THE GREATEST FUR COMPANY OF THE WORLD 185 



Dogs unharnessed,, in troop the trappers to the ban 

 quet-hall, flinging packs of tightly roped peltries down 

 promiscuously, to be sorted next day. One Indian en 

 ters just as he has left the hunting-field, clad from 

 head to heel in white caribou with the antlers left on 

 the capote as a decoy. His squaw has togged out for 

 the occasion in a comical medley of brass bracelets and 

 finger-rings, with a bear s claw necklace and ermine ruff 

 which no city connoisseur could possibly mistake for 

 rabbit. If a daughter yet remain unappropriated she 

 will display the gayest attire red flannel galore, red 

 shawl, red scarf, with perhaps an apron of white fox- 

 skin and moccasins garnished in coloured grasses. The 

 braves outdo even a vain young squaw. Whole fox, 

 mink, or otter skins have been braided to the end 

 of their hair, and hang down in two plaits to the 

 floor. Whitest of buckskin has been ornamented with 

 brightest of beads, and over all hangs the gaudiest of 

 blankets, it may be a musk-ox-skin with the feats of 

 the warrior set forth in rude drawings on the smooth 

 side. 



Children and old people, too, come to the feast, for 

 the Indian s stomach is the magnet that draws his soul. 

 Grotesque little figures the children are, with men s 

 trousers shambling past their heels, rabbit-skin coats 

 . with the fur turned in, and on top of all some old stove- 

 1 pipe hat or discarded busby coming half-way down to 

 the urchin s neck. The old people have more resem 

 blance to parchment on gnarled sticks than to human 

 beings. They shiver under dirty blankets with every 

 sort of cast-off rag tied about their limbs, hobbling 

 lame from frozen feet or rheumatism, mumbling tooth 

 less requests for something to eat or something to wear, 



