The Last of the Plainsmen 



turn his face from the north. Never will the chiefs 

 permit the white man to take musk-oxen alive from 

 their country. The Ageter, the Musk-ox, is their 

 god. He gives them food and fur. He will never 

 come back if he is taken away, and the reindeer will 

 follow him. The chiefs and their people would 

 starve. They command the pale-face hunter to go 

 back. They cry Naza! Naza! Naza! &quot; 



&quot; Say, for a thousand miles I ve heard that word 

 Naza ! &quot; returned the hunter, with mingled curi 

 osity and disgust. &quot; At Edmonton Indian runners 

 started ahead of me, and every village I struck the 

 redskins would crowd round me and an old chief 

 would harangue at me, and motion me back, and 

 point north with Naza ! Naza ! Naza ! What does 

 it mean? &quot; 



No white man knows; no Indian will tell,&quot; 

 answered the interpreter. &quot; The traders think it 

 means the Great Slave, the North Star, the North 

 Spirit, the North Wind, the North Lights and 

 Ageter, the musk-ox god.&quot; 



&quot; Well, say to the chiefs to tell Ageter I have been 

 four moons on the way after some of his little 

 Ageters, and I m going to keep on after them.&quot; 



&quot; Hunter, you are most unwise,&quot; broke in the 

 commandant, in his officious voice. &quot; The Indians 

 will never permit you to take a musk-ox alive from 



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