Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-08-15

| There goes the great chief OF all the
birds, koyouk," said l, indicating an
| eagle that was mounting slowly into
the blue sky.
The lad shook his head dissentingly.
"He is lazy thief, who robs honest
| birds of fish," he replied. "The wise
raven, Tooloo-ah is the true chief"
Koyouk's opinion merite j considera-
| ton. 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 little child
| e had often listened while his mother
| /elated folklore anecdotes of it's sa-
gacity and other less commendable at
| tributes. He did not know that his
| Ioung 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 Too-loo-ah. But he had
heard that among the south coast Tin
kits an aristocratic clan proudly traced
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 painted pole planted
beside his grandfather's wooden tomb
on neighboring hilltop.
Among the hills behind the village
L l. ic nf
those peculiar geological formations,
an isolated finger or pillar of dark
colored rock, like druidicai monolith
on a cyclopean scale, which has with
stood the frost and storms of untold
centuries. 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 habit Of re-
sorting thither. Many were the
pleasant hours he spent outstretched
on the thick, soft moss of an adjacent
slope, screened by the smoke of
smudge that kept off black flies and
mosquitoes while he watched the adult
birds Tapping to and fro above him.
Sometimes he espied one returning
from foray, laden with salmon
filched from the village fish-racks
where the split fish were strung in
long, red res. curing in the sun.
Koyouk's father. had he Glanced 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 letracted from the en-
joyment with which Koyouk marked
the joyful clamor of the young birds
In their lofty aerie while a distribu-
ton Of the spoil was taking place.
The young naturalist was in his 10th
year when he first conceived the idea
Of scaling the pillar Formerly he had
been content to view it's occupants
from a distance, but desire for more
intimate acquaintance now awoke in
him. He had. moreover, potent
reason for wishing to obtain one of
the fledglings.
Koyouk was one Of those persons
who are gifted with wonderful COM
prehension of and influence over ami
mails. His fatheI had given him one
Of a litter of pups, and he hal taught
1t to perform number Of feats that
did great credit both to the teacher
AMI the CANNES intelligence. En-
couraged by this success. the boy
longed for an opportunity to apply
similar course of instruction to a raw
en-. For, he reasoned. it's 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
entity about the aerie in hope that dur
Ing the period OF their tuition in the
use of wings one of them might by
chance fall into his hands. But the
vigilant 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-
binary zeal. This evidence Of subtle
discdrnment. to which he ascribed
The birds incessant watchfulness, in
creased his respect for their wisdom.
However, he had devised a feas-
ible scheme for making an ascent to
the top of the monolith. and he at
length proceeded to put it into execu-
ton.
He repaired to the big rock one
June afternoon. carrying an empty
-four sack, his bow and arrows. ball
Of stout twine. such as the Yukon
people use in netting fish-traps, and a
coil Of light but strong fibrous rope.
His mother had made the rope by