Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/139

Rh will be prudent to sleep at noon and utilize the cooler hours when the sun sweeps low along the northern horizon and the insects are less active.

As the summer ripens the mosquitoes become less troublesome, though never entirely absent. The strenuous period of the spring floods being over, the great river settles down into its normal summer flow. Early in July it was the ancient custom for the Yukon Men, the Mountain Men from the Tanana River, and sometimes strangers from the Upper Yukon or the Koyukon tributary, to meet on a small fiat island where the Tanana and Yukon come together. This was the neutral ground, Nu-klfik-a-yet' in the Indian tongue. Here no man might bring his quarrel, no tribe its feud. The meeting was devoted to the peaceful barter of furs, and to festivities where food, the weird Indian music and Indian dances, were the rule.

Many years ago I was fortunate enough to be present at the annual meeting. My companion and myself were the first whites to have that experience. On arrival, after the usual harangue from the senior chief ashore and the spokesman of our party, and several salvos from flintlock muskets ashore and the shot guns afloat, we were allowed to land and a camping ground designated for us by the master of ceremonies, who held his office with dignity.

Later on shouts announced the arrival of the Mountain Men and we hastened to the beach to witness their reception. Dressed in his finest array the senior chief stood at the top of the bank, his followers all arrayed in their best, standing with loaded muskets ready for the salute.

Swiftly around the bend in the river came the little fleet of birch canoes elegantly fashioned, uniform in length and pattern, each holding one man with his bundle of furs and store of provisions. They were uniformly dressed in their purely aboriginal costume of dressed deerskin, ornamented with fringes, quill embroidery, and patterns drawn in red, derived from a soft argillaceous ore of iron. The trousers were continuous with the moccasins, and the upper garment bore a pointed skirt or pendant before and behind. Their long hair tied in two locks at the side of the head, wound with beads and polished with bear's grease, was sprinkled with the chopped up down of swans. Their faces were painted with red ochre, every man wore an ornament piercing the cartilage of the nose, and a belt of dentalium shell or caribou teeth. Their guns lay beside them. With military precision the paddles struck the water in unison, the canoes wheeled and came to rest, paddles uplifted, a short distance from the beach, while every gun on shore boomed its salute. The ceremonies of landing and camping once over, the interest felt in meeting these handsome athletic men, who had never before seen or been seen by whites, was very great. Although