Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1901-07-19
YOYOUk'S RAVENS,



the blue sky.
The lad shook his head dissentingly.
He is a lazy thief, who robs honest
birds of fish" he replied. The wise
raven. Too-loo-ah. is the true chief
Koyouk's opinion merited considera-
tion. All that knew and much more
of the life and habits Of Too-loo-ah
was familiar to this 16-year.old boy
of the lower Yukon. As a little child
he had often listened while his mother
related folklore anecdotes Of its sa-
gacity and other less commendable at
tributes lie did not know that his
Young kinsmen in far-off Greenland,
halfway around the globe. whose
very existence, indeed, he did not sus-
pect,-were also entertained during
the long. dark winter night with sim
liar stories, nor that they, too. called
the black bird Tooloo-ah. But he had
heard that among the south coast Tin
kits an aristocratic clan proudly tracei
their ancestry to the bird whose
quantity modelled effigy adorns their
totempoles and this fact was of es-
pecial interest to him because a
carved. weather-beaten figure Of ra-
ven surmounted a painted pole planted
beside his grandfathers wooden tomb
on a neighboring hilltop.
Among the hills behind the village
where Koyouk lived there is one of
those peculiar geological formations.
an isolated finger or pillar of dark
colored rock. like druidical monolith
on a cyolopean scale. which has with
stood the frost and storms of untold
centuries. A similar column. although
| of far greater size and altitude. stands
on the northwestern coast Of Green
land. near Melville bay. and others
exist elsewhere. From time immemo-
rial the top of the pillar has harbored
a pair of ravens There successive
generations have reared their young,
secure from molestation.
Koyouk had acquired a habit of re-
sorting thither Many wera the
| pleasant hours he spent outstretched
on the thick. soft moss of an adjacent
slope, screened by the smoke Of a
smudge that kept OFF black flies and
mosquitoes while he watched the adult
birds Tapping to AMI fro above him.
| Sometimes he espied one returning
from a foray laden with salmon
filched from the village fshracks
where the split fish were strung in
long. red rows. curing in the sun.
| Koyouks father, had he CHANGED to
] discover the frivolous manner in
which his sons time was occupied.
would no doubt have quickly found
means of diverting his attention. But
no such thought detracted from the en-
| ioyment with which Koyouk marked
the joyful clamor of the young birds
in their-JOftY.y yaei;iaa WARfnF piaSiFiih"-
The young naturalist was in his 18th
year when he first conceived the idea
of scaling the pillar Formerly he had
been content to view its occupants
from distance, but a desire for more
intimate acquaintance now awoke in
him. He had. moreover, potent
reason for wishing to obtain one of
the fiedglings
KoyOuk was one of those persons
who are gifted with wonderful com
prehension of and influence over ami.
mails His father had given him one
OF litter of pups. and he hal taught
1t to perform number of feats that
did great credit both to the teacher
and the. CANNES intelligence. En-
couraged by this success. the boy
longed for an opportunity to apply a
similar course of instruction to a raw
en-. For. he reasoned. its superior
endowment, if carefully cultivated.
could not fail to result in the ultimate
development of a feathered prodigy.
Almost invariably, as he had noticed.
the young were hatched before the
ice had left the Yukon and the ground
was bare of snow He lurked persist
emily about the aerie in hope that dur
ing the period Of their tuition in tie
use of wings one of them might by
chance fall into his hands But the
vigiant parents, although so accus
toned to his presence that they usual
ly paid no heed TO him, seemed TO
divine his new motive. and they
guarded their progeny with extraor,
dinary zeal. This evidence Of subtle
disccrnment, to which he ascribed
the birds incessant watchfulness. in.
creased his respect for their wisdom.
However he had devised a fsas
ible scheme for making an ascent to
the top Of the monolith. and he at
length proceeded to put it into execu-
tion.
He repaired to the big rock one
June afternoon, carrying an empty
flour sack, his bow and arrows. a ball
Of stout twine, such as the Yukon
people use in netting fish-traps. and
coil of light but strong fibrous rope.
His mother had made the rope by
braiding, with infinite skill and pa.
tience, strips OF the inner bark of the
willow. prepared and toughened by
native process, and it was primarily
designed TO be stretched between
series of posts to form a salmon rack
Although fiat instead Of round. ami
ess than a half-inch wide. it was
capable of sustaining a very heavy
weight.
A very spall spur OF crag projects
rom a face of the rock column lust
lelow the top, Could he succeed in
passing the rope over this, an agile
Timber, like himself. might mount to
I with comparative ease Having
irst unwound the ball. Koyouk TIED an
nd of the twine to the rope and made
asst the other to an arrow. Then.
Htting the feathered notch to the bow.
tring, he measured the distance with I
is eye and sent the shaft, with the I
'hite cord trailing behind il. hurtling
loft
Although accounted the most skill
III young archer of his village. his first I
hot merely disturbed the domestic |
ranquillity of the tenants of tha a.,,..s q