Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/509

  Gūwítlkā nāsūkwin pā́tlkē! Greatwomanchief!

On a Sunday afternoon, which is the holiday of the week among those Indians more or less under the influence of the Roman Catholic missions, the Lower Kootenays indulge in horse-racing, or, more properly, horse-running, on the great grassy plains beside the Kootenay river. Their whole herd is collected in an open space near the camp and then driven in all directions over the prairie and through the bushes, chased by laughing and shouting Indians, armed with quirts, willow gads, etc. The horses are run down, tripped, lassooed, driven into the water. Some of the Indians took particular delight in driving the horses as close as possible, in full course, to the writer's tent, to his evident embarrassment, which they keenly enjoyed. As horse after horse thundered past, at very close quarters, shouts and peals of laughter would fill the air, accompanied by remarks in the native language provocative of still more amusement. While all this is going on, the children sport about in the bushes, or caper about in the plain, seemingly in imminent danger of life or limb. It is very interesting to see them chase one another with long whips, or try to lassoo each other. Often they attempt to run down or lassoo the colts or the tamer horses, and the skill some of them develop in so doing is really surprising.

Many of the Indians are quite fond of their horses and treat them better than do the white men. Some, however, use only too readily the spur and the heavy whip of the whites. The Indian Amelu, when out on the trail with the writer, even when the horses had no packs to carry, would walk them up and down the steep grades and was in other little ways 'merciful unto his beast.' In the Upper Kootenay country, an Indian was seen to beat cruelly with his whip the dog of a Chinaman, which had tried to bite the toe of his moccasin, after having been teased for a long time. Some of the younger Indians are rather companionable with their horses, and it is worth noting that they have coined a few slang words, such as k'āddla, instead of k'kā́tlahā́atltsin, 'horse,' and mistak'ādla, 'colt.' The Kootenay name of the horse bears witness to its exotic origin, for it signifies literally 'elk-dog,' these Indians having had recourse to the aspect of these two animals already familiar to them, in order to assign a name to the new creature, the horse, introduced by the neighboring Indians directly or indirectly through the whites. Other animals not originally natives of the Indian country have sometimes very interesting names. Thus, the cow is 'the variegated horned animal'; the pig, 'the cut-off nosed'; the mule, 'the big ear'; the hen 'the variegated tail,' or 'the spotted tail,' or, again, 'the prominent tail'—these names applying particularly to the 'rooster.' Some of the names of plants new to the Kootenays