Athabaskan.' Latham's Comp. Phil., p. 393.
182. William W. Turner was the first to assert positively that the Apaches spoke a language which belongs to the Athabascan family. Buschmann, Spuren der Aztek. Sprache, p. 316.
183. Face 'oval.' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 180. 'Broad faces, projecting cheek-bones, and wide nostrils.' Id., vol. i., p. 242. Foreheads low, chin long. Martin's Brit. Col., vol. iii., p. 524. An exact compound between the Usquemows and Western Indians. Barrow's Geog. Hudson Bay, p. 33.
184. Generally more than medium size. Hearne's Trav., p. 305. 'Well proportioned, and about the middle size.' Martin's Brit. Col., vol. iii., p. 524. 'Long-bodied, with short, stout limbs.' Ross, in Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 304.
185. 'Dingy copper.' Martin's Brit. Col., vol. iii., p. 526. 'Swarthy.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxix. Dingy brown, copper cast. Hearne's Trav., p. 305. 'Very fresh and red.' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 180. 'Dirty yellowish ochre tinge.' Ross, in Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 304.
186. 'Small, fine eyes and teeth.' Franklin's Nar., vol. i., 242.
187. 'Hair lank, but not always of a dingy black. Men in general extract their beard, though some of them are seen to prefer a bushy, black beard, to a smooth chin.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxix. Beard in the aged 'between two and three inches long, and perfectly white.' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 180. 'Black, strait, and coarse.' Martin's Brit. Col., vol. iii., p. 524. 'Neither sex have any hair under their armpits, and very little on any other part of the body, particularly the women; but on the place where Nature plants the hair, I never knew them attempt to eradicate it.' Hearne's Trav., p. 306.
188. Tattooing appears to be universal among the Kutchins. Kirby, in Smithsonian Rept., 1864, p. 419. The Chepewyans tattooed 'by entering an awl or needle under the skin, and, on drawing it out again, immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wound.' Hearne's Trav., p. 306. 'Both sexes have blue or black bars, or from one to four straight lines on their cheeks or forehead, to distinguish the tribe to which they belong.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxx.
189. Women 'destitute of real beauty.' Hearne's Trav., p. 89. 'Very inferior aspect.' Richardson's Jour., vol. ii., p. 8. Women nasty. Mackenzie's Voy., p. 126. 'Positively hideous.' Ross, in Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 304.
190. A Deer-Horn Mountaineer's dress 'consisted of a shirt, or jacket with a hood, wide breeches, reaching only to the knee, and tight leggins sewed to the shoes, all of deer's skins.' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 180. The cap consists of the skin of a deer's head. Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxii.
191. As witness this speech of a noble chief: 'Women were made for labor; one of them can carry, or haul, as much as two men can do. They also pitch our tents, make and mend our clothing, keep us warm at night; and, in fact, there is no such thing as traveling any considerable distance, in this country without their assistance.' Hearne's Trav., p. 55.
192. An Indian desiring another one's wife, fights with her husband, principally by pulling hair. If victorious, he pays a number of skins to the husband. Hooper's Tuski, p. 303.
193. 'Continence in an unmarried female is scarcely considered a virtue.' 'Their dispositions are not amatory.' 'I have heard among them of two sons keeping their mother as a common wife, of another wedded to his daughter, and of several married to their sisters. Ross, in Smithsonian Rept., 1866, p. 310. Women carry their children on the back next the skin, and suckle them until another is born. They do not suspend their ordinary occupations for child-birth. Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxii. 'A temporary interchange of wives is not uncommon; and the offer of their persons is considered as a necessary part of the hospitality due to strangers.' Id., p. xcvi. Women are 'rather the slaves than the companions of the men.' Bell's Geog., vol. v., p. 293.
194. They are harsh towards their wives, except when enceinte. They are accused of abandoning the aged and sick, but only one case came to his knowledge. Franklin's Nar., vol. i., pp. 250, 251.
195. Beeatee, prepared from deer only, 'is a kind of haggis, made with the blood, a good quantity of fat shred small, some of the tenderest of the flesh, together with the heart and lungs cut, or more commonly cut into small shivers; all of which is put into the stomach, and roasted.' Hearne's Trav., p. 144. 'Not remarkable for their activity as hunters, owing to the ease with which they snare deer and spear fish.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxiii. The Deer-Horn Mountaineers 'repair to the sea in spring and kill seals; as the season advances, they hunt deer and musk oxen at some distance from the coast. They approach the deer either by crawling, or by leading these animals by ranges of turf towards the spot where the archer can conceal himself.' Do not use nets, but the hook and line. Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 181. 'Nets made of lines of twisted willow-bark, or thin strips of deer-hide.' Richardson's Jour., vol. ii., p. 25. Curdled blood, a favorite dish. Simpson's Nar., p. 324.
196. The weapons of the Chepewyans are bows and arrows; stone and bone axes and knives. Harmon's Jour., p. 183. The bows of the Deer-Horns 'are formed of three pieces of fir, the centre piece alone bent, the other two lying in the same straight line with the bowstring; the pieces are neatly tied together with sinew. Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 180. In preparing for an attack, each Coppermine Indian paints his shield with figures of Sun, Moon, or some animal or imaginary beings, each portraying whatever character he most relies upon. Hearne's Trav., p. 148. In some parts hunting grounds descend by inheritance, and the right of property is rigidly enforced. Simpson's Nar., p. 75.
197. 'Their cooking utensils are made of pot-stone, and they form very neat dishes of fir.' Franklin's Nar., vol. ii., p. 181. Make fishing-lines and nets of green deer-thongs. Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxvi.
198. 'They are great mimics.' Richardson's Jour., vol. ii., p. 13. Men dance naked; women dressed. A crowd stand in a straight line, and shuffle from right to left without moving the feet from the ground. Hearne's Trav., p. 335. 'The men occasionally howl in imitation of some animal.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. 35.
199. 'They manifest no common respect to the memory of their departed friends, by a long period of mourning, cutting off their hair, and never making use of the property of the deceased.' Mackenzie's Voy., p. cxxviii. The death of leading men is attributed to conjuring. They never bury the dead, but 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.