Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 68.djvu/517

Rh the whistle never failed to arouse him, or to call him forth, wherever he might be, and the steamboat was, doubtless, one of the wonders of his life. When a trip up the river, from the international boundary to the settlements on Kootenay lake, was proposed, he was beside himself with joy and anticipation. He became excited beyond all bounds, and when the whistle sounded danced with delight and capered about, not exactly like a gazelle, for he weighed 177 pounds and was heavily built When he got on board and could examine things at his leisure, he was 'tickled to death.' He inspected everything that was at all accessible, watched the motion of the vessel and the revolutions of the wheel, listened to the noise of the engine and the hissing of the steam, gazed in rapt wonder at a score of different things that from time to time riveted his attention. But his keenest delight, after all, was when he could signal or shout to some of his tribe on the banks or in canoes in the stream. The relish with which he did this was unmistakable. And, on the journey back, he was quite as elated, if not so inquisitive. Certainly that trip on the 'fire canoe' was one of the events of his life.

The 'fire canoe' seems to have appeared more natural to the Indians than the locomotive, or 'fire wagon,' possibly because of its progress in the water, like a canoe, and not over the land with the 'fearful eye' of the latter, which so impresses many primitive peoples. In northern Idaho the Indians were very much frightened by the first steam trains. When the railroad was near Kathdrum, several Lower Kootenays, who had been sent into that part of the country to deliver some letters, were so affected by the sight of the puffing, snorting, firespouting locomotive that they threw down their letters on the spot, turned about and fled for dear life, not daring to look back once until they were safe again with their own people. They reported that they had been chased by the 'Evil One,' himself, and had escaped with the greatest difficulty. Later on. as happens with other peoples, familiarity bred contempt, and the Indians can now look at these creations of the white man's genius with much less of fear than of wonder or of interest. The Kootenay youth is more afraid of doing 'woman's work' than he is of the 'fire-wagon.' This was the case with Amelu, the writer's guide, who was with difficulty persuaded to make his own pan-bread on the trail. He was 'hiyu shame' (much ashamed), and used to make it always before an Indian camp was reached. In other things also, he shared the disinclination of his fellow tribesmen to perform any labor that properly belonged to women, according to the customs of his people.

Some writers would deny to the American Indian all possession of romantic love, or of love in any very high sense of the term. This, of course, is an utterly untenable theory, as any one who has seen the Indian at home well knows. The writer's 'guide, philosopher and