The Boy Scouts on the Yukon

the Indian boatmen from the beginning of their journey and had struck up an especial friendship with the Indian whose dog had tackled the wild cat and had

"pigeon," or jargon used as a language of communication with the natives. It was made up of half Siwash, half English words, the latter so amputated and distorted as scarcely to be recognizable. It was rath

worked his way carefully upward. The carvings were weird, goggle eyed, snouted and saw-toothed creatures, the like of which could only have originated in the brain of the late Lewis Carroll, who wrote "Alice in Wonderland" or in the dreams of a Siwash nourished on smoked salmon and rancid seal oil. Part of the carved lines of one creature formed the features of another

ha

d stood for a moment erect, with his hand on his breast with so dignified an air that Rand could scarcely recognize in the figure before him the slouching round-shouldered aborigine, who went daily, so stolidly, about the labor of the

ree and equal, and the chiefs and their families have to hustle for a living as hard as the lowest of them. Still, they cling to their ancient dignities. That totem he's been carving is the insignia of his clan or family, and as he couldn't bring the old family totem pole with him, he carves one wherever he settles for a time, and sets it up. You remember in old 'I

the city museums, and one or two on their original ground in the Alaskan villages that they had visited, there was something familiar about this one. As they went over the various figures, trying to distinguish

e's the ace of clubs, and that couldn't have got over

t." Then, for the first time, the reason f

ried, excitedly,

cried in chorus,

m is an exact replica of our narwhal horn. Her

. "Looks as though he had copied it

ed, and rubbed smooth as if with much handling. It was covered with rude etchings evidently made with flints or sharp shells. As nearly as could be made out, the figures represented a mammoth, an extinct c

gs of the hieroglyphics which the "chief" had carved on his totem pole, and found them to be almost identical

foundations of the sod house, where a ditch was being dug, but it being near the hour of noon t

lance of the two carvings. As his eye fell upon the relic a remarkable change came over the Siwash. He reached forward

Now the aborigine gave vent to a shrill piercing yell, and, at the same time, waved hysterically to

n and appeared to pay it the most awed reverence. The Scouts seeing that they were so deeply interested did not attempt to repossess the

boys seeing that they had encountered a mystery which could not at once be unraveled, and that the relic had some almost overpowe

tion for the sawmill, took occasion in the intervals of their labor to tell Swiftwater the story of the narwhal's horn, and the incid

. Meantime, I wish you would all leave this matter in my hands

t them and strolled over to where the Indians were at work on the sod house, an

oundation, "what do you think of it? There seems to be more in tha

we seem to be coming out

ndian was going to hold on to our relic, and the

as only a mere guess of ours, after Colonel Snow undertook to interpret it to us, that there might be anything behind it

of Swiftwater and try and get the true inwardness of the thing from him. It ought to be a good story if we don't get anything else ou

as a real language like Gaelic or English or just a rumble, but when I heard that he

er returned to his work, and Swiftwater joined the boys. His face was still grave, and simp

happened. My experience with savages the world over has taught me that while you may rob them and make war on them and get away with it, that y

sacred. He says there were two of these relics, that they were handed from generation to generation and carefully guarded. At first they were merely the record of a buried treasure, the wealth of the northern tribes being the ivory of

and the family scattered, and many women and children and much loot taken. These ivory relic

ion. While I do not expect any trouble from them I want to be absolutely certain of them until we get this work of

s surrender all claim to the ivory, and tell t

along with you and explain to the Siwashes

smoking with the others. For some reason all work on th

ed to present the heirloom to the tribe, and Swiftwater supplemented this with a talk

nod eager assent to the offer of the Scouts to relinquish th

an invitation to visit him at his village on the occas

ng dead past. Swiftwater appeared more reassured, but took occasion to visit the shack before turning in and found the abo

t kept out the horde of mosquitos in the early morning was the absolute silence of the forest. The six Indians had