CARIBOU EATERS.

Franklin Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 98, 23 August 1933, Page 2

CARIBOU EATERS.

A RED INDIAN TRIBE. ADVENTURES OF A WHITE MAX. Few men can claim to have lived among the" caribou-eater tribe of Red Indians in the Car Canadian NorthWest, beyond the Barren Lands: fewer still, to have been betrodthed of an Indian girl (writes Trevor Allen in John 0' London's Weekly). Both experiences befell Mr Ilelge Ingstad when he went hunting and exploring in the Nonacho Lake and Thelon River region, living the day-to-day life of the Indians and sharing their struggle for subsistence among desolate snow wastes. That life, consisting almost solely of hunting and camping, he explains in "Land of Feast and Famine." A Silent Feast. Early in the morning the hunters would start out with their dogs, each in a different direction, and sometimes make journeys lasting three or four days, setting traps and shooting caribou. In the evening, if luck was with them, the sleds returned loaded, and there would be merrymaking and feasting. The venison is cooked in a huge pot, and at a signal the entire assemblage pounce upon the food before them. ' They dig their teeth into gigantic pieces of meat and, with large knives cut it off colse to their lips, Wv.ts proceeding mouthful by mouthful. No sound is to be beard, save the sound of over-stuffed mouths chewing and the sound of crackling marrow-bones. Everything is swallowed down ; no more than a few slivers are left.

The caribou-eating women. Mr Ingstad discovered, were younger-lookintr and more attractive than those of other tribes. They worked from early morn till late at night: cutting up dried meat, tanning skins, stitching moccasins and caribou coals, keeping (he tents ( tepees) in order, preparing food every hour of the day and night, shooing off thieving dogs, suckling infants, hi the midst of it all. with their hands full, they would have to drop everything, sling their young papoose over their back, step into (heir snow-shoes, and betake themselves to the forest to chop firewood. Bowed beneath the weight of several logs of wood, they would return to the tepee and swing the axe like any man. And, even so. there was still time for a bit of faithlessness and a word or two of gossip with the squaw in the neighbouring tent.

Challenged by Women. One day when venison was scarce, and Mr Ingstad was the only man in the village who had not gone out hunting, a flock of caribou appeared. "E----tlicn ! E-then!" cried the women—and forthwith ordered him to show his mettle and procure them more meat than an expert hunter could shoot in a week. He sallied out on snow-shoes, tired at long range, and slightly wounded one buck, which escaped after he had pursued it for many miles. The scorn of the women, when he returned empty-handed, was withering. One old dame told him he had failed because he had remained behind: "For i| is something winch everyone knows, that lie who hangs hack in camp and shows too much interest in the women loses his luck as a hunter."

Since lie had disgraced himself, he determined lo harness up his dogs, roam the forest until he felled sonic Kind of game, if it took him a week, and thus restore his prestige. This lime he was luckier, and brought hack four powerful bucks. Found Him a Bride. Shortly after that, Mr Ingstad awakened lo the fact that the caribou-eat-ers had begun to fancy him as a "squaw-man." despite his colour. Phrcsi, the mother an an Indian girl, suddenly presented him with a brand new pair of moccasins; then she surreptitiously took his deerskin coat and edged it from lop to bottom with wolverine fur. Whenever there was a dearth of food she would always contrive to present him with a toothsome marrowbone or a piece of dried meat.

Soon ho could noi enter a tepee without the squaws putting- (heir heads together and whispering and giggling. while the hunters constantly pursued him with significant jihes. lie realised that, the whole village was Inking if for granted I hat the girl Kncliesy (Little Hare) and ho were fonicnipiuting matrimony. Karhesy >.--.-,i.--sevcnle.cn winters old. Sim was 'l'lile (' fieronl I'roin the others. When uiiiii' young, she had spent some Hnic in Ihe Uoman Catholic mission in Cm soulll. and ITiovo sit,' had learned something about religion, as well as other ma I tors. Rut she was still far i' IVoii) being lamed, even though she seemed mild enough at times. The very ahruplness of her transitions from savagery to moods of dreamy peace was perhaps her most noticeable trait. I For there was something of the wil- | derncss itself in Kachesy, no more when she was racing along on snowshoe than when she sat in the candlelight, her head bowed over her agile hi Ho hands. Hying through their work, her black hair streaming down over tier shoulders. At one moment she was a troll, he adds, with all a woman's love wiles: al another in Ihe evening, she would kneel down on her sleeping-bag and pray to ihe Virgin Mary.

He Runs Away, rio realised Hint lie was considered .'i good rnalch, bul had no inlention of becoming a squaw-man and spending the it's I of his life in those snow soli-

tiules hurtling caribou. He could no!.. however, confront Ihem with a blank refusal of the maiden's hand, so he invented a pretext for making a journey alone, stocked a sled with a goodly amount of dried meat, and drove off. Something had to be done, and quickly. The prospective mother-in-law treated him with ever-increasing familiarity: Kachesy herself was now spending her entire day making him a pair of mocassins embroidered with red and blue flowers . . . A big task lay ahead of him. He had to plough along on snowshoe, clearing a path for the sled, and at the same time keeping an ."ye on the dogs. An Indian accompanied him for the first three days: after which lie pressed on alone —and it took him two days to cover six miles. But he eventually fell in with trappers ami reached the Great Slave hake, and a fur-hunters' post, successfully. Mr Ingstad tells absorbing stories of the habits of these aloof Indians, and of the creatures which roam the solitudes they inhabit, including wolves, bears, .musk-oxen. beavers, muskrats, wolverines and lynx. In "Marriage" Mr 11. G. Wells sent his hero, Trafford. to'the snow-wastes oi! , Labrador as an antidote to the com- ; plications of our city civilisation. This . book fulfils the same purpose: il is an exhilarating escape into a land of | while spaces and of elemental living—and that is its particular virtue. The I narrative, like the atmosphere, has j clarity and snap in it. I