NORTHERN INTERIOR OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

may be freely translated Arrow-Heart or Keen-edged-
Heart. His natural crankiness and disposition for harbor-
ing a wrong were proverbial. Yet he must have been an
influential member of the band, since he rejoiced in the
possession of an iron axe, an implement which was still
exceedingly precious among the natives of the Stuart
Lake valley.

Taking this with him as an aid in camp-making, Arrow-
Heart’s son left one day on pleasure bent for Thachek, in
company with the hero of the late Blackwater expedi-
tion. Arrived at that place, which was then a populous
village,t "Kwah and his companion soon took to gambling.
Time and again luck was against them, until they lost
article after article of their wearing apparel. Reduced
to a state of almost perfect nakedness, and yet hoping
against hope, Arrow-Heart’s son ventured to stake half
the value of his father’s axe, which likewise went over to
his opponent. Disheartened, and thinking his companion
would be more lucky, he turned over the remaining half of
the implement to ’Kwah, only to see it immediately lost.

Dejected, and in the thinnest attire, the truant couple
returned to their people, who were then camped on Stuart
River, some fifty miles below the lake from whence it flows.
Maddened at the loss of his axe, Arrow-Heart broke into
reproaches against ’Kwah, whom he accused of being the
final cause of its going over to the Thachek people. To
placate the old man, who had a bad reputation and was
credited with an unwelcome familiarity with the black art
of sorcery, Kwah, after protesting that the fault was not
his, presented him with a marmot robe and a. beautiful
necklace of dentalium shells, which, however, the irate
parent of a gambler spitefully declined to accept.

1. As is shown by the large number of stone arrow-heads and other ancient
weapons still found in the soil on the original site of that village.

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