THE OLDEST MAN IN THE WORLD.

Western Star, Issue 2253, 4 November 1898, Page 5

THE OLDEST MAN IN THE WORLD.

He is a North-American Indian named Qwo-' Ka-Num. His tribe say he is certainly 150 years old, and it may be that two centuries have passed Biuce his birth. He is chief of the Skiquamish, a tribo of (lat-bead Indians who paddle their canoes about the waters aud tributaries of Puget Sound. His people say they have records which show that the aged chiei was born many years before the white meu came to that country A wandering newspaper man found this ancient chief with his tribe encamped on the sandy shore of Salmon Bay, an inlet of Puget Sound. One very old squaw was being fed with some fish soup by another almost as helpless. " She is the fifteenth wife of Qwo-ka-Num." said the guide. Her ancient husband had evidently outlived the love of the vanities of life, for nothing in his surroundings betokened his rank. He was lying doubled up like a jackknife in a heap of hot sand. For tweuty years his people bad fed him on soft clams and other sea food, in the form of soup. But though he was sightless, almost incapable of movement, he could hear and speak. He said hs saw the first big ship. He remembered the first powder. Fifty years ago he wan too old to go to the council of the Tsihalis, but his grej-haired grandson went. He was a chief before the natives possessed iron to point their arrows with. That was more than one hundred and twenty years ago. So Qwo-Ka-Num, by that reckoning, is at least one hundred aud fifty.