evoked abundant mirth on the part 

 of the ' guileless ' natives. While measuring an Indian in the Lower 

 Kootenay country, he had an experience of a more startling sort. The 

 Indian suddenly rose to his full height, and, quickly drawing his 

 knife from its sheath, pretended to strike him — the writer being soon 

 reassured, however, by the loud laughter of the other natives about 

 him. Tricks like this are much enjoyed by them. 



In the mining regions of the Kootenay country, there are a con- 

 siderable number of Chinese, who have taken up the claims abandoned 

 by the whites, and manage to make a good living from them. The 

 superior attitude assumed toward these people by the whites has its 

 effect in the way the Indians look upon them. As a rule the Kootenays 

 and the Chinese get along well together, but the former sometimes 

 hector and bully the latter, and not infrequently Indians become semi- 

 parasitic, doing odd jobs for the Chinese, or imposing upon their 

 charity. Many of the Indians regard the Chinese as quite inferior 

 beings, and the poor Celestials seem in more or less awe of them. In 

 jesting fashion, the Indians will call the Chinese 'brothers' or 

 'cousins,' but persistently deny any close relationship. One of the 

 Kootenays, who knew that the whites thought the Chinese and In- 



