CHAPTER XIX. 



Christmas festivities. — Parhelia. — Indian exaggeration. — A regular clipper. 

 — Sledging to Fort Norman. — Starving Indians. — Indian Theology. — 

 Medicine Men. — Vapour Bath. — Heating water. — A Drone. — Diminu- 

 tion of Infanticide. — Making Medicine. — Pulling a-liead. — Sjiring sets 

 in. — Woodjjeckers — An Indian death.— Return to New Fort Franklin. 

 — Ravenous petty larceny.— Primitive notions. — Floods. — Doctor Rae. 

 — Start for Fort Simpson. — Hydrodynamic forces. — Bears. — Indian 

 Dance. — A Tale of Horror. 



Christmas arrived, and although prisoners in so 

 barbarous a place at this season of rejoicing, we did 

 not let it pass over vi^ithout notice. I had reserved a 

 few pounds of preserved meats, with one or two other 

 relics of luxury, and we therefore, in comparison — by 

 which woes and delights are ever measured — feasted 

 royally. Green tea and pemmican, soup, parsnips 

 and beef; behold a repast for princes. Om*s was 

 quite a picnic — the rugged floor of the den served at 

 once for table and chairs, the place of soup-plates was 

 supplied by preserved-meat tins, spoons by their tops, 

 whose jagged edges were an exciting novelty, and we 

 were merry enough, by comparison, again. 



