IN QUEST OF TREASURE 53 



much given to frisking about and showing off, and this time 

 he got his reward. 



But before we had ascended half the length of the rapids 

 we encountered the usual troubles that overtake the tracker — 

 those of clearing our hues of trees and bushes, slipping into the 

 muck of small inlets, stumbhng over stones, cutting the lines 

 upon sharp rocks, or having them caught by gnarled roots of 

 driftwood. As we approached the last lap of white water the 

 canoes passed through a rocky basin that held a thirty- or forty- 

 yard section of the river in a slack and unruffled pool. While 

 ascending this last section, the last canoe, the one in which the 

 old grandmother was wielding the paddle, broke away from 

 Oo-koo-hoo, the strain severing his weU-worn line, and away 

 Grandmother went, racing backward down through the turbu- 

 lent foam. With her usual presence of mind she exercised such 

 skill in guiding her canoe that it never for a moment swerved out 

 of the true line of the current, and thus she saved herself and all 

 her precious cargo. Then, the moment she struck slack water, 

 she in with her paddle, and out with her pole, stood up in her 

 unsteady craft, bent her powerful old frame, and — her pipe 

 still clenched between her ancient teeth — with all her might 

 and main she actually poled her canoe right up to the very 

 head of the rapids, and came safely ashore. It was thrilhng 

 to watch her — for we could render no aid — and when she 

 landed we hailed her with approval for her courage, strength, 

 and skill; but Grandmother was annoyed — her pipe was out. 



TRAVELLING AT NIGHT 



While we rested a few minutes, the women espied, in a little 

 springy deU, some unusually fine moss, which they at once be- 

 gan to gather. Indian women dry it and use it in a number of 

 ways, especially for packing about the httle naked bodies of 

 their babies when lacing them to their cradle boards. The 



