The Native Races (Complete 5 Part Edition). Hubert Howe Bancroft
leave them, where they die, for wild beasts to devour. Hearne's Trav., p. 341. The Chepewyans bury their dead. When mourning for relatives they gash their bodies with knives. Richardson's Jour., vol. ii., pp. 21, 22.
200. 'The Northern Indians seldom attain a great age, though they have few diseases.' Martin's Brit. Col., vol. iii., p. 525. For inward complaints, the doctors blow zealously into the rectum, or adjacent parts. Hearne's Trav., p. 189. The conjurer shuts himself up for days with the patient, without food, and sings over him. Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 41. Medicine-men or conjurers are at the same time doctors. Hooper's Tuski, pp. 317, 318. 'The Kutchins practice blood-letting ad libitum.' Jones, Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 325. 'Their principal maladies are rheumatic pains, the flux, and consumption.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxiv.
201. According to the report of the Dog-ribs, the Mountain Indians are cannibals, casting lots for victims in time of scarcity. Simpson's Nar., p. 188. 'Instances of suicide, by hanging, frequently occur among the women.' Harmon's Jour., p. 198. During times of starvation, which occur quite frequently, the Slavé Indians eat their families. Hooper's Tuski, p. 303. 'These people take their names, in the first instance, from their dogs. A young man is the father of a certain dog, but when he is married, and has a son, he styles himself the father of the boy. The women have a habit of reproving the dogs very tenderly when they observe them fighting. "Are you not ashamed," say they, "to quarrel with your little brother?"' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., pp. 85, 86. 'Whether circumcision be practiced among them, I cannot pretend to say, but the appearance of it was general among those whom I saw.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. 36. Dog-rib Indians, sometimes also called Slavés, 'a name properly meaning 'strangers.' Gallatin, in Am. Arch. Soc. Trans., vol. ii., p. 19.
202. 'Order is maintained in the tribe solely by public opinion.' Richardson's Jour., vol. ii., p. 26. The chiefs are now totally without power. Franklin's Nar., vol. i., p. 247. 'They are influenced, more or less, by certain principles which conduce to their general benefit.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxv.
203. 'Many consider a broth, made by means of the dung of the cariboo and the hare, to be a dainty dish.' Harmon's Jour., p. 324. They 'are lazy, dirty, and sensual,' and extremely uncivilized. 'Their habits and persons are equally disgusting.' Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., p. 62. 'They are a tall, well formed, good-looking race.' Nicolay's Ogn. Ter., p. 154. 'An utter contempt of cleanliness prevailed on all hands, and it was revolting to witness their voracious endeavors to surpass each other in the gluttonous contest.' Ind. Life, p. 156.
204. The women 'run a wooden pin through their noses.' Harmon's Jour., p. 287. At their burial ceremonies they smear the face 'with a composition of fish-oil and charcoal.' When conjuring, the chief and his companions 'wore a kind of coronet formed of the inverted claws of the grizzly bear.' Ind. Life, pp. 127, 158.
205. The Tacullies have 'wooden dishes, and other vessels of the rind of the birch and pine trees.' 'Have also other vessels made of small roots or fibres of the cedar or pine tree, closely laced together, which serve them as buckets to put water in.' Harmon's Jour., p. 292.
206. 'In the summer season both sexes bathe often; and this is the only time, when the married people wash themselves.' The Tacullies are very fond and very jealous of their wives, 'but to their daughters, they allow every liberty, for the purpose, as they say, of keeping the young men from intercourse with the married women.' Harmon's Jour., pp. 289, 292, 293. A father, whose daughter had dishonored him, killed her and himself. Ind. Life, 184.
207. 'The people of every village have a certain extent of country, which they consider their own, and in which they may hunt and fish; but they may not transcend these bounds, without purchasing the privilege of those who claim the land. Mountains and rivers serve them as boundaries.' Harmon's Jour., p. 298.
208. Mackenzie, Voy., p. 238, found on Fraser River, about latitude 55°, a deserted house, 30 by 20, with three doors, 3 by 3½ feet; three fire-places, and beds on either side; behind the beds was a narrow space, like a manger, somewhat elevated, for keeping fish. 'Their houses are well formed of logs of small trees, buttressed up internally, frequently above seventy feet long and fifteen high, but, unlike those of the coast, the roof is of bark; their winter habitations are smaller, and often covered over with grass and earth; some even dwell in excavations of the ground, which have only an aperture at the top, and serves alike for door and chimney.' Nicolay's Ogn. Ter., p. 154.
209. 'Quelques peuplades du nord, telles que les Sikanis, enterrent leurs morts.' Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 339. 'The Sicaunies bury, while the Tacullies, burn their dead.' Harmon's Jour., p. 196. They 'and the Chimmesyans on the coast, and other tribes speaking their language, burn the dead.' Lord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 236. See also Dunn's Oregon, pp. 79, 80; Ind. Life, pp. 128, 136; Domenech's Deserts, vol. ii., pp. 362, 363.
210. They fire guns as a warning to their friends not to invade their sorrow. Mackenzie's Voy., p. 139.
211. 'In the winter season, the Carriers often keep their dead in their huts during five or six months, before they will allow them to be burned.' Harmon's Jour., p. 249.
212. 'She must frequently put her hands through the flames and lay them upon his bosom, to show her continued devotion.' Parker's Explor. Tour, p. 239. They have a custom of mourning over the grave of the dead; their expressions of grief are generally exceedingly vociferous. Ind. Life, pp. 185, 186.
213. 'On the end of a pole stuck in front of the lodge.' Lord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 237.
214. Women cut off a joint of one of their fingers. Men only cut off their hair close to their heads, but also frequently cut and scratch their faces and arms. Harmon's Jour., p. 182. With some sharp instrument they 'force back the flesh beyond the first joint, which they immediately amputate.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. 148.
215. 'The men are completely destitute of beard, and both men and women, are intensely ugly.' Jones, in Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 320. 'They reminded me of the ideal North American Indian I had read of but never seen.' Whymper's Alaska, p. 239. Distinguished from all other tribes for the frankness and candor of their demeanor, and bold countenances. Simpson's Nar., p. 100. 'Males are of the average hight of Europeans, and well-formed, with regular features, high foreheads, and lighter complexions than those of the other red Indians. The women resemble the men.' Richardson's Jour., vol. i., p. 379.
216. 'Tunic or shirt reaching to the knees, and very much ornamented with beads, and Hyaqua shells from the Columbia.' Kirby, in Smithsonian Rept., 1864, p. 418. The Tenan Kutchins are 'gay with painted faces, feathers in their long hair, patches of red clay