FORT McKAY AND JIAROBIA 



283 



crowded around a cheap gramophone which was hawk- 

 ing, spitting and screeching some awful rag-time music 

 and nigger jigs. I could forgive the traders for bring- 

 ing in the gramo- 

 phone, but why, oh, 

 why, did they not 

 bring some of the 

 simple world-wide 

 human songs which 

 could at least have 

 had an educational 

 effect? The Indian 

 group listened to this 

 weird instrument with 

 the profoundest grav- 

 ity. If there is any- 

 thing inherently com- 

 ic in our low comics 

 it was entirely lost on 

 them. 



One of Rob's amusing fireside tricks was thus: He 

 put his hands together, so: (illustration). "Now de 

 tumbs is you and your fader, de first finger is you 

 and your mudder, ze next is you and your sister, ze 

 little finger is you and your brudder, ze ring finger is 

 you and your sweetheart. You and your fader sepa- 

 rate easy, like dat ; you and your brudder like dat, you 

 and your sister like dat, dat's easy; you and your 

 mudder like dat, dat's not so easy; but you and 

 your sweetheart cannot part widout all everything 

 go to hell first." 



