“When we asked the man concerning his people, he said, ’I have many brothers,’ and laughed in a way that was not good.  And when he was in his full strength he went away, and with him went Noda, daughter to the chief.  First, after that, was one of our bitches brought to pup.  And never was there such a breed of dogs,—­big-headed, thick-jawed, and short-haired, and helpless.  Well do I remember my father, Otsbaok, a strong man.  His face was black with anger at such helplessness, and he took a stone, so, and so, and there was no more helplessness.  And two summers after that came Noda back to us with a man-child in the hollow of her arm.

“And that was the beginning.  Came a second white man, with short-haired dogs, which he left behind him when he went.  And with him went six of our strongest dogs, for which, in trade, he had given Koo-So-Tee, my mother’s brother, a wonderful pistol that fired with great swiftness six times.  And Koo-So-Tee was very big, what of the pistol, and laughed at our bows and arrows.  ‘Woman’s things,’ he called them, and went forth against the bald-face grizzly, with the pistol in his hand.  Now it be known that it is not good to hunt the bald-face with a pistol, but how were we to know? and how was Koo-So-Tee to know?  So he went against the bald-face, very brave, and fired the pistol with great swiftness six times; and the bald-face but grunted and broke in his breast like it were an egg, and like honey from a bee’s nest dripped the brains of Koo-So-Tee upon the ground.  He was a good hunter, and there was no one to bring meat to his squaw and children.  And we were bitter, and we said, ’That which for the white men is well, is for us not well.’  And this be true.  There be many white men and fat, but their ways have made us few and lean.

“Came the third white man, with great wealth of all manner of wonderful foods and things.  And twenty of our strongest dogs he took from us in trade.  Also, what of presents and great promises, ten of our young hunters did he take with him on a journey which fared no man knew where.  It is said they died in the snow of the Ice Mountains where man has never been, or in the Hills of Silence which are beyond the edge of the earth.  Be that as it may, dogs and young hunters were seen never again by the Whitefish people.

“And more white men came with the years, and ever, with pay and presents, they led the young men away with them.  And sometimes the young men came back with strange tales of dangers and toils in the lands beyond the Pellys, and sometimes they did not come back.  And we said:  ’If they be unafraid of life, these white men, it is because they have many lives; but we be few by the Whitefish, and the young men shall go away no more.’  But the young men did go away; and the young women went also; and we were very wroth.

“It be true, we ate flour, and salt pork, and drank tea which was a great delight; only, when we could not get tea, it was very bad and we became short of speech and quick of anger.  So we grew to hunger for the things the white men brought in trade.  Trade! trade! all the time was it trade!  One winter we sold our meat for clocks that would not go, and watches with broken guts, and files worn smooth, and pistols without cartridges and worthless.  And then came famine, and we were without meat, and two score died ere the break of spring.