188 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



the kitchen tidy and " loaned " his young daughter to 

 be the trader's temporary wife ; but he himself lived 

 in a separate house with his own wife. Her little 

 brother and sister and an Indian boy called Gustia 

 were the other inmates. Of course my two Swedish 

 companions were well known to the trader. 



The life of this man, varied by the biennial visits 

 of the Company's schooner, thus resembled that of an 

 employe of the Hudson's Bay Company, excepting 

 that the English Company insists that its store- 

 keepers, who have to lead a lonely, autocratic life, 

 shall all be married men accompanied by their wives. 



The trader had instructed a few of the Indian men 

 and girls in the mysteries of the quadrille, and 

 several of the boys played the accordion fairly, and 

 we passed several evenings with these diversions, first 

 in the house of Yanga, brother of the second Indian 

 chief, who had removed his stove and door to afford 

 room for the dancers, then in the huts of Peter the 

 Shekaizik, or second chief himself, and of Pavil the 

 Tyoon or chief. Tame wild duck, goats, geese, and 

 children, and a medley of non- dancers, occupied all 

 the available corner-room, and formed one of the most 

 peculiar scenes I have ever witnessed. Of course the 

 trader, the two Swedes, and I, had to dance repeatedly 

 with each and every squaw, excepting when two of 

 the men danced a pas- de- deux so energetically as to 

 sway the house with their leaps and caperings. 

 Words of command were repeated by the trader for 

 each figure, such as " sides forward and back, one 



