The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-10-23
and Eve before the fall. Others wore
bits of old clothes.
SHORT ON CLOTHES.

SHORT ON CLOTHES.
One man, remember, who was ap-
parently the head Of the almost naked
family in his canoe, had on only a
short vest, open at the front, and a
rag apron as big as a ladys handker-
Chief tied to string about his waist.
His favorite wife, clad in a string of
beads, sat in the boat near the fire,
with naked boy of two sucking his
fingers as he leaned against her naked
legs, and his other wife, a buxom girl
in her teens, held a naked baby to her
breast with one hand while she pad
died the boat with the other. I was
shiVertng in my Overcoat as I looked
at these people, but they did not seem
cold nor miserable. The children were
fat. The young mother at the end Of
the boat had on nothing but a cast-Off
sack coat, which she had thrown over
her shoulders to partially cover her
self and her baby. AS she padded this
kept falling off, and her person and
that of the baby were exposed. They
were both plump. Both men and wom-
en- were rather under than diversified.
They had faces somewhat like those
Of our Indians. The mems faces were
dirty, evidently from paint, and the
naked brave in the vest had thin
black mustache. They had black hair;
that of the women long, but put up in
some way, and that of the men cut off
SO that 1t just covered the ears and
fell down in a thick black fringe or
bang over their eyes The skins were
of a brown coffee color, and all had
very white teeth, which they showed
again and again as they laughed. Their
voices were not unpleasant, and they
n1inlicked us as we. called out to them.
The man in the vest had two or three
otter skins, which one of the officers
Of the ship tried to buy. He would
not come on board, and the officer
crawled down tine side Of the ship above
the boat and held on there by rope
while he tried to make the trade. He
had a big butcher knife in one hand,
while he held on to the rope by the
other. He wanted the savage to give
him two skins for the knife, but he
thought one was enough.
SHREWDNESS IN TRADE.
The naked man would not give up
the skin until he had the knife in his
hand, and in the trade he displayed
wonderful shrewdness and ability to
bargain. Of course, neither party
could understand the other, and neither
would trust the other. The naked saw
age, however, got the best of it. The
only things that can be used in trad
ing with these people are bright cloth,
beads. tobacco and knives. They do
not know the use of money and would
rather have a jack-knife or a Ratchet
than a genuine gold brick. They were
evidently afraid to come on board, and
1 am told they are by no means friend
ly to strangers, and will kill them if
they can attack them with safety
| They use bows and arrows to defend
themselves, although they do not hunt.
The food for the family is usually got
ten by the women, Of whom each man
has one or more. as he can get them
The food consists Of fish, musSeIs and
Of now and then a fox, seal or otter
The women fish with lines, but with
out hooks. A little chunk of meat is
tied to the end of the line, and, when
the fish has swallowed this, it is jerked
into the canoe. The Alacalufes are
also fond of whale meat, and a dead
whale, [ am told, is cut in pieces and
buried, to be eaten in it's various stages
of decomposition as long as it lasts.
They understand what tobacco is, alVl
these we met were as anxious to get
tobacco as food. They had but few
foreign words, one Of which was Frau
Lehman" the term by which they des-
igrate all foreigners, and the two 9TH
ers, ''galleta," the Spanish word for
sweet cakes, and "tabac," the German
for tobacco. Frank G. Carpenter.