Hunting in the Selkirks 171 



til the latter had won all the cash and goods of 

 several other Indians. Then he suddenly fell on the 

 exile from the Celestial Empire, slew him and took 

 all his plunder, retiring unmolested, as it did not 

 seem any one's business to avenge a mere Chinaman. 

 Ammal was immensely interested in the tale, and 

 kept recurring to it again and again, taking two lit- 

 tle sticks and making the hunter act out the whole 

 story. The Kootenais were then only just begin- 

 ning to consider the Chinese as human. They knew 

 they must not kill white people, and they had their 

 own code of morality among themselves; but when 

 the Chinese first appeared they evidently thought that 

 there could not be any special objection to killing 

 them, if any reason arose for doing so. I think the 

 hunter himself sympathized somewhat with this view. 

 Ammal objected strongly to leaving the neigh- 

 borhood of the lake. He went the first day's journey 

 willingly enough, but after that it was increasingly 

 difficult to get him along, and he gradually grew 

 sulky. For some time we could not find out the 

 reason ; but finally he gave us to understand that he 

 was afraid because up in the high mountains there 

 were "little bad Indians" who would kill him if 

 they caught him alone, especially at night. At first 

 we thought he was speaking of stray warriors of 

 the Blackfeet tribe; but it turned out that he was 

 not thinking of human beings at all, but of hob- 

 goblins. 



