THREE NOTABLE WOMEN 287 



face. Five children call her mother; the eld- 

 est one, a girl, was then at an Episcopal col- 

 lege two hundred and thirty miles away from 

 her home. The other four we found to be 

 very quiet and respectful in their manners. 

 She spoke to them in the English tongue in 

 a low and musical voice, and her orders were 

 promptly obeyed. The dinner was prepared 

 by her without any undue hurry or excite- 

 ment, and the meal set before us was nicely 

 cooked and deftly served. The dinner being 

 finished, I talked some with her about her 

 hunting exploits, and about the dressing and 

 curing of hides, all of which work falls to her 

 lot. We were shown some caribou hides that 

 she had dressed and tanned herself. The 

 skins were beautifully tanned, but they were 

 full of round holes, and this made them look 

 anything but attractive. She explained that 

 the holes were caused by the caribou fly. 

 This fly appears about the first of November. 

 It bites and then burrows into the caribou's 

 skin around the neck, and down the back. 

 After biting and cutting a tiny hole, the fly 

 deposits an egg in it, which in due time 

 hatches out and the young fly proceeds to feed 

 upon its most unfortunate foster mother — the 

 poor caribou — until it is a full fledged fly, 



