IBIESAETOD SIG To SIM OURILCHAUIE, TEIGUMIIS)

Carrier woman, with her little brother, whom the members
of Khalhpan’s expedition had brought him from Chinlac.

He had just gone to prepare laths for the erection of a
salmon trap, when, early in the morning, he was surprised
to hear, all of a sudden, the uproarious clamors of the
avenging party who, from different points of vantage, were
storming his village. Running home in all haste, he gave
the alarm to the sleeping population, and as he rushed
into his house he passed his Carrier wife and her brother
escaping in the direction of their attacking countrymen.
He lost some time in trying to pursue them armed with a
war-club which, to defeat his purpose, the woman had
previously fastened to the wall of the lodge.

By that time, several Chilcotins had already fallen before
the rage of the Carriers, when ’Kun’qus, aided by his first
wife, hastily donned his double armor, consisting of a
device made of dried rods of hardened amelanchier wood,
over which he spread the esta, a sleeveless, tunic-like
cuirass of moose-skin covered with a coat of glued sand
and gravel. Thus attired, he went out and started shooting
wildly until his supply of arrows was exhausted, keeping
between his legs, till he fell pierced by an arrow, a little
son of his, whom he loved above all his other children.

The Carriers, who now recognized him, seeing him
practically powerless, assailed him from all parts. But
with a large stone dagger, whose blade he had mounted at
the end of a stick, he kept them all at bay, so that they
could hardly hurt him, inasmuch as their missiles were of
no avail against his double armor. In this predicament
they remembered the boast of a confederate, a little man
of insignificant parentage named Ycentcelh, who had pre-
viously offered to catch the big Chilcotin for them. Bidden
to make good his boast, Ycentcelh rushed at ’Kun’qus,
leading him to use his lance, which he skilfully dodged at

B 17