ABORIGINAL LIFE OF THE SITKANS. 37 



pally tobacco, molasses, blankets of all sizes and colors, cotton 

 prints and cheap rings, beads, looking-glasses, etc.; he stands 

 behind a rude counter, with these wares displayed to best advan- 

 tage on the rough shelves at his back ; a wood-burning stove 

 diffuses a genial glow, but no chairs or benches are convenient. A 

 " Si wash " * and his squaw deliberately and gravely enter. The 

 Indian slowly looks up and down the room, and then proceeds to 

 price every object within his vision, no matter whether he has the 

 least idea of purchasing or not ; this is the prelude and invariable 

 habit of a Sitkan Indian, and it arouses an immense amount of 

 suppressed profanity on the part of the outwardly courteous trader. 

 But our savage has come in this time bent upon buying, and selling 

 also ; his female partner has a bundle carefully done up under her 

 blanket, and which she wholly concealed when she squatted down 

 on her haunches the moment after entering the door ; she also 

 has a number of small silver coins in her mouth, for, funny as it may 

 seem, this worthy pair have carefully agreed upon what they shall 

 spend in the store before coming in ; so the woman has taken out 

 from the leathern purse which hangs on her breast and under her 

 chemise, the exact amount, and, returning the pouch to the privacy 

 of her bosom, she places the available coin in her mouth for safe 

 keeping ad interim. 



Finally the Indian, in the course of half an hour, or perhaps a 

 whole half-day in preliminary skirmishing, boldly reaches down for 

 his bundle in the squaw's charge ; then having, by so doing, given 

 the trader to fully understand that he has something to sell, as well 

 as desiring to buy, he reaches out for the groceries, the cloth, the 

 tobacco, or whatever he may have fully decided to purchase; a 

 long argument at once ensues as to the bottom cash price, and in 

 every case of doubt the squaw decides ; all the articles are done 

 up in brown paper and neatly tied with attractive parti-colored 

 twine. Then the dusky woman arises, with an indescribably vacant 

 stare, bends over the counter and lets the jingling silver drop upon 

 it, pausing just a moment until the tired but triumphant trader 

 counts and sweeps it, still moist, into his till 



Now the Si wash, having bought, proceeds to sell, and he does 

 it in his own peculiar way. He unrolls his package of furs ; he 



* All savages are called by this name up here the sex being indicated 

 by "buck" and "squaw." Children are called " pappooses." 



