WITH INDIAN HUNTING PARTY 115 



Chanter, which astonished and delighted a people 

 who are passionately fond of music in any form. 



How far those little incidents had gone toward 

 making up the approval and goodwill of the 

 Indians I had had no inkling, nor had I given 

 the subject a thought until this day of Caribou 

 arrival. But now I had been asked to join them 

 on the morrow, and go with them to this secret 

 place the Caribou were passing. I may be for- 

 given if I was pleased at this certain sign of 

 friendliness on the part of this once-wonderful, 

 fast-declining race of hunters, who speak mostly 

 by actions and rarely by words. Having a great 

 admiration for the intelligence and skill of the 

 good old-world type of Indian — and they still 

 exist in the Far North — I confess I was glad to 

 think that I was to be one of such a party in their 

 hunting ; though I, later, was to learn that the 

 morrow held for me yet another Indian test — 

 the last they ever asked of me. 



Thus it came about that in the small hours of the 

 following morning (3 a.m.) a guttural voice hailed 

 me from outside my cabin door and I drowsily 

 extricated myself from out my fur sleeping-bag 

 to open the door and admit icy blast ; and 

 not one Indian, but the whole hunting party — a 

 total of seven. They had left the Post half an 

 hour ago and were on their way to the hunting- 

 ground. ... I was to hurry, and come with 

 them. 



By necessity in the northland one sleeps in most 

 of one's clothing for warmth, for one had long 

 left behind the land of wardrobes, and blankets, 

 and beds — and so in no time I was ready to join 



