British Columbia -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Revenge -- Fiction; Sawmills -- Fiction
The Chinamen mostly worked in the yard: handling lumber as it came
out, stacking it, wheeling it, carrying it. But there were others
than Chinky Chinamen about. There was Spanish Joe in one shack which
he shared with Chihuahua, who was a Mexican. Be so good as to
pronounce this word Cheewawwaw and have done with it. Skookum
Charlie and his klootchman (he was from S'Kokomish and was a Puyallop
and she from Snohomish and was a Muckleshoot) lived in another.
There's no word for wife in Chinook but only _Klootchman_, woman, so
though there's one for marry, _malieh_, the ceremony is not much
thought of. When a man's klootchman is mentioned it leaves the
question of matrimony open for further inquiry, if necessary. But is
it worth while?
A dozen Sitcum-Siwashes camped in other shanties; they were from all
along the coast, even Metlakahtla and from inland, one being nearly a
full-blooded Shushwap. But the only pure-blooded Indian about the
place was Indian Annie. She was a Hydah from the Islands and had
been as pretty as a picture once, as so many of the Hydah women were.
Now she was a hag and a procuress and as ugly as a burnt stick and as
wicked as a wild-cat. If she was ever washed it was when she was
dead drunk in a rainstorm: she was wrinkled like the skin of a
Rambouillet ram: she walked double and screeched like a night-hawk.
As to her clothes and the worth of them, why, anyone but an
entomologist would have given her a dollar to burn them--Faugh!
Nevertheless it was in her shack that Pete camped with Jenny.
About nine o'clock that night, the night of Pete's getting a job, it
was wonderful at Indian Annie's. If you don't believe it come in and
see, tilikum! There are tons of things you don't know, tilikum, the
same as the rest of us.
Oh, hyah, oho, they were enjoying themselves!
Such a day it had been, clear, clean-breathed, splendid, serene, and
even yet the light lingered in the cloudless heavens, though the
bolder stars came like scouts over the eastern hills and looked down
on Mill and River.
But shucks, what of that in Indian Annie's? The room that was
kitchen, dining room, hall and lumber room was reeking full. A wood
fire smouldered on the hearth: a slush lamp smoked in the window
against the dying heavenly day. Pete was there and Annie, and Jack
Mottram, an English sailorman. He lived next door with a half-breed
Ptsean (you can't pronounce it, tilikum) who was scarcely prettier
than Annie, till she was washed. Then she was obviously younger at
any rate.
Everyone was so far very happy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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