The Devil's Making by Seán Haldane Page A

commented in English. ‘You know what a berdash is, Gentlemen? An effeminate. A pathic. Some tribes allow them to live as women. But I think the Tyee is right: the berdash is an institution of the Prairie Indians.’ He went on to ask Wiladzap in Chinook whether McCrory had wanted a berdash for kissing, having fun, and so on.
    â€˜Spose.’ Not surprisingly the Chinook for ‘I suppose so’. Wiladzap shrugged his shoulders again.
    So Wiladzap did not think the doctor desired to make kissing with Lukswaas.
    â€˜Wake. McCloly wake yaka skookum.’ This meant McCrory was ‘without power’. ‘Skookum’ has by now even entered the English language in Victoria, to mean something is ‘in good condition’. Wiladzap went on to explain, using the counter-like words of Chinook skilfully, that immediately he had met McCrory he had noticed that he was without ‘skookum’, and he assumed this meant McCrory was ill in some way – that he was interested in herbs not only as a doctor but for himself. Now that McCrory was dead, Wiladzap realised that the lack of power was because the power had already gone out of McCrory, because he was about to die. Wiladzap should have noticed this from the first, but of course he was interested in talking to McCrory about medicines and the breath of life. McCrory was a very clever man who knew many things. When McCrory had asked about the berdash and about medicines to give power in love (‘kiss kiss’) Wiladzap thought another thing, that maybe McCrory was sick in that way. In any case he had not worried about McCrory being alone with Lukswaas. He added that Lukswaas also had great ‘skookum’.
    As I sat considering this puzzling remark, Pemberton asked abruptly whether Smgyiik had wanted kiss kiss with Lukswaas.
    â€˜Ah-ha’, Wiladzap said calmly. And because Smgyiik could not have Lukswaas he was indeed ‘tum tum sick’. As well, Smgyiik was the bearer of a name of bad fortune.
    â€˜Not least its being so unpronounceable’, Pemberton said wearily. ‘Many Indian tribes have a complicated hierarchy of names.’ He asked Wiladzap why he had chosen Smgyiik to go with the message to Victoria, about the death?
    Wiladzap said that Smgyiik spoke Chinook well and was fast on his feet.
    Pemberton leaned forward and fixed Wiladzap with his pale eyes. He explained with emphasis that Wiladzap would have to stay in the jail until it was clear who had killed McCrory. It seemed as if Wiladzap killed him because no one else was with McCrory and no one else knew where the dead man was. No one could hear a dying man call at such a distance. Why would a dying Boston in his last breath be capable of speaking in Chinook? The only witness to McCrory having said ‘King George Diaub’ was Wiladzap, an Indian, and Wiladzap could have made this up – as he had made up the idea of hearing McCrory’s call for help – in order to make the King Georges look among their own number for the murderer, not among the Tsalak. And in any case, no King Georges had been seen in the forest that day, or even, so far as was known, visited the Indian camp.
    At this point Wiladzap leaned forward slightly and said with as much emphasis as Pemberton that he did not tell lies.
    Then he allowed himself to be led off by Harding, back to his cell.
    *   *   *
    â€˜You think the man is innocent?’ Pemberton asked me.
    â€˜I don’t think he’s guilty. The evidence is all circumstantial, and he seems to be making no effort to tell a story which would be less incriminating.’
    â€˜Circumstantial evidence can convict a man. Innocent until proved guilty – but in practice, as you know, it is best to prove one is not guilty. A task, I’m afraid, almost impossible for this Indian. On the evidence we can make a charge of murder. We shall have to, for I don’t think it would be wise to let him