72 THEOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



years ago : Oba baumwawa geezegoquay, " The Sounds which 

 the stars make rushing through the skies"; Zaga see 

 goquay, " Sunbeams breaking through a cloud " ; Wah- 

 sagewanoquay, "Woman of the bright foam." The people 

 so far apart, yet their home names so similarly figurative! 

 The education of the Red Indian lies in his intimate contact 

 with nature in all her phases — a good education truly, which 

 serves him well. But, awe-struck always by the mysterious 

 beauty of the world around him, his mind reflects it instinc- 

 tively in his Nature-worship and his system of names. 



In speaking of the " Lakers " I refer, of course, to the 

 primitive people of the region, and not to half-breed incomers 

 from Manitoba or elsewhere. There were a few patriarchal 

 families into which all the others seemed to dovetail in some 

 shape or form. The Nooskeyah family was one of these, 

 also the Gladu, the Cowitoreille,* and the Calahaisen. The 

 collateral branches of these families constituted the main 

 portion of the native population, and yet inbreeding did not 

 seem to have deteriorated the stock, for a healthier-looking 

 lot of young men, women and children it would be hard to 

 find, or one more free from scrofula. There were instances, 

 too, among these people, of extreme old age; one in par- 

 ticular which from confirmatory evidence, particularly the 

 declarations of descendants, seemed quite authentic. This 

 was a woman called Catherine Bisson — the daughter of 

 Baptiste Bisson and an Indian woman called Iskwao — ^who 

 was born on New Year's Day, 1793, at Lesser Slave Lake, 

 and had spent all her life there since. She had a numerous 

 progeny which she bore to Kisiskakapo, " The man who 

 stands still." She was now blind, and was partly led, partly 

 carried into our tent — a small, thin, wizened woman, with 

 keen features and a tongue as keen, which cackled and joked 

 at a great rate with the crowd around her. It was almost 

 awesome to look at this weird piece of antiquity, who was 

 bom in the Reign of Terror, and was a young woman before 



* A corruption, no doubt, of " Courtoreille. " 



