REVIEWS — WANDERINGS OF AN ARTIST. l93 



difficulty that I persuaded lier to sit, as slie seemed apprehensive that 

 it would be injurious to her. At a later date he tells us : 



" I agaia crossed Prairie de Bute, and arrived at my old friend Kiseox, the 

 Chief of the Clalum's, Lodge ; but, to my astonishmeat, I fouad him and his 

 iamilj unusually distant in their manners, and the children even running away 

 from me and hiding. At last he asked if I had not taken the likeness of a -woman 

 when last among them. I said that I had, and mentioned her name, Caw-wacham, 

 A dead silence ensued, nor could I get the slightest answer to my inquiries. Upon 

 leaving the lodge I met a half-breed, who told me that Caw-wacham was dead, and 

 that I was supposed to be the cause of her death. The silence was occasioned 

 Ijy my having mentioned a dead person's name, which is considered disrespectful 

 to the deceased, and unlucky. I immediately procured a canoe, and started for 

 Fort Vancouver, down the river, paddling all night, well knowing the danger that 

 would result from my meeting with any of her relations." 



The descriptions and drawings of Indian customs, games, and 

 dances, and of remarkable local scenery, are no less interesting ; but 

 for these we must refer the reader to the book itself. There is 

 only one of the illustrations— that of the Cree Half-breed, which 

 forms the frontispiece, — which we cannot commend. The original 

 painting, with which we are familiar, presents an exceedingly inter- 

 esting illustration of the blending of the white and Indian features 

 in the female Half-breed. But the London chromo-lithographer has 

 sacrificed every trace of Indian features in his desire to produce his 

 own ideal of a pretty face, such as might equally well have been 

 copied from an ordinary wax doll. 



Mingling among the Indians as a great Medicine-man, respected or 

 dreaded for his supernatural powers, Mr. Kane witnessed many singu- 

 lar rites and customs not often seen, and never before narrated by a 

 traveller. Without being either a critical linguist, or an ethnologist, 

 he has accumulated many facts highly valuable to both ; and now, when 

 this volume appears so opportunely, just as public interest is concen- 

 trated both here and at home on the Red River, the Columbia, Erazer's 

 River, and Yancouver's island, there must be a numerous class of 

 readers to whom its pages will prove full of attractive materials. In 

 a very few years — judging from the rapid progress of settlement 

 which the gold diggings of Erazer Eiver, and the commercial facili- 

 ties of Victoria, have originated,— these wanderings of an artist 

 among the Indians of North America will possess another interest, as 

 the record of a condition of things as rapidly disappearing as the 

 traces of aboriginal arts from our own Canadian clearings. 



