ACROSS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, ETC. 239 



God to witness that he was innocent. For the moment I almost 

 believed his asservations ; but calling to mind the strong and un- 

 deniable evidence against him, with a feeling of horror and re- 

 pugnance, I opened the door and bowed him out of the house. 



March \st, — There is an amusing little Indian living in this 

 neighborhood, who calls himself a " tanas tie,''^ (little chief,) and 

 he is so probably in every sense of the term. In person, he 

 stands about four feet six, in his moccasins ; but no exquisite in 

 the fashionable world, no tinselled dandy in high life, can strut 

 and stamp, and fume with more dignity and self consequence. 

 His name, he says, is Qualaskin; but in the fort, he is known by 

 the cognomen of " busy body," from his restless anxiety to pry into 

 every body's business, and his curiosity to know the English name of 

 every article he sees; ikata ookook? — ikata ooA-ooA;?(whatis this? — 

 what is this 1) kahtah pasiooks yahhalle ? (what is its English 

 name?) are expressions which he is dinning in your ears, when- 

 ever he enters a room in the fort. If you answer him, he at- 

 tempts the pronunciation after you, and it is often not a little 

 ludicrous. He is evidently proud of the name the white people 

 have given him, not understanding its import, but supposing it to 

 be a title of great honor and dignity. If he is asked his Indian 

 name, he answers very modestly, Qualaskin, (muddy river,) 

 but if his pasiooks yahhalle is required, he puffs up his little per- 

 son to its utmost dimensions, and tells you with a simper of pride 

 and self complacency, that it is " mizzy moddyy 



IQth. — Doctor W. F. Tolmie, one of the surgeons of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company, has just arrived from Fort Langley, on the 

 coast, and has relieved me of the charge of the hospital, which 

 will afford me the opportunity of peregrinating again in pursuit of 

 specimens. The spring is just opening, the birds are arriving, 

 the plants are starting from the ground, and in a kw weeks, the 

 wide prairies of the Columbia will appear like the richest flower 

 gardens. 



