Down at the Treaty tent, Dog-Rib and Yellow-Knife are being handed the five one dollar bills which remind each that he is a loyal subject of His Imperial Majesty Edward the Seventh. The Yellow-Knives were so named by Mackenzie far back in 1789 when he first saw them and their weapons of native copper. Each head of a family is issued an identification-ticket which he presents and has punched from year to year. A father "draws treaty" for his olive-skinned branches until each marries and erects a tepee for himself. Government Agent Conroy, big bodied and big hearted, sits on a nail-keg, represents the King, and gives out largesse; and Mr. Laird presides over the Doomsday book. Inside the tent we take up a sheltered position and watch the fun. There are marked zones of names as well as of vegetation. The _Fiddler Anns, Waggon-box Julias_, and _Mrs. Turkeylegs_ of the Plains country are absent here, in the Land of the Yellow-Knife, where neither waggon-boxes nor turkeys flourish.
[Illustration: Coming to "Take Treaty" on Great Slave Lake]
_Mary Catholic_ comes along hand-in-hand with _Samuel the Worm_. Full of animal spirits is a group of four--_Antoine Gullsmouth, Tongue-of-the-Jackfish, Baptiste Wolftail,_ and _The Cat's Son_. A little chap who announces himself as _T'tum_ turns out to be _Petite Homme_, the squat mate of _The Beloved_. It would be interesting to know just how each of the next couple acquired his name, for neither _Trois-Pouces_ and _Owl-Plucked-Out-His-Eye_ bears evidence of abnormal conditions. On a whole the names are more striking than our John Smiths; Richard Roes, and Tom Browns, as for instance the next three--_Le Père des Carriboux, Geroux the Eldest, Alixi To-rong-jo. The-man-who-stands-still_ is evidently a stand-patter, while one wonders if it would be right to call _The-Man-Who-Walks-With-The-Red-Hair,_ a Crimson Rambler.
_Carry-the-Kettle_ appears with _Star Blanket_ and _The Mosquito,_ and the next man in line, who has the tongs from a bon-bon box stuck in the band of his hat, rejoices in the name of _Strike-Him-on-the-Back,_ which somehow suggests the match-box in the hotel hall-way. As the dignified father, _Having-Passed-Many-Birthdays,_ claims five dollars each for his four daughters, _Smiling Martin, My-Wigwam-is-White,_ and the twins _Make-Daylight-Appear_ and _Red-Sky-of-the-Morning,_ we acknowledge that here again, in the art of naming, the Yellow-Knife has his white brother "skinned."