THE SARCEES.

THE Sarcees are a branch of the Beaver or Castor tribe of Indians of the great Athapascan stock, which extends over the north of British America in scattered bands, through Oregon and California into Northern Mexico, and includes the Umpquas, Apaches, and other tribes. At some period beyond the recollection of the oldest members of the Sarcee tribe, it came under the protection of the Blackfoot Confederacy, and was united with it. The Beaver Indians still live in the district of Athabasca, where are found the Chippewayan, Slave, Dog Rib, and other Indian tribes.

Only in the traditions of the people can we learn anything of this strange isolation of the Sarcees from their kindred in the far northern country. Tradition says that in the distant past a young Beaver chief shot his arrow through a dog of one of his fellow braves, who was deeply enraged, and vowed vengeance. His friends rallied to his assistance,, and eighty men fell dead as the result of the quarrel. Great was the sorrow in the camp, and a temporary truce was arranged, but sixty people who were friends of the chief who had killed the dog agreed to separate from the tribe and seek a home in another part of the land. They journeyed southward by the shores of the Lesser Slave Lake until they reached the plains and valleys of the Great Saskatchewan.

More than a century passed by, and no tidings were ever received from this exiled band. A young Beaver Indian accompanied a white fur hunter southward, and on their journey they camped at one of the forts in the valley of the Saskatchewan, where strange Indians were seen loitering about the palisades. They were members of the great Blackfoot Confederacy. Among them were some braves who spoke a language different from the Blackfoot tongue, and as the Beaver Indian listened he recognized his own language, for in these men he found the descendants of the long lost band of the Beaver tribe. These are the Sarcee Indians of the present day.

In the summer of 1880, when the writer reached Fort Macleod, he found the Sarcee Indians camped upon the Old Man's River, along with some Blackfoot and Blood Indians, where they were being supplied with rations by the Government—the buffalo having left the plains and gone south to the plains and valleys of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. The majority of the Bloods and Blackfeet were in Montana hunting the buffalo, and did not return till late in the fall of that year. Some of the Sarcee children attended the day school taught in Macleod by my wife, along with Bloods, Blackfeet and half-breed children. It was then estimated that the Sarcees numbered about seven hundred, although the Government agent thought that there were not more than three or four hundred.

Sir John Franklin's estimate in 1820 was that there were one hundred and fifty lodges, with an average of eight persons to each lodge, or a total of twelve hundred persons. Rowand, an old trader, in 1848 counted forty-five lodges, or three hundred and fifty persons. Sir George Simpson reckoned fifty lodges and three hundred and fifty persons in the year 1841. An old friend of the writer, who has lived for fifty years in the country, told him that during the year of the small-pox he had counted at the Marias' River not less than one hundred "dead lodges," in which there was an average of ten bodies. It is, therefore, difficult to make a correct estimate of this tribe with such conflicting testimony, but there is no doubt that the population must have been quite numerous, lessened at times through the depopulating ravages of war. They were said to be "the oldest of all the tribes that inhabit the plains," and those who have come in contact with them in these later years can add to this testimony, that they are the most saucy, independent and impudent tribe of Indians that dwell in Northwestern Canada. They have ever been friends and allies of the Blackfeet, and enemies of the Crees. At times they have protected solitary Crees against the evil intentions of the Piegans and Blackfeet.

The Sarcees are of medium height, very few tall men being among them: the women, especially, being small. During the old buffalo days they exhibited their pride in beautiful dresses and fine buffalo-skin lodges, but the departure of the buffalo reduced them to poverty, the lodges were used for moccasins, and many of their horses were sold to obtain food and clothing. The traders and the "old timers" in the country were ever suspicious of these people, believing them to be deceitful, and consequently were ever on their guard against treachery. Like the other plain tribes, they were good hunters, delighting in hunting the buffalo, and when they had secured an abundance of food, spent their days and nights feasting and gambling.

Alexander Henry's journal says of the people: "The Sarcees are a distinct nation, and have an entirely different language from any other nation of the plains, and very difficult to acquire from the many guttural sounds it contains. Their land was formerly on the north side of the Saskatchewan, but they have now removed to the south side, and dwell commonly on the southward of the Beaver Hills, near the Slave Indians (Blackfoot Confederacy), with whom they are at peace. They have the name of being a brave and warlike people, whom the neighboring nations always appear desirous of being on amicable terms with. Their customs and manners seem to be nearly the same as the Crees, and their dress is the same. Their language bears a great resemblance to that of the Chippewayans; many words are exactly the same, from which their apparent emigration from the northward gives every cause to suppose them of that nation. They affect to despise the Slave Indians for their brutish and dastardly manners, and although comparatively few in number, frequently set them at defiance. They form ninety tents, containing about one hundred and fifty men bearing arms."

According to Henry's estimate there would be more than seven hundred Sarcees in the years 1801-1806. In the year 1877 these Indians were included in Treaty number seven, which embraced Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Stoneys and Sarcees, which was arranged by Lieutenant-Governor Laird and Lieut.-Col. J. F. Macleod, at the Blackfeet Crossing of Bow River. The Blackfeet, Bloods and Sarcees were allowed a Reservation along the north and south sides of the Bow and South Saskatchewan rivers, part of which was for ten years only, and the rest in perpetuity. Annuities of money and ammunition were agreed upon, clothing for the chiefs once in three years, a certain number of cattle and farming implements were to be supplied, and teachers sent to teach their children. The head chief of the Sarcees, Bull's Head, on behalf of his tribe, signed the treaty.

The Blackfeet settled gradually upon their Reserve, but the Bloods and Sarcees became dissatisfied and would not locate at Blackfoot Crossing. Finally the Bloods located on a Reservation which was allotted them on Belly River, south of Macleod. A few months after our arrival at Macleod the Sarcees were sent to Blackfoot Crossing under the charge of "Piscan" Munro, but they remained dissatisfied, as they alleged that the Blackfeet were domineering and looked upon them as intruders. They were removed to Fish Creek Indian Farm, where they remained for about a year, and at last they were located on their present Reservation, about eight miles south of Calgary. In 1889 the Sarcee population numbered three hundred and thirty-six, and the outlook is dark indeed, pointing toward their extinction, although the Government is aiding them materially, striving by means of agent, farm instructor, and rations to train them to become self-supporting.

Their language is a very deep guttural, the sounds emanating from the throat, which renders it difficult for a white man to understand or learn. The writer has known several persons who have attempted to learn it, not one of them having been able to acquire the power to speak it with precision. The people speak their own language amongst themselves, but in conversation with others use the Cree or Blackfoot languages. Owing to their relationship to the Blackfoot Confederacy, and their proximity to the members of it, they use the Blackfoot language more than the Cree, and seem to be perfectly at home when using it. The following vocabulary, gathered from the Sarcees, will give a slight idea of the language :

Mackenzie, in his "Voyages," says: "The Sarcees, who are but few in number, appear from their language to come, on the contrary, from the north-westward, and are of the same people as the Rocky Mountain Indians, . . . who are a tribe of the Chippewayans."

In Bancroft's "Native Races" we learn that Umfreville, who visited these people, compares their language to the cackling of hens, and says that it is very difficult for their neighbors to learn it; that Richardson compares some of the sounds to the Hottentot cluck; and Isbister calls them " harsh and guttural, difficult of enunciation, and unpleasant to the ear."

Horatio Hale, in his "Ethnology in the United States Exploring Expedition," says the Sarcees speak a dialect of the Chippewayan (Athapascan) allied to the Tahkali; and Latham classes the Beaver language as transitional to the Slave and Chippewayan proper. Mr. Howse, who spent several years in the northern country, and published a grammar of the Cree language, says of the Indian tongue: "As the Indian languages are numerous, so do they greatly vary in their effect upon the ear. We have the rapid Cootoonay of the Rocky Mountains and the stately Blackfoot of the plains, the slow, embarrassed Flathead of the Mountains; the smooth-toned Pierced-nosed, the difficult Sussee (Sarcee) and Chippewayan; the sing-song Assiniboine the deliberate Cree, and the sonorous, majestic, Chippeway. The writer can corroborate these statements from his association with the tribes mentioned. Oftentimes has he tried to understand the Sarcee tongue, as he has conversed with the natives in the Blackfoot tongue, but the clicking sound of many of their words and the double

guttural made it impossible. The whole of their language seems to consist of clicks and gutturals, that it is difficult to distinguish one syllable from another, and the study of the language had to be given up in despair. The women and children invariably speak the Sarcee language, but the men use in addition the Blackfoot and Cree.

The writer does not know of any literature in the Sarcee language, but in the parent Beaver and Chippewayan tongues there exists quite an extensive list of vocabularies and religious works; most of them, however, are small. In the Chippewayan tongue there have been translated the New Testament, the Ten Commandments, hymns, prayers and catechisms. Translations of legends and songs of the people have been made. Small grammatic treatises and a syllabary, tribal names, and vocabularies have been also arranged. Missionaries, traders and travellers have done considerable work in the language of the Chippewayans. The Beaver language has some translations of the same character, though not so numerous. The Sarcees have, in a great measure, been overshadowed by the tribes in their vicinity, and less attention has been paid to them by travellers and missionaries than to their kindred in the far North, and consequently they have no printed works in their language.

They are similar in their political and social organization to the Blackfeet, having a head chief over the tribe and a minor chief over each band. They have also an annual sun dance, which cannot be of Athapascan origin, but must have been learned from the Blackfeet. Indeed, in all their social customs, they are essentially members of the Blackfoot Confederacy. They are sun worshippers, whose religious ideas have been modified through contact with the white people. Dancing and singing, and throwing the wheel and arrows are native amusements, to which they have added card playing, which they have learned from the white people.

The boys run naked in early childhood, having occasionally a garment or cloth around their loins. The girls are always dressed, although the raiment is oftentimes scanty. At the early age of twelve or thirteen the girls are sold in marriage; sometimes to an old man, who may have several wives. Polygamy is practised amongst them, although not to so great a degree as in times of war, when the men were slain and the women compelled to marry members of their own tribe. In the long winter evenings they will gather in their lodges, or in their modern log houses, and, with drum and song, have a tea dance, where tea is drunk in profusion and the well-filled pipe is passed around. Stories of the old buffalo days are told, wherein the narrator has been one of the principal actors, and as the aged man tells vividly of battles, scalps, hairbreadth escapes, horses, and women captured, and glorious wounds, the hearts of the young men are thrilled, and they long for the time when they may follow in the footsteps of their forefathers; but when they step beyond the lodge they see the agent's house, and they are at once confronted with the fact that the pale-face dwells in the land, and he has come to rule. Thoughts too deep for words rankle in their breasts, and fain would they live a hunter's life and taste the sweets of war. Brought into contact with civilization their native customs are dying out.

The Government is seeking to teach them agriculture, which is a difficult thing to do, as they are by nature hunters. Yet they are progressing slowly, as can be seen by the fields of grain and roots which they cultivate upon their Reservation. The children attend the Government school, and an English Church missionary ministers unto them in spiritual things. The influence of the sun dance is passing away, and the war instinct is being suppressed through their inability to contend with their enemies. Their close proximity to Calgary is injurious to the morals of the white people and Indians, as the natives of the plains always find the lower stratum of society ready to teach the willing learner lessons of immorality, and degradation is sure to follow any close relationship of Indians with white people in the early stages of their training. Because of this expression of immorality and a longing on the part of some people for their fine tract of land, there has arisen an agitation for the removal of the Sarcees, but as the Canadians have ever been lovers of fair play, the better class of people will not listen to any question of removal except upon conditions agreeable to the treaty and British law.

The outlook for these Indians is not very bright, yet we are unable to predict their ultimate condition, as they are still in a, transition state. The sudden appearance of a contagious^ disease would sweep them off the face of the earth, while care may preserve them as a remnant of a powerful tribe, transformed through stages of civilization from a bold, independent and war-like race, into a thriftless number of serfs, without ambition or manhood. Education, training in the arts of peace, and the Gospel may do much to enlighten and inspire them with an earnest desire to attain a position of respectability, and this is the hope of those who have the welfare of the Sarcees at heart. They are well cared for, but they feel keenly their changed condition, which is seen in their tawdry dress and habits of uncleanliness, and without hope they cannot succeed. A pang of sorrow comes to the heart in contrasting the former and latter conditions of this tribe. Let us hope for<v .a solution of the Indian problem in its relation to the Sarcees.

THE STONEY INDIANS

The Stoney Indians are a branch of the great Dakota or Siouan Confederacy. They are Assiniboines, of which Stoney is the English translation. According to Dr. Riggs, who spent forty years among the Sioux Indians, Assiniboine means Stone Sioux, and is a compound of French and Ojibway. "Bwan" is the name given by the Ojibways to the Sioux; "assin" is the Ojibway for a stone. Baraga and other authorities on the Ojibway and Sioux give this translation of Assiniboine. The derivation of the name is said to come from the fact that the Assiniboines -cooked their food on heated stones, and from this custom they received this name, which was translated by the white people into the Stone People, and finally into Stoney Indians. We often meet with the names, Stone People and Stone Indians, in the old books treating of the history of North-western Canada. We have therefore some branches of the tribe called Assiniboines, and others Stoney Indians. The Blackfeet call the Stoneys, Suqseoisokituki, which, however, is not a Blackfoot word. Suqseo must be a Sarcee word, and is the name given by the Blackfeet to the Sarcees. The full word would therefore be a combination of Sarcee and Blackfoot, and the meaning in full is Sarcee-Sioux, the latter part of the word referring to the Sioux, who are called by the Blackfoots, "Cut-throats." In the Cree language, Asini means a stone, and Asinipwat a Stone Indian. The adjective "Stoney" is Asoniweo, and Asinipwatiwio means he is a Stone Indian. Here we see the relation of the Ojibway to the Cree, both languages belonging to the Algonquin stock of languages. In David Thompson's field book of his " Explorations in the North-West," there is mentioned one of the trading-posts belonging to the North-West Company, called Upper House on Stone Indian River, which is now named the Assiniboine. The Sioux were called by the Ojibways, Nado-wessi.

As early as 1660, the Assiniboines were living in the vicinity of Grand Portage, beyond the north-west shore of Lake Superior. They were at that time called Poualak, or Assinipoualacs, and were dreaded by the Upper Algonquins as a warlike band of Indians, who lived in skin lodges and made fire of coal, as wood was scarce in the prairie region where they dwelt. In the early maps of that period, a lake intended for Nepigon is called 'Assiniboines." In 1679 Du Lhut held a conference with the Assiniboines at Kaministiquia, the site of Fort William of the old North-West Company.f In large numbers they roamed all over Manitoba and that portion of the North-West Territory now known as the southern parts of Assiniboia and Alberta. Alexander Henry, in his "Journal of Adventures," in 1809 gives

the location of the Assiniboines as follows: "The Assiniboines are from the Sioux. Their lands may be said to commence at the Hair Hills (Pembina Mountains) near the Red River, then runing in a western direction along the Assiniboine River, and from that to the junction of the north and south branches of the Saskatchewine, and up the former branch as far as Fort Vermilion, then due south to the Battle River, and then southeast until it strikes upon the Missouris, and down that river until near the Mandan villages, then a north-east course until it reached the Hair Hills. All this space of open meadow country may be called the lands of the Assiniboines. A few tents of straggling trees occasionally intermixed among them."

The territory of the Assiniboines became circumscribed by the advent of white settlers, so that no longer did they roam over this large extent of country, and finally the Government made treaties with the Indians by which they were located upon Reserves. They are still widely scattered upon Reserves, having been assigned to agencies with other Indian tribes, though with separate Reserves, in the sections of country sometimes selected by themselves, near where they had made their homes at the time they made the treaty with the Government. This explains their separation as bands of Assiniboines and Stoneys in different parts of the North-West, instead of being located as a united tribe on one Reservation. They are found at the present time as separated bands of this tribe at Moose Mountain and Indian Head, in Assiniboia; Eagle Hills, Lac Ste. Anne, White Whale Lake, and Morleyville, in Alberta. During the early and middle parts of the present century the tribe was known as Strongwood or Wood Assiniboines, and Plain Assiniboines, which distinctions have been changed into Assiniboines, a term applied to those dwelling on the Reserves in Assiniboia, Mountain Stoneys at Morley ville, and Wood Stoneys in Northern Alberta. A considerable number of Assiniboines are resident in the United States.

In the beginning of the present century, Henry estimated about two thousand fighting men in all the Assiniboine camps, which would make the total population number at least ten

thousand people. A naturalist, named Cuthbertson, travelling for the Smithsonian Institution, in 1850 gives the probable number of the Assiniboines in the Upper Missouri and its tributaries as four thousand eight hundred. Mr. Harriet, an old trader, who had spent his life among the Blackfeet, stated that there were, in 1842, eighty lodges of Strongwood Assiniboines, equal to six hundred and forty persons, and Mr. Rowand, for the same date, gave for the Plain Assiniboines three hundred lodges, equal to two thousand four hundred, or a total population of Assiniboines in North-western Canada of three thousand and forty persons. Mr. Lefroy estimated them, at the same time, as three thousand six hundred, and Mr. Shaw, at four thousand persons. These men had travelled in the country and knew a great deal about the Indians. The change in the population is due no doubt to the fact that their estimate had reference to the Saskatchewan country, which is borne out by the fact that Sir George Simpson, in his " Overland Journey," gave for the Assiniboines in the Saskatchewan district in 1841 four thousand and sixty persons. The entire population of Stoney and Assiniboine Indians for the year 1890 in North-western Canada, as given in the Dominion Blue Book, is one thousand three hundred and forty-two. The cause of this decrease arises principally from two causes, tribal wars and the plague of small-pox, which swept them away in large numbers.

Traces of the residence of these people in Manitoba in the early-part of the present century are found in the fact that Alexander Henry states that, when returning from a visit to the Mandans and other Tribes on the Upper Missouri River in 1806, he came to the Tete-de-Beuf region, where there was a hill, recognised by some at the present day as Calf Mountain, upon the top of which, the Assiniboines and Crees made sacrifices of tobacco and other trifles, and collected a certain number of bulls' heads, which they daubed over with red earth, depositing them on the summit, with the nose always pointing toward the east.

Instead of continually using the terms, Stoney and Assiniboine the writer will employ the former name as applicable to all the people. The Stoney Indians are of medium height, a few of the men being of massive proportions, but the average being rather below medium stature. They are well-formed, of pleasing countenance and, the Mountain Stoneys especially, active in their movements and fleet of foot. It is not too much to say that they are the most energetic of all the tribes of the North-West, well disciplined, inured to the hardships of prairie and mountain, and of industrious habits. They are comely in their dress, which has changed through advancing civilization: the painted faces, hair besprinkled with red earth and twisted into a sugar-loaf bunch on the top of the head having been discarded. The native costume of well-tanned deer-skin, beautifully ornamented by the women, was changed into garments made from blankets, but many of them are now dressed in modern apparel. The Mountain Stoneys cut their hair, and their light copper-colored complexion is attractive. In former years the men wore a profusion of dress ornaments, like all the other Indian tribes, consisting of rings on each finger, ear-rings and necklaces, coat and leggings, with colored porcupine quill or head ornamentation, and their war accoutrements, with figures wrought or painted upon them. They were very particular about dressing their hair, especially the young wen. They are none the less careful about their dress, and more cleanly in their habits at the present time, but they are more plain in their style, and not so anxious for display.

The women are small, but active, neat in their dress and cleanly in their habits. Their dress is similar to that of the women of the other tribes, although many of them are imitating their pale-faced sisters. Some of the bands are not far removed from their old-time modes of dress and habits, but those who have been brought under the influence of the missionary have advanced rapidly, and are now models of neatness and activity to the other tribes.

Before the advent of civilization, they dwelt in tents made from the hides of the buffalo, upon the sides of which hung the scalp-locks which they had taken in war, and around each tent were painted figures, representing the famous deeds of the master of the lodge. They were famous hunters of the buffalo, and those dwelling near the mountains and in the woods, pursued the deer, goat, sheep, and bear, followed the moose, or fished in the lakes. The babes were snugly shrouded in their moss-bags, and carried on the back of the mother, whether walking on the prairie or riding upon a horse. In many of their customs the Stoney Indians were similar to the Crees and Blackfeet. Their food consisted of buffalo meat principally, in the winter, and deer, except those in the North who lived on fish. In the summer they partook of wild roots and berries. They were excellent horsemen, and had the reputation of being great horse thieves. Their utensils of the lodge were made principally of wood. The women were very unchaste, induced by their customs of marriage. Polygamy was practised among them, and women were bartered for trifles.

The men were inveterate smokers (a habit in which the women also indulged), and they exhibited their skill in the manufacture of beautiful pipes. Of their ability in this direction Sir Daniel Wilson says: " Among the Assiniboine Indians a material is used in pipe manufacture altogether peculiar to them. It is a fine marble, much too hard to admit of minute carving, but taking a high polish. This is cut into pipes of graceful form, and made so extremely thin as to be nearly transparent, so that when lighted the glowing tobacco shines through, and presents a singular appearance when in use at night or in a dark lodge. Another favorite material employed by the Assiniboine Indians is a coarse species of jasper, also too hard to admit of elaborate ornamentation. This also is cut into various simple, but tasteful designs, executed chiefly by the slow and laborious process of rubbing it down with other stones. The choice of the material for fashioning the favorite pipe is by no means invariably guided by the facilities which the location of the tribe affords. A suitable stone for such a purpose will be picked up and carried hundreds of miles. Mr. Kane informs me that in coming down the Athabasca River, when drawing near its source in the Rocky Mountains, he observed his Assiniboine guides select the favorite blueish jasper from among the water-worn stones in the bed of the river to carry home for the purpose of pipe manufacture, although they were then fully five hundred miles from their lodges. Such a traditional adherence to a choice of material peculiar to a remote source may frequently prove of considerable value as a clue to former migrations of the tribe."

Some years ago the writer saw, at Morley, some beautiful specimens of sculpture, executed with a pocket-knife by a Stoney boy: among them a moose, buffalo and dog. They were remarkable exhibitions of native skill, as perfect in detail as any ever seen. The accurate measurements of the horns of the moose, and the attitude of the animal in the act of leaping, were astonishing, considering the age of the sculptor, a youth of not more than twelve years, his lack of training, and the tools with which he wrought. His work attracted considerable notice from travellers, and Senator Hardisty offered to educate the youth at his own expense, but the offer was refused by the boy's father, who preferred the money obtained from the sale of the articles to the advancement of his son.

In the early days the dead were buried in a sitting posture, with the face toward the East, but now they follow the custom of their white brethren. The people believed in the transmigration of souls. Charles N. Bell, in his Notes on Henry's "Journal," states that they believed that sometimes after death the spirit goes to a river, which has to be crossed on the way to the happy hunting grounds, where it is met by a fierce red buffalo bull, who drives it back and compels it to re-enter the body.

The Stoneys have several games similar to the Blackfeet, including the hoop and arrow game and the "odd-and-even" game, which is played with small sticks or goose-quills.

The tribe has its own system of government, consisting of chiefs and councillors, who compose their council, at which all questions affecting the welfare of the people are discussed and settled. They made the laws by which they are governed, and through the wise administration of the chiefs and council peace is maintained in the camp. In common with other Indian tribes, they have a system of telegraphy, consisting of signals by means of fire at night, and in the day certain movements of their blankets, different motions of men on horseback, such as riding backward or forward, riding in a circle, or the rider sitting with his back toward the horse's head. By the use of a looking-glass they are able to communicate with each other at a distance of three or four miles. The writer was in the Stoney camp on a Sunday, conducting service, when an Indian was seen riding at a distance of two or three miles. One of the chiefs stepped aside, drew forth his looking-glass, which is carried by every Indian, and holding it so that the sun would shine upon it, sent a flash toward the rider. The Indian stopped upon his course, waited a moment or two, as the chief sent his message to him, and then rode toward us. This tribe had many famous warriors, and so great was the prowess of the people that, though less in number than the Crees or Blackfeet, these tribes were afraid of them. They were brave and skilful in the use of the bow and arrow, and no less expert in later years with the rifle. Famous as scouts, they were employed during the Riel Rebellion of 1885 in that capacity, and faithful were they in the performance of their work. Alike were they noted as hunters on the plains in the days of the buffalo, and in the mountains, spending the greater part of the year in the pursuit of game.

The old-time custom of naming their children from some physical characteristic or peculiar circumstance at the time of birth, and changing them at different periods in life, as expressive of some great deed or mean action, has passed away in a great measure, and many of them, through the missionary's influence, have adopted Christian names. Contact with white people and religious influence has caused many of them to reject the old tent-life of the camps, and erect good log-houses, with many of the conveniences of modern civilization. They still retain their love for dogs, although they are not used as beasts of burden to any extent, which was a custom of the old times. The mountain Stoneys have acted as guides to hunting parties, and during the explorations for the route of the Canadian Pacific railroad, many of them were employed, rendering excellent service. During the construction of the railroad they got out of the woods large quantities of ties.

The native religion, with its belief and ceremonies, has disappeared. Their traditions consisted of an admixture of the Sioux and Cree traditions, caused by their relation to the former and contact with the latter tribe.

The}- have, in common with the other Indian tribes, a sign language. The spoken language is a dialect of the Siouan language, which the following words, collected among the Stoneys, will give the reader a slight idea of its construction and significance:

The literature of the Stoney Indians is very meagre, owing, no doubt, to the fact that they are able to read the books printed in the Syllabic characters of the Cree language. A few vocabularies have been printed in books treating of the Hudson's Bay country and the fur trade, some personal names, the numerals, and the Lord's Prayer.

The Jesuit missionaries were the first religious teachers who came in contact with these people, and they remained alone in the field, meeting them occasionally as these nomads of the plains visited the missions. In 1840, the Rev. Robert Terrill Rundle, Methodist missionary, went to the North-West ami began operations among the Indian tribes of the Saskatchewan. Frequently he conversed with the Stoneys at Fort Edmonton, and accompanied them in their hunting expeditions, teaching and preaching. He enjoyed some measure of success, the people learned to sing hymns in the Cree language, and were instructed in the truths of the Christian religion. After laboring eight years in the Saskatchewan, at Edmonton, Pigeon Lake, and on the plains, he was compelled to return to England, because of injury received through a fall from his horse. His brother-in-law, the Rev. Thomas Woolsey, succeeded him in this work among the Crees, Stoneys and Blackfeet, and through the labors of these devoted men, a band of faithful local preachers was raised, who preached to the people as they travelled upon the plains or roamed through the mountains in search of food. The hymns taught the people in these early years are still remembered, but the tunes have undergone a change, a peculiar Indian turn having been given to them, so that they have become essentially Indian tunes, founded upon their English predecessors.

In 1885, Rev. Thomas Woolsey wrote: "Many of the Cree and Stone Indians were members of our Church in 1864." Woolsey was stationed at Edmonton the year previous when Rev. George McDougall and his family arrived at Victoria from Norway House. The Mountain Stoneys were sought out, and the work of evangelization continued among them. A fuller account of the doings of these men can be found in the works of the writer, "The Hero of the Saskatchewan," "The Indians of Canada," and "James Evans." The mission among the Mountain Stoneys at Morley was begun in the autumn of 1873, by Rev. John McDougall, who still remains at his post. Visitors to Morley cannot fail to be deeply impressed with the attitude of reverence manifested by the people as they assemble for service in hundreds, filling the commodious church, drawn together by the sound of the bell, whose peals are heard far down the beautiful valley of the Bow River. The singing is hearty, the attention given to the preacher, who may be the missionary himself or one of the native local preachers, is deep, and the whole service is so earnest, reverential and true that the pale face receives impressions which he can never forget. There is an orphanage at the Mission, two good schools upon the Reserve, and a faithful band of men and women striving to lead these people to imitate the life of the Man of Nazareth.

Deep was the sorrow of these people at the loss of Rev. George McDougall, who was frozen to death a few miles north of Calgary. When the writer lived at Macleod, some Stoney Indian women visited the mission-house, and during the conversation they drew from under their blankets the Bible in the Evan's Cree Syllabic characters, with their Methodist class tickets. During a tour of visitation in the Porcupine Hills, the writer met a Stoney Indian who recognized him, and together they called at a friend's house for a night's shelter. When shown the place where he was to sleep, an adjoining building to the house, which was not very clean, he turned to the rancher and said, as he stood in his native dignity, " I am not a dog, I am a man."

When the school teacher's wife died at Morley, the Indians, who had been absent on their hunting trips, upon their return repaired to the cemetery, as they looked at the grave, cast small twigs and flowers upon it, saying, with deep emotion, "She was a good woman. She was a good friend to us."

Shortly after the rebellion of 1885, Mr. McDougall accompanied three Indian chiefs to Ontario and Quebec. One of these men was Chief Jonas, of the Mountain Stoneys. He is reported to have said, among many of the addresses which he gave to the white people, that he was glad to see so many people worshipping the Great Spirit, for it strengthened him. At one time he thought that those who believed in Christ were few, and those who did not follow Him were numerous, but now he had seen for himself that the Christian people were a great multitude. He would go back and tell his people that they were in the right way, for there were multitudes believing in the same Christ. He would tell .his people of the cities he had seen and the multitudes praising God. He wished the white people to help him keep the fire-water out of the country. " At home the railroad came to us, and I thought that was a wonderful power. But, then, when I reached the steamboat I found another great wonder to my mind. All that has been surpassed since I came to the city (Toronto) this evening. I don't know how to describe the great big buildings and the multitudes of people, and the lights, which are like lightning. I shall be happy if I and my people, in even a humble way, will be able in our future to emulate this progress." Schools have been established among the Stoney and Assiniboine Indians on all the Reserves and the children are making good progress in their studies.

Presbyterian, Roman Catholic and Methodist missions are maintained among the Stoneys in the Edmonton district, where there is a Reserve on Sandy Lake, about sixteen miles west of Edmonton. The Government assists the bands, providing farm instructors and agents to teach them farming and look after their interests. As they are generally an industrious people, they are progressing favorably and raise good crops. The women are experts at knitting gloves and mittens on the Reserve near Indian Head, and find a ready sale for all they make. Upon the other reserves they are also industrious. The Mountain Stoneys have some fine bands of cattle, of which they are legitimately proud. As treaty Indians they have always been friendly to the white people, a fact noted by Lord Southesk and other travellers, who have visited their camps or met with them in their travels. Despite the decrease of the native population, there is hope in their progress in agricultural and industrial pursuits, and their independent spirit, that they will ultimately maintain a place among the white people, as a remnant of a powerful tribe of a great confederacy, which once roamed the western plains.

THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

Many centuries before the Pilgrim Fathers landed in New England, or Columbus planted the standard of the Spanish crown on the soil of the New World, there lived and perished a race of people on our continent, concerning whom very little is known. They were men and women of like passions to the dwellers of the villages of the nineteenth century, possessed of a worthy civilization, peaceable, affectionate and intensely religious. Their villages have been destroyed ; nothing of their literature is known; not a single trace of their language is in existence, and even the name of this strange people is lost to us. Search the histories of the nations of the world, and not a kindly pen is found that can tell us the name of this mysterious people who came to our land, became a large and prosperous nation, and then passed away, leaving only their cities of the dead to tell us in voiceless language the story of their life. We call them Mound-Builders, because of the monuments they have left us—the stately empire of the spirit king. Humboldt says: "The Mound-Builders were eminently a water people," and Ignatius Donnelly tells us that they were wanderers from a large continent that existed in the Atlantic ocean, called "Atlantis," but many eminent scientists hold theories at varience with these opinions. Evidence has been adduced by scholars to show that they crossed the Atlantic and settled in Mexico, and again others testify to their migration from China and Japan by the Behring straits. There were men in China who built mounds, as is learned from the fact that about ten miles from the city of Kalgan there is a cluster of over forty mounds, one of them being thirty feet high, and four hundred and twenty feet in circumference at the base, and an oval mound forty-eight feet in length at the summit. Before Julius Cresar invaded Britain, the Nahuas entered Mexico, and made their houses there, becoming a great people. These were followed by the Toltecs, who left architectural monuments, significant and beautiful. The Mound-Builders also went to Mexico, and stamped the impress of their existence, but it is impossible at this distant date and with our present knowledge of facts to identify them as the Nahuas or Toltecs. The book of Mormon states that the Indians are the descendants of a Hebrew immigration, and some writers believe that the Indians are the offspring of the Mound Builders; and, again, others say that the Mound-Builders are the direct lineage of the ten lost tribes of Israel. The leanings of evidence are in favor of the Toltea' relationship, and still we cannot press any theory, for the path we tread is a hazy labyrinth, and not a single voice or penis raised that can show us the way. Along the rivers and lakes they travelled as a peaceful race of nomads, erecting mounds for observation in time of war; burial mounds, in which to place their dead; sacrificial mounds; symbolical mounds, for performing the rites and ceremonies of their native worship; enclosures for defence; and sacred enclosures for religious purposes. Mounds are found in great abundance in Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Arizona, New Mexico and Florida. There Are none found in New England, but westward toward the Rocky Mountains, in the Yellowstone country and Manitoba, there have been some discovered. Groups of mounds have been opened at various places in Manitoba, including the parish of St. Andrew's, near Winnipeg, the Souris river, Riding Mountain and Rainy River. Over twenty mounds having been discovered at the last mentioned place.

The centuries have come and gone since these strange people lived in the land and made the mounds. Heavy forests have grown around the mounds, hiding them from view, and destroying their usefulness for observation in times of war; massive trees have even grown upon the top of them, and along the river banks, where many of them are seen, the river has cut a new channel and left the mounds "high and dry" since the last mound was built.

In the burial mounds have been found stone implements of: peace and war, as arrow-heads, spear-heads, axes, knives, hatchets, rimmers, spades, chisels, pendants, gorgets, pipes, shuttles, badges of authority, mauls or hammers, pestles, tubes, hoes, copper ornaments, bone implements, articles of pottery and cloth have been taken from them. The skeletons taken from the mounds of sepulture have been incomplete, owing to their great age. Very few skulls have been found worthy of preservation.

In an age when there was no machinery in the land, the work of these people are in many instances gigantic. There is a notable fortification in Warren County, Ohio, about thirty-three miles north-east of Cincinatti, called Fort Ancient. This defensive enclosure has a wall five miles in extent, encircling an area of one hundred acres. The embankment is built of tough clay, from five to twenty feet in height, with an average of nine feet, and containing six hundred and twenty-eight thousand eight hundred cubic yards of excavation. There are over seventy gateways in the embankment, from ten to fifteen feet wide, and within the works are twenty-four reservoirs.

Still more elaborate and complicated are the Newark works, near Newark, Ohio, consisting of an extensive series of square, circular and polygonal enclosures, with mounds, ditches and connecting avenues, extending over about four square miles.

The great Cahokia mound, seven miles east of St. Louis, comprises a parallelogram, with sides measuring seven hundred and five hundred feet, respectively, and rising to the height of ninety feet. It covers an area of six acres, and its estimated solid contents amount to twenty million cubic feet. There is a terrace reached by a graded way, one hundred and sixty by three hundred feet, and the summit of the pyramid being truncated, made a platform two hundred by four hundred and fifty feet, upon the top of which stood a conical mound ten feet high. Dr. Forster has expressed the probability that upon this platform stood a capacious temple, within whose walls the hi£h priests performed their mysterious rites at stated seasons in the year, as the vast multitude in the plain below gazed in wonder and waited with holy reverence the completion of the religious ceremonial.

The Grave Creek mound, near Wheeling, is nearly one thousand feet in circumference at the base, and seventy feet high.

It was excavated in 1838, and within it were found two sepulchral chambers, containing three skeletons.

The wonderful temple mounds are distinguished from the other classes of mounds by regularity of form, greater size and graded ways leading to the summit. Aroused by religious sentiments and impulses the Mound-Builders no doubt erected these mounds as sites for temples, a striking example of which is seen in the temple mounds at Marietta, Ohio, and there, in answer to the cry of the soul, sought guidance and peace in sacrifice to their spirit guides.

There are mounds of observation placed upon high hills, that signals might be transmitted from one place to another and a watch kept. One of these observation mounds is situated at Miamisburg, Ohio, and commands a view of the valley of the Great Miami.

Symbolical mounds abound chiefly in Ohio and Wisconsin. The mounds represent foxes, lizards, buffalo, bear, raccoon, otter, elk and many other kinds of animals and birds. The most significant of all the symbolical mounds is the great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, which is seven hundred feet long, five feet high and thirty-six feet wide at the centre ; and the Elephant Mound in Grant County, Wisconsin, which is about one hundred and thirty-five feet long, thirty-six feet wide and five feet high. This mound represents an elephant, or ancient mastodon of the American continent, and the existence of this representation reveals the fact that the Mound-Builders have seen the animal or they could not have made this" mound. From the contents of the mounds ethnologists form their opinions relating to the Mound-Builder as a man. From the existence of pottery, cloth, arrow-heads, hoes, fishing-spears, sinkers for sinking the seines, pipes and many other relics, ethnologists would make the Mound-Builder to be a man of peace, devoted to raising corn and fishing, possessed of artistic ability, as evidenced by the beautiful arrow-heads and the ornamented pottery found. The tiny childrens' stone hatchets and other playthings discovered beside the skeletons, show the affection of the people for their offspring. Moral and religious in their life, as manifested by the representations of their deity, the sun, and the existence of only a single specimen of obscene art in the thousands discovered, they looked for an immortality and a sensual heaven, as shown by the relics in the graves.

When the Mound-Builders were at the height of their power invaders came from the north, as learned from the situation of the mounds, and harassed these people in their fortifications and observation mounds, overthrowing them completely, so that they were compelled to flee to Mexico, where finally they passed away without leaving any record of their fate. The people of the northern mounds in Canada may have followed their brethren, as a remnant of a great nation, or the last of the Mound-Builders may have lingered on, a stranger among the red men, until he perished without a grave. It is a sad and voiceless story these mounds have to tell us, of a people who were dwellers in our land in the days of yore, and we confess that we have been touched with sympathy and our interest has deepened as we have followed the story until the end.

THE NEZ PERCE INDIANS.

The Nez Perce Indians are a tribe belonging to the Sahaptin family, a large and interesting stock. The tribe is sometimes called the Sahaptin, but the Nez Perces are one of the branches of this family. They do not derive their name from the fact that they pierce their noses, but they were so named by some of the early travellers who classed them along with others of the Sahaptin family, who pierce their noses. The early travellers and traders called them Nez Perces, but the Indians called themselves Chopunnish. They are not strictly a Canadian Indian tribe, as they dwelt chiefly in the early years in Idaho, Oregon and Washington Territory, but as they were frequently found upon the boundary, and I have met and often conversed with a small band of these people, who still make their home in the Pincher Creek country in the district of Alberta, I thought a short sketch of this interesting tribe might be acceptable to my readers.

It was in the summer of 1880 that I met among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains a Umattilla Indian and some of the Nez Perces, who had crossed the mountains from the Walla Walla country, and were hunting and trading horses. From the year 1843, when we first learn anything about these people, through the official records of the United States Government, and before that period, as shown by the writings of travellers, they roamed throughout Idaho, Washington and Oregon, hunting and fishing. Not until after the outbreak under Chief Joseph did any of them seek a refuge in Canada.

Amongst the numerous tribes of Oregon they were the noblest, richest and most gentle; a typical race, noted for strength of body and mind, native prowess, heroic virtues and gentle manners. They were a powerful tribe, owning many horses, and esteemed highly as expert horsemen. They were far removed from the common idea held concerning the red men, as they had good minds and thought well on all matters affecting their interests as individuals and as a tribe. Chief Joseph, the leader of the Nez Perces, during their contest with the Government of the United States, has been described as "the ablest, uneducated chief the world ever saw." When these people were removed from their home and sent to another Reservation, as they were being taken down the Missouri river, the people who lived upon the banks of the river and had been accustomed to Indians all their lives, remarked: "What fine-looking men!" "How clean they are!" "How dignified they appear!"

The homes of these people were similar to that of the other tribes, consisting of lodges, ornamented according to the taste, dignity and valor of the owners. Life in the camp was similar to that of adjacent tribes. Dogs were numerous, and hated the white man; children roamed abroad at their own sweet will, unencumbered with much clothing, satisfied with nature's provision as to dress, and happy amid all their wild surroundings. Maidens were few, as they were married at an early age, and passed from childhood into womanhood without the intervening years which their pale-face sisters enjoy. So soon as a young or old man desired a wife, and had settled upon the maiden he delighted in, the parties assembled with their friends, and after the bridegroom and all the relatives and friends had filled a large peace pipe, and each had smoked it, the bride was addressed as to her duties, the nuptial gifts provided by the bridegroom were delivered to the friends, and the married pair retired to their lodge. Polygamy prevailed among the people, but the first wife had the pre-eminence, and exercised her authority in the lodge, much to the confusion and sometimes to the injury of the other members of the family.

The Nez Perce chiefs were a notable class of men, well skilled in all the arts of diplomacy, firm in the exercise of their authority, and generally just in all their dealings, their loyalty to their tribe compelling them to seek the interest of their people in preference to their own personal concerns. If at any time a stranger of importance was introduced to the chiefs and leading men of the tribe, the head chief, in introducing the members of his tribe, would discriminate between them, by forbidding any who came forward to shake hands with the stranger, simply signifying his disapproval by a motion of the hand, which was instantly obeyed, without any sign of retaliation.

These were valiant men in times of war, able to cope with the strongest and most daring of their enemies, yet never resorting to any foul methods whereby they might take advantage of them and gain a victory. The usual war customs were followed by them in the early days, when they united with the Flatheads and Pend Oreilles against their foes, but after coming in contact with the nobler elements of the civilization of the white men, they were not slow to perceive their superiority, and consequently adopted them in preference to some of those which belonged to the tribes. The Nez Perces were the inveterate enemies of the Blackfeet, and a match for them in fighting when they were aroused, which was sometimes difficult to do, as they delighted in peace and not in war, loving to follow some of the arts of industry, rather than wholly depend upon the precarious livelihood of the chase. On the warpath the aged warrior wore his amulet to protect his body from the bullets of his foes, and so long as lie carried this with him he believed that he was invulnerable, and his constant preservation as well as success in war gave force to his belief. If the Nez Perce war party met a band larger than their own, or were decoyed into the region of an opposing tribe, they would sell their lives dearly, rather than retreat. It has been written of the Nez Perces that they form " an honorable exception to the general Indian character—being more noble, industrious, sensible, and better disposed toward the whites, and their improvements in the arts and sciences, and though brave as Caesar, the whites have nothing to dread at their hands in case of their dealing out to them what they conceive to be right and equitable."

Chief Joseph, whom I have already mentioned as one of the bravest and most skilful in statesmanship amongst all the leaders of the Indian tribes, stood forth unrivalled for his magnanimity, eloquence, military ability and firmness, shown in his famous retreat after the uprising of the nation.7 When the promises made by the Government commissioners had for several years been broken, the moneys due the Indians not being paid, and efforts made to remove them from their Reservation, he was unable to restrain his people from rising, but heroically he placed himself at the head of his native troops, and conducted a campaign, distinguished for the absence of cruelty and the exhibition of talents worthy of a Roman military leader. When the American troops were aided by their bloodthirsty Bannacks, who were enemies of the Nez Perces, cruel modes of warfare were introduced, the Bannacks scalping their fallen foes, maltreating their captives, and subjecting the Nez Perce women to every indignity. The Nez Perce refused to retaliate. They did not scalp their fallen enemies, and the white women taken captive by them were dismissed unharmed. When they were defeated they made preparations for their famous retreat, covering a

distance of a thousand miles, over rugged defiles and mountainous pathways, pursued by the hostile Bannacks. The military ability of Chief Joseph was displayed in the famous march homeward. Gathering the women and children, the whole members of his tribe, old and young, protected by mounted warriors, he fought his way through the ranks of his enemies,, defeating them on several occasions, although he was hard pressed and they were fresh and able to obtain help to intercept him in his march. So successfully was the retreat managed that not until they were within one day's march from home were they overpowered, and then it was through a large force of infantry, cavalry and artillery from Fort Keogh effectually barring their advance. Courageous to the last, they made preparations to withstand the attacks of the American soldiers, determined to secure justice at all hazards, and humane thoughts and feelings prevailed, for they surrendered on terms satisfactory to themselves. The Nez Perces of Chief Joseph's band surrendered to General Mills in 1877, and were removed to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, to the number of four hundred and thirty-one, where there was great mortality among them. In 1879, they were removed to their Reserve of forty thousand seven hundred and thirty-five acres, adjoining the Poncas, and situated on both sides of Salt Fork of the Arkansas. General Sherman, in his report of the Nez Perce war, said : " Thus has terminated one of the most extraordinary Indian wars of which there is any record. The Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise; they abstained from scalping, let captive women go free, did not commit indiscriminate murder of peaceful families, which is usual, and fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines and field fortifications."

These people were sympathetic and respectful, their love for their own reaching beyond death, as is shown by their mortuary customs. Many of the Indian tribes are afraid of the spirits of the dead, and resort to different methods of warding off the attacks of their deceased foes. Sometimes they believe that those who were formerly their relatives are now antagonistic to them, which may arise from their belief that they will repay them for any slight done upon earth, and now that they dwell in the spiritual world, they are able to inflict injuries upon them which the living cannot well ward off. As the Nez Perces roamed over the mountains and prairies, they frequently passed the graves of their friends, and always with respect, though sometimes with fear. When they came near to a grave which they had not visited for a long time, the women and children would gather around it and wail bitterly for the dead, and the men, silent and sad, mourning their loss, would .stand at a short distance in communion with the loved and lost.

Two years ago, in the Pincher Creek country in Southern Alberta, a Nez Perce Indian was condemned to death for the murder of another member of his tribe, a medicine man. There was some excitement over the occurrence, happening, as it did, not far from a white settlement; yet the native belief seemed to point to the fact that the medicine man had used his power for causing the death of a patient, a relative of the murderer. Amongst the Indian tribes the medicine man is an influential personage, using hypnotic means for destroying his foes, and curing those favorable to him, or who paid him well. The tahmanous of the shaman or medicine man have destroyed many persons who might have lived. Among some of the native tribes of the south, especially the Papagos, the medicine man, failing to cure a leading chief when he has died from any disease, instead of being killed in battle, is taken out before the whole camp and shot. Among the Nez Perce and other tribes of the north, he exercises great power over the people, and it is seldom that anyone becomes courageous enough to retaliate, believing that the shaman is powerful, and will inflict some injury upon them unless they submit to his will.

The Nez Perce women are industrious, neat in their dress, active in their habits, and when pressed in time of war heroic in defence of their husbands, children, or friends. What exciting times the natives have at lacrosse, horse racing, shooting, running on foot, guessing, and throwing the arrow and wheel. The Nez Perces have a game which I have oftentimes seen played among the Blackfeet, although not in the same fashion, which is guessing with a small piece of wood. Instead of a single pair, as amongst the Blackfeet, the Nez Perces arrange themselves in two parties, sitting opposite to each other, and a small piece of wood is passed from hand to hand of the other party, the members of which guess, until when rightly guessed, they become the possessors of the article. While the game is in motion, the parties and those not engaged in the game are betting, and some of these bets are quite large. Meanwhile the contestants sing a weird chant, beating on any article with short sticks which will produce a noise.- Singing, beating time, guessing, rolling and swaying the body, in a continual state of excitement, the game proceeds until the one party defeats the other members opposed to them. The onlookers, whites and Indians, become deeply interested in the game, and share in the excitement, watching it eagerly, and animated by the furious motions of the parties in the game.

A singular instance is told of the desire of the Nez Perces for knowledge. They had heard of the superiority of the race of white men, and learning that this arose from the fact, that they had a religion that was better than that of the Indians, they despatched a delegation of two of their chief men, named "Rabbit-Skin-Leggings" and "No-Horns-on-his-Head," to St. Louis to inquire concerning the truth of the report. The object of their journey was made known through Mr. Catlin, the artist, which was "to inquire for the truth of a. representation which they said some white men had made among them, that our religion was better than theirs, and that they would all be lost if they did not embrace it."

These men were entertained by the people of St. Louis, some of whom wondered at the intense eagerness of the men, who had made a long journey, to learn something of the Christian's God, and the peculiar religion of the white man. On their journey homeward, one of these men died, but the other lived to tell his friends that the report they had heard was true, and in a short time white men would come to tell them the truths of the wonderful Book, and the story of the blessed Christ.

The story of this delegation, sent by the Nez Perces upon such a long journey, produced a deep impression upon the minds of the Indians, and induced the white people to think seriously of their duty to care for them. Within two years after the visit of the Nez Perces to St Louis, the American Board and the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society sent missionaries to Oregon to teach the people the truth of the Gospel.

Some years previous to this visit, some of the Hudson's Bay Company's employees, residing at Fort Walla-Walla, had introduced some of the truths and forms of the Roman Catholic religion amongst these natives, and the influence of these things had exerted a decided change amongst some of the bands. They gave up in a great measure the practice of polygamy, and sought to live moral lives. The Christian ceremonies had become Indianized, yet some of the people strove to practice the precepts their had been taught. Some of the Shoshonees observed the change which had been affected through following the white mans religion, and they began to imitate the Nez Perees. They observed Sunday, engaged in devotional dances and chants, and followed the other ceremonials of the Nez Perces. This imitation sprang from a desire to gain superiority over their rival tribes, believing that in this form of religion la}' the secret of the white man's power. Some years ago I met an intelligent Nez Perce chief, named Johnson, and made inquiries concerning his religious belief, but found that he still retained his native ideas, and followed not the teachings of the Christian religion. In their native condition this tribe was devout, always prefacing their hunts with religious rites and prayers to the great spirit for safety and success.8 Indeed, in a starving condition they attended to their sacred days and pious ceremonies before seeking food.

Captain Bonneville, having witnessed their piety on several occasions, said: "Simply to call these people religious would convey but a faint idea of the deep hue of piety and devotion which pervades their whole conduct. Their honesty is immaculate, and their purity of purpose and their observance of the rites of their religion are most uniform and remarkable. They are certainly more like a nation of saints than a horde of savages." Their religion was infused with a spirit of fear, and they felt that they were surrounded by evil spirits, who sought to injure them. Their medicine men invoked the aid of their guardian spirits, and they wore on their persons amulets to protect them in time of danger.

The Protestant missionaries who went among them labored hard to teach them the doctrines of the Christian religion, and they were encouraged in their efforts by the change in the lives of the people. A sad fate befel the Rev. Dr. Whitman, who labored with success among this tribe, some of whom were aroused through false reports to rise against the white people, .and this faithful missionary was stricken down by a tomahawk, in the hand of an unfriendly Indian, in the year 1849. He had labored in the country along with the Rev. Mr. Spaulding and other missionaries since 1836, and so great was his zeal on behalf of the people and the country that he said, when remonstrated with for the intensity of his labors, " I am ready, not to be bound only, but to die at Jerusalem or in the snows of the Rocky Mountains for the name of the Lord Jesus or my country."

Some years after the missionaries had begun their labors in Oregon, a traveller gave an account of his experience with a Nez Perce guide, named Creekie, which is of interest:

"Creekie was a very kind man. He turned my worn-out animal loose, and loaded my packs on his own; gave me a splendid horse to ride, and intimated, by significant gestures, that we would go a short distance that afternoon. I gave my assent, and we were soon on our way. Having ridden about ten miles we camped for the night. I noticed, during the ride, a degree of forbearance toward each other which I had never before observed in that race. When he halted for the night the two boys were behind. They had been frolicking with their horses, and as the darkness came on lost the trail. It was a half-hour before they made their appearance, and during this time the parents manifested the most anxious solicitude for them. One of them was but three years old, and was lashed to the horse he rode; the other only seven years of age —young pilots in the wilderness at night.

"But the elder, true to the sagacity of his race, had taken his course, and struck the brook on which we were encamped within three hundred yards of us. The pride of the parents at ' this feat, and their ardent attachment to the children, were perceptible in the pleasure with which they received them at their evening lire, and heard their relation of their childish adventures. The weather was so pleasant that no tent was spread. The willows were bent, and the buffalo robes spread over them. Underneath were laid other robes, on which my Indian host seated himself, with his wife and children on one side and myself on the other. A fire burnt brightly in front. Water was brought, and the evening ablutions having been performed, the wife presented a dish of meat to her husband and one to myself. There was a pause. The woman seated herself between her children. The Indian then bowed his head and prayed to God.

"A wandering savage in Oregon calling on Jehovah in the , name of Jesus Christ! After the prayer he gave meat to his children and passed the dish to his wife. While eating, the frequent repetition of the words Jehovah and Jesus Christ, in the most reverential manner, led me to suppose that they were conversing on religious topics, and thus they passed an hour. Meanwhile the exceeding weariness of a long day's travel admonished me to seek rest. I had slumbered 1 know not how long, when a strain of music awoke me. The Indian family was engaged in its evening devotions. They were singing a hymn in the Nez Perce language. Having finished, they all knelt and bowed their faces on the buffalo robe, and Creekie prayed long and fervently. Afterward they sung another hymn and retired. To hospitality, family affection and devotion, Creekie added honesty and cleanliness to a great degree, manifesting by these fruits, so contrary to the nature and habits of his race, the beautiful influence of the work of grace on the heart."

The Nez Perce language belongs to the Sahaptin family, of which there are two principal languages and several dialects. It is throughout an inflected language, the nouns having eight cases, and the verb surpassing in the variety of its forms and the beauty and minuteness of its distinctions the Ayran and Semitic. There are six moods and nine tenses, with many verbal forms, revealing a richness that evinces strong intellectual powers in the members of this tribe.

The following samples, taken from Horatio Hale's "Development of Language," will give the reader a slight idea of the Nez Perce language:

The verb is rich in forms, the primary or simple conjugation of the verb " to see " embracing no less than forty-six pages of manuscript, and this does not include the six derived conjugations, each of which possess all the variations of the simple verb.

The following example of the first three tenses of the substantive verb, taken from the same source as those aforementioned, will suffice to show the construction of the language in its simplest forms:

Present Tense.

Present Past Tense.

Remote Past Tense.

Far from the madding crowd in the centres of population dwells the remnant of this powerful tribe, striving upon their Reservation to adapt themselves to their new circumstances, forced upon them by the greed of the- white man, yet the native ability displayed in the days of yore abides, and they evince in their crushed condition habits of industry and a 1 hopefulness which few of the members of the pale-faced tribes of men could show under oppression and the removal of incentives to independence and an honorable position in life. The silver lining to the cloud lies in the changing attitude of the English-speaking races toward the American Indian race, brought about through the loving energy of consecrated Christian men and women, striving to educate their fellows toward a due appreciation of the abilities of these people, a recognition of the rights of fellowship of the human race, and the obligations of Christian society.\

THE BLACKFOOT INDIANS.

In the ancient and happy days of yore there roamed over the western plains, from the lied River to the Rocky Mountains and beyond, numerous tribes of prairie Bedouins, in quest of food and eager for war. Ojibways, Crees, Blackfeet, Sioux, Shoshonees, Gros Ventres and other savage peoples scoured the eastern plains with warlike intent, delighting in their unhampered liberty, and claiming the boundless prairies as their rightful possession. Not the least in number and prowess was the Blackfcot Confederacy, comprising the Blackfeet, Bloods and Piegans. Frequently in these modern days have I met the aged Blood Indian warrior, with his hand upon his mouth, singing his song of sadness; and when suddenly I have called upon him to explain the cause of his grief, he has ceased his monotonous plaint and turned to me, saying, "'Niokskatas!' Where are our noble warriors of former days? Where are the people that assembled in our camps by thousands? Where are the buffalo that covered our plains?" Sorrowfully was I compelled to say; "They are gone!" "See," said he, "the fences of the white man stopping our trails. See the white man's cattle upon the prairies, and the towns everywhere throughont our land. Niokskatas! Our great men are gone, our people are dying, our lands are no longer ours, and we, too, shall soon pass away!" Resuming his song he has continued his journey, a weary and disheartened old man.

The Blackfeet tell us in their traditional lore that they came in the distant past from the north, from some great lake, supposed to be Lake Winnipeg. When the Bloods, Piegans and Blackfeet were all one people, living together, and not separated into tribes, as at the present time, the South Piegans, who now dwell south of the international boundary line, preferred to live close to the mountains, which they called their home, while the other members of the confederacy dwelt in the north. Fifty years ago and more the Blackfoot war parties roamed over Oregon, Idaho and Montana; but within the past twenty years they have been confined to the southern portion of the provisional district of Alberta.

The Blackfeet, it is said, lived for a time in that northern portion Of the country where the mud was deep and black, and their moccasins became darkened with the soil, whence they received the name of Siksikauo, which, being translated, means " Blackfoot." Having taken the treaty in 1878 with the Canadian Government, the people were given a Reservation at Blackfoot Crossing, about sixty miles east of Calgary, and another about twelve miles west of Fort Macleod. The Blackfeet, Bloods and Sarcees were to live on the former, and the Piegans on the latter, but this was finally changed by the Blackfeet remaining at Blackfoot Crossing. The Sarcees being

sent to another location, within ten miles south of Calgary, and the Bloods being given a Reservation about fifteen miles south of Macleod. The population of these tribes is not as great as when first I went among them, the present number being approximately as follows : Blackfeet, one thousand five hundred; Piegans, nine hundred ; Bloods, two thousand.

In the good old buffalo days, when the herds of buffaloes were numerous, these wild cattle of the plains roaming the country in tens of thousands, there were many old timers—trappers and traders—who lived a free and easy life, retailing whiskey, trinkets and general articles, and receiving the hides of buffaloes and other animals in trade.

Trading forts, with suggestive names, sprang up in various parts of Alberta, some of which are still in existence. The memories of days spent at Whoop-Up, Slide-Out, Stand-Off, and the Robbers' Roost still linger with me, and loath would I be to have them obliterated, though rough oftentimes were the experiences of those days; but they cannot be lived over again; and the tales which still hang around these old forts will, in a few years, have passed into oblivion. The old buffalo trails and wallows are being filled up through the action of the wind and rain driving the sand into them, and the bones of the bison, which lay scattered over the prairies for hundreds of miles, have nearly all disappeared. Here and there along the Old Man's River and the other places in Alberta and Assiniboia may be seen layers of buffalo bones, marking the spot where the Indians drove the herds over the precipices, and they perished in thousands.

Sitting in the lodges, I have listened with intense interest to the traditions of the Blackfeet, so full of beauty and morality, evincing native culture and a religious spirit. The aged men of the camps tell us of the time when there was nothing but water, and the Old Man was sitting upon a log, with four animals. Pondering over his situation, he thought that there must be something under the water, and, anxious to learn what might be there, he sent the animals down after each other, till the last to descend was the musk-rat, and he alone returned to tell the story of his explorations, bearing in his mouth some mud, which the Old Man took, and rolling it in the palm of his hand, it grew rapidly and fell into the water.

Soon it assumed such dimensions that he stepped upon it, and placing there a wolf, this animal ran swiftly over the plastic matter, and wherever he stepped an indentation was made, which became a valley, and where he placed not his foot the plains and mountains appeared. The water rushed into some of the indentations, and these became lakes.

The Old Man made some women, but the first specimens of his handicraft were not satisfactory, as the mouths of the women were opened vertically, so he closed them up again and cut them anew, leaving them as they now appear. He made some men, and took them upon an excursion armed with bows and arrows. Seeing some animals upon the prairie, he told the men to shoot them, but they were afraid, whereupon he took a bow and arrow from one of the men, and, pointing it at one of the animals, sent the arrow, swiftly and surely, killing it. "There," said he, "these are buffaloes! and that is food for you." Upon another excursion they saw some other strange-looking animals, dissimilar to anything they had ever seen before, and he called to the men to go out and capture one each, but they were afraid. He went out alone and caught one of the animals, and, giving one to a man, said, "These are women, and these are to be wives for you!" So they went out, and each procured a wife by catching one.

This Old Man is not the Great Spirit, but a secondary creator, and appears in their legends as a good and bad being, sometimes as a benefactor, and again as a person full of deceit and various kinds of tricks. In the legend of the Two Brothers there is an old man with his wife and daughter and his son-in-law. This son-in-law is a lazy fellow, and treats the old man harshly. One day the daughter was cooking some meat, and some blood fell upon the floor. Picking up the clotted blood, she put it in the pot, and in a few minutes she heard a hissing sound issuing from the vessel, and, looking in, beheld a boy, begotten from the blood clot. Rapidly he grew, and he sprang from the pot a young man. The blood-clot boy was named Kutoyis, meaning "sweet grass." He was a good lad and kind to his parents, in striking contrast to his bad brother-in-law. As Kutoyis was passing his father's lodge one day he heard him wailing bitterly, and, inquiring the cause, was informed that whenever he filled his lodge with buffalo meat, wood and water the bad brother came in and took it all away, and whenever the old man complained he was beaten. Kutoyis comforted his aged parent and then departed. He returned in a short time laden with buffalo meat, which he placed in the lodge, then filled it with an abundance of wood and water. He instructed the old man, that when the bad brother came to take it away he was to point his drawn arrow at him, and threaten to kill him, and that he would be near to protect him. Not long afterward the bad brother came to seek for food, and the father did as he was told, which made the bad brother so angry that he hastened to his lodge to get his bow and arrows. He returned full-armed to take the food, and as the old man was defending himself, Kutoyis sprang from behind the lodge and engaged in the contest. In the fight he slew the bad brother, and ever afterward the father lived in peace, having abundance of food and comfort.

Legends similar to this one appear among many Indian tribes, and the explanation given by some ethnologists is to the effect that it is a sun myth, the bad brother representing the night, darkness and storm; and the good brother representing day, light and tranquility. Darkness and storm being evil unto man, making him sad, destroying his crops, and depriving him of food; the sun, light and peace, begetting good crops and abundance of food, giving comfort and joy to man. When the sun arises there is a contention between it and the darkness, which ends in the destruction of the night and victory of the light, and with the victory comes peace and prosperity. Many beautiful legends are to be found among the Blackfeet, showing strength of intellect and imagination.

Let us enter one of the lodges in the camp, and see the people at home. The lodge itself is made of the skin of the buffalo—now unfortunately of duck or cotton—the buffalo hides being no longer obtainable. The lodge is circular, held in place by ten or twelve poles fastened at the top and spread out at the bottom, the lodge covering being also staked to the ground. In the centre of the lodge is the fire, kept from spreading by means of a circular row of stones, over which is placed a wooden tripod, tied with raw hide, from which hangs a pot or some meat. Around the lodge are placed the beds, upon which they sleep at night and serve as couches to sit upon during the day. Each has his own bed, the chief, or head of the family, occupying the place of honor, the place opposite the entrance. Around the lodge are hung guns, bags, and various articles ; and behind the beds, all of which are on the ground, are bags made of skins of animals, containing berries; in fact, all that is necessary for the maintenance of the family. Visiting a lodge one day, I saw the father and one of the wives with a gruesome countenance, and upon inquiring the cause, was shown twin children in their beautiful moss bags. Twins are believed to be an omen of evil, hence the sad countenances of my friends.

When a child is born some nice, soft moss is procured, and the babe is rolled up in it, some linen or piece of blanket wrapped around, and then the moss bag, ornamented with dyed porcupine quills, various colored beads, or designs made with silk thread is brought, the little one snugly wrapped within, and laced up from bottom to top, the whole reaching to the chin. Having a loop at the bag, when the mother attends church she can hang the baby on a nail upon the wall, and when upon horseback, hang the bag with its precious contents upon the horn of the saddle. The child receives its name from the first object the mother sees after the child is born, or from something peculiar in nature, or physical characteristic of the babe.

Several times during the history of a single individual is the name changed, and in order to learn the name of anyone, a second party must be asked. This arises from shame or modesty. When a man or woman performs a noble deed, the people give a new name agreeable to the action, as Heavy Gun, symbolizing valour; Three Medicines, signifying spiritual power or intellectual ability; and should the name describe some physical defect, article of dress worn, or mean action performed, the person will not proclaim his virtue, deceit, or defect by pronouncing his name. Many of the names are compounded of two words, as White-Calf, Black-Horse, Calf-Shirt, Red-Crow, Medicine-Calf, North-Axe and Crow-Foot. Female names are suggestive of sympathy, purity, and loveliness. Women receive such names as Little Rabbit Woman, The Morning Star, and White Antelope; the last name showing the Indian's idea of the character of the woman, white, signifying purity, and antelope, the tenderness of the woman's nature. An easy, happy life is that of the red men in their camp. They eat, drink, sleep, and amuse themselves as they feel inclined, no settled hours of the day being set apart for this purpose.

Let us follow the young and middle-aged men at one of their games, that of the wheel and arrows. A board, eight or ten inches in width, is placed on its edge upon the ground, held in place by small stakes driven into the ground ; and another, in the same fashion, about twelve feet distant. The contestants play in pairs. Each holds in his right hand an arrow, and one of them a small wheel, having fastened to it a bead, or special mark placed upon it. Standing at one end and inside the board, they run together toward the other board, the contestant having the wheel rolls it on the ground, throwing it with such force that it strikes the board. As the two men run they throw their arrows against the board, and as near to the wheel as they can. When the wheel falls, they measure the distance^ between the point of the arrows and the bead or special mark on the wheel, and the arrow which lies nearest to this point has won the throw. They continue this running and throwing until the one who has reached the number agreed upon as the end of the game has won. The number of the points made by the contestants are kept by means of small sticks held in the hands. Several pairs of contestants sometimes play after each other, and for days they will continue the game, surrounded by a large number of men, old and young, who are eagerly betting upon the result.

Tea dances are oftentimes kept up for days, the nights also being filled with the shouts and singing of the people. The tea is brought in pails, pots and vessels of every kind, and is passed around, each of the guests or participants dipping a cup into the larger vessel and drinking the tea. No food of any kind is eaten, the tea has no sugar, and very soon tea and the pipe passing freely around produce a state of semi-intoxication. The whole party sings lustily, stories of the happy days of old are told, the aged warrior recites his deeds of bravery, and hour after hour they sing and talk, drink and smoke, until the tea and tobacco have disappeared, and then they return to their lodges. Sometimes the boys and young men of the camp form themselves into a group, and play a game of guessing. Two or more persons are opposed, each to each, or one side against the other. A small article is selected, and one of them passing it from one hand to the other, holds out both hands for his opponent to guess the hand containing the article, which he tries to do by placing in the closed hand, which he supposes is the right one, a small piece of wood. If he has guessed rightly> it becomes his turn to use the article to be sought. The small sticks are kept as a record of the game, until one of the contestants has won them all from his opponent. During the whole time of playing, the one who holds the thing to be guessed sways his body, singing and praying for success.

The men are of medium height, well formed, but unaccustomed to labor, and spending a great portion of their time on horseback, their arms and leg& are not well developed. They have pleasing countenances, and the shape of the head shows intellectual power. In the old days they dressed chiefly in deer skin, or garments made of the skins of the buffalo and moose, many of them wearing a buffalo robe as an outside covering. With the advent of the traders, and the departure of the buffalo, they were compelled to resort to the blanket, of which they made leggings, with the ever present breech-cloth, a shirt of short dimensions of cotton, moccasins, and a blanket worn over the under-garments. A pair of tweezers fastened around the neck was used for pulling out the hair from the face and other parts of the body. A looking-glass for toilet purposes and signalling, and sometimes a small bag, containing an amulet, were also hung around the neck. Around the waist was fastened a belt filled with cartridges and a large knife. From two to five rings, with long appendages, hung from each ear, rings were upon each finger, except the thumb, and ornaments of various kinds were placed in the hair. The young men have beautiful hair, long and black, and of this they are very proud, sometimes spending more than an hour in arranging it. The hair of the men is more beautiful and longer than that of the women, and so vain are they of this adornment that they have oftentimes come to the mission-house requesting permission to measure the length of the hair of the lady of the mission-house, and after expressing their wonder, have eagerly inquired the secret of the long hair worn by the white women. I have sometimes shown them the ends of their hair split, and told them to cut the ends, and with delighted hearts they have returned to their lodges to try the new plan of making the hair grow. Sometimes a head-dress was worn. The face was painted, especially in winter and in times of war, as a protection, the Indians told me, against frost bites. The people are inveterate gamblers, playing cards night and day, racing horses, and amusing themselves at various other games. They are fair riders, able to ride long distances, yet not to be compared with the cowboys as experts at horsemanship. One of their methods of breaking-in young horses is to lead the animal to a muddy spot in the river bottom, and when the horse sinks deep in the mire to mount him, or to lead him into the river and ride him when the water reaches the belly. Some of the more adventurous spirits boldly mount the animal on the prairie, while a companion leads him by a rope, thus preventing him, when the rider is thrown, from running away.

The three tribes have each a head chief; numerous bands.

presided over by a chief to each band, who are called in the white man's phraseology, minor chiefs. There is a peace chief over the whole tribe, who acts as civil officer, and a war chief, who has command in times of war. The bands are known by distinct native appellations, as the Tall Men, Camping in a Bunch, Fish Eaters and similar names. The white people are accustomed to call the bands after the name of the chief, as Bed Crow's band, but the Indians never use this method among themselves. They have an unwritten code of laws for the government of the people, in peace and war, regulating crime, marriage, and applicable to social and domestic life. Secret societies are also in existence for the training of the people. They have also native police, called Black Soldiers, who look after those who offend against the laws of the tribe. When the camp is being formed each chief selects his own position, the place of honor being given to the head-chief, and the band collects around the lodge of the minor chief.

Calendars are kept by notching sticks, and the months have names, as the Moon when the Geese Come, the Moon when the Geese Go Away, and the Moon of the Big Snow. When any important gathering is to be held, as in the event of some notable stranger having come to the camp, the election of a chief, or the discussion of some question affecting the interests of the tribe, camp criers, who are generally aged men, go around the camp calling aloud for the male members of the tribe to assemble, and mentioning, at the same time, the object of the meeting. Always when holding service in the camps, the owner of the lodge where the service was held, or some one designated by him, stood outside the lodge and called aloud, "Niokskatos has come. It is time for prayer. Men, women and children come!"

Some of the chiefs are noted for their native ability as orators. Their style of language is impressive, free from any superfluities of style, their illustrations being drawn from nature, and the phraseology lofty and pure. The common language of the camp in the style of the able speaker is rejected, and it almost seems to those conversant with the language, as if lie were speaking in another tongue, the words being far removed from the common language used in ordinary conversation.

The Blackfeet have ever delighted in war, and especially in that stage of their progress, when, through the advent of the traders, they were among the first of the tribes to receive firearms, for through this agency they were enabled to gain an easy victory over their foes, and to drive the Gros Ventres, Crow Indians and Shoshonees from the plains of Southern Alberta. When one of the Blackfeet slew one of his enemies, he sprang from his horse, and drawing his knife, grasped the scalp-lock, cut a piece of the flesh, from two to three inches in diameter, and then with a sudden wrench tore it from the head. He hung the scalp-lock to his belt and then hastened on his journey to show to his enemies his success in war.

The custom of scalping the foe arose, not from any desire to inflict cruelty, but as an evidence of prowess. It is still customary at the sun dance for the warriors to narrate their exploits, and to give representations of the battles in which they were engaged. When the warriors returned, from the warpath and narrated their successes, the people would not believe the man who told of his successes unless he was able to give evidence of his valor. He might say that he had killed two or three of the enemy, but where was the evidence. He could not carry the bodies of the slain with him, nor even their heads, so he brought the scalp, which was easily carried, and strong evidence that he had been victorious. A scalp dance was held upon the return of a successful war party. After the dance was over the successful warriors hung up the scalp-locks upon the outside of their lodges, and as the people passed by they would look at the picture writing on the lodge and the scalp-locks, and say to each other: " He is a brave man. He is a great warrior. See how many enemies he has slain ! When some of the Blackfeet were killed in battle or clandestinely, there was great mourning and determination to revenge. This arose, not from anger only, but they believed that the soul of the departed could find no rest, but roamed throughout the regions of the •dead unsatisfied until an equal number of the enemy were slain.

Their doctrine was a " scalp for a scalp." Hence arose the danger to the white people in the early days, for if an Indian was killed by a white man, the first white man found would, in all likelihood, be killed. Sometimes through negotiations, instead of scalps being taken, compensation was made. Early one morning I was waiting for one of my friends, a Piegan Indian, to accompany me from Macleod to the Blood Reserve, when, as I was tying my horse outside the house, I heard the sound of a revolver, and the door opened, some women rushed out screaming, one of whom carried a child. My friend had been placing his revolver in his belt, and was in the act of examining it, when it went off, the ball lodging in the head of the child in its mother's arms. The man was imprisoned, an investigation held, and the matter settled, by giving to the bereaved parents two or three horses. Compensation is thus made between friends when death arises through an accident, and sometimes between enemies, when a third party steps in and makes the necessary negotiations.

Before a war party went on the warpath a feast was held, sacrifices made of a religious character, and prayers and vows that success might be given to the expedition. The members of the party painted their bodies in the most hideous fashion, and with a great deal of bravado started out. Except in times of danger, or when expecting opposition from their friends, they left the camp secretly. They travelled by day when in their own territory, but when they reached the enemies country they travelled by night. At the time for attacking the foe they threw off their outer garments, and appeared with nothing on their persons but a cloth around the loins and a belt filled with cartridges. Some of the warriors wore the war cap as a protection against the bullets of their foes. When a single Indian saw one of his foes approaching, and was desirous of being friendly, he took care that his gun was in readiness, and keeping his eye on the foe, filled his pipe with tobacco and kinnikinick, and after lighting it held out the long stem that the other might take a smoke. If the strange Indian smoked the pipe they Jbecame friends, the pipe being the bond of union. In the same manner, in times of peace or danger, runners were sent to the tribes with messages, always bearing the tobacco, which, being accepted, was an evidence of agreement in the question under consideration.

Some of the Indians make beautiful stone pipes, with various designs, having nothing but a knife, an old file and an iron rod. The aged warriors still meet in the lodges and tell with glowing-eloquence of the days of war, when they won their battles and hunted the buffalo, and the young men often long for the days when they, too, might be able to boast of their powers, and listen with delight to the applause of the people. These days have gone, and the youth must remain contented to gain honor as farmers or mechanics.

The women of the camp are below the average height, short and stout. In youth they are generally good-looking, some of them having pretty countenances and small hands and feet. Their dress consists of a loose garment, reaching from the neck to the feet, with wide flowing sleeves and a very wide belt around the waist, ornamented with beads, porcupine quills, or tacks with brass heads. Fastened to the belt is a knife, a knife sharpener, and a small bag containing a bodkin, needle and other useful articles. Short leggings, ornamented, reach from the knee to the moccasins; the amulet around the neck, rings on every finger, except the thumb, a profusion of brass bracelets, and earrings complete the dress. An outer garment is worn, usually a blanket. Girls are married at eleven and twelve years.

Polygamy exists among the people, arising no doubt in the first instance from the fact that the Blackfeet did not intermarry with the tribes outside their confederacy, except when, in times of war, they made captives the women of their enemies. The men were killed in battle with their enemies, and thus a larger number of females were found in the camps than males. I have never seen an old maid in the camps, and only oncc have I seen a bachelor, and he was a dwarf. An old Piegan Indian called upon me one day, and I asked him the number of his wives. "Eight," said he. "How many children have you Without a smile he said, "Forty-three!"

Anxious to learn all I could about the marriage customs of the people, I asked one of my friends, "How many wives have you?" "Three," said he. "How did you get them?" "Well, I paid for the first one, a horse; she was not very good-looking, so I got her for one horse! The second one was good-looking and a good cook, so I paid two horses for her. The third was a beauty. She was a good cook, and she had a fine disposition; 1 gave three horses and a gun and a saddle for her. She was a beauty!" After narrating this, in a business-like fashion, he turned to me, as his male companions sat by his side, and said, "Apawakas. How many horses did you pay for her?" Apawakas is the Indian name of my wife, and means "White Antelope." I was rather taken back to have the tables turned upon me so quickly, but determined to make the best of the situation, so proceeded to tell the Indians the white man's method of courtship, then the ceremony, when the minister joins the hands of the engaged and prays to the Great Spirit.

Afterward the explanation was given of setting up housekeeping, the mother-in-law providing pillows, blankets, and many of the necessary things for the home. When this point was reached the red men could not retain their laughter any longer, and they shook with laughing at the strange customs of the white men. After they were able to control themselves one of them said, "They paid you for taking her!" The Indian buys his wife, but the white man gets his wife for nothing, and is paid for taking her off the mother-in-law's hands. This appeared all the more significant to the Indians, as they do not speak to the father-in-law, and seldom to the mother-in-law. Pointing to the children in the home, my friend said, "If you and your wife were to die, what would become of the children?" I explained to him the process of making a will, stating that the executors would use my property for clothing, educating and providing for the children, and that the money obtained from the sale of the property would pay all expenses.

"The white people are savages!" said he. "When any people die in our camps and leave little children, we take them into our lodges. The best piece of buffalo meat we give unto them. We clothe and train them. They belong to all the people, and we all care for them. They are bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. They have no father or mother, so we are all fathers and mothers unto them. The white people are savages. They do not love their children. The people have to be paid for loving orphan children."

The Blackfeet have a beautiful and expressive language of signs, by means of which they can carry on communication with other tribes who know not their language, and also converse with the dumb, or at times when they do not wish to be heard. The picture writing on the lodges expresses the life of the owner of the lodge, detailing the greatest of his exploits, and a brief history of his life. The spoken language has been reduced to writing, and though I desire greatly to give some specimens of the beauty of the grammatical forms, lack of space forbids me. I must also pass by many of the interesting details connected with the initiation of the medicine men, and stories relating to their hypnotic feats, methods of practice, sweat baths and charms, reserving a fuller account of these interesting matters till a later time.

One of the Blood Indian chiefs went on a visit to Eastern Ontario, and upon his return the people were anxious to learn what he had seen in the land of the white man. Camp criers called the people to one of the lodges, when the traveller gave an account of his visit. He said:

"That is a wonderful country. I went to the towns of the white men and saw the houses made of stone. The white men live upon each other's heads, for there is not room for them to make stone lodges for every man. One of the white chiefs gave me a paper, and when I was hungry I showed my paper at the white man's trading-post, and they gave me all I wanted to eat for nothing. Whenever I wished to go anywhere I showed a man my paper, and he took me in his waggon for nothing. I went into a trading-post, and then got into a small house, which went up and up, when it stopped, and I got out.

I saw so many fine things after I got out! I then went into another little house, and it went down and down. Ugh! I thought I was going down to the place where the white men say there is a great big fire, but it stopped, and then I got out. I went into a house which sat on wheels, and it ran away. Some birds came along and tried to run a race with it, but it beat the birds. There are as many white people down there as there are blades of grass upon the prairie!"

"Stop!" said one of the chiefs. "There have been some white medicine men down there, and they have been beating upon their medicine drums. They have made strong medicine and blinded your eyes, that you could not see. We do not believe you."

They believed him not, and not until others had gone east and corroborated the testimony of this man, did they believe that such things were in existence.

In the crotches of trees, or raised platforms, and in lodges were the dead buried. Articles of clothing, gun, food, tobacco and the relics of the deceased were buried with him, and 110 one was brave enough to desecrate the graves, as they were afraid of the spirits of the dead. Late one afternoon, as I was pursuing my way through the outskirts of the camp, I heard a low sad wail, and on looking up, saw a poor woman meanly clad, the beautiful garments of yesterday having been taken from her. Her legs from the knee to the feet had been gashed with a knife and the blood was clotted upon them. Her hair had been cut off, and one of the fingers 011 the left hand had been severed at the first joint. A piece of wood lay in the palm of the injured hand, the clotted blood was mingled with ashes, which had been sprinkled over it. I spoke to her and she pointed to a tree, where within the branches lay a little bundle, the darling of her bosom, recently dead. She turned from me and sang her coronach, mentioning the name of her babe and calling upon it to come back to her. Deeply and tender these Indian mothers love their children, and no suffering is too great for them to bear on their behalf.

The Blackfeet are sun worshippers. They worship Omuqkatos, the Great Sun. The strangely contorted trees, peculiar stones upon the prairie, and irregular formations of land are the stopping places of the gods. When anyone is sick a part of the garments of the sick person is placed upon the top of the lodge, that being shaken by the wind the prairie spirits may be induced to stop upon their journey, and the medicine man earnestly performs his incantations and giving of medicines, assisted by the friends of the sick person, and the gods, listening to the prayers, will aid in the overthrow of the evil genius which dwells in the body. During a severe time of sickness in one of the camps, as I sat beside the medicine man in one of the lodges, a large number of children were brought in, and the medicine man, taking the dress from the top of the lodge, rubbed the children's persons with it, as a protection against the attack of the disease. When anyone dies, he is said to have gone to the Sand Hills.

The people are afraid of the spirits of the dead, and at once * they remove the lodge, and sometimes even tear down the house, lest the spirit of the deceased return and inflict injury upon the living. They believe that the spirits of the dead hold communion with each other, and require food and clothing like the living, only as they, are spiritual, they need the spiritual part, and not the material, for their sustenance. Hence the living do not see the goods disappear, as the dead extract the spiritual part of the material things. They are thus believers in animism. Sacrifices are made to the sun; prayers for pardon, and before engaging in a special religious ceremony, the person enters a sweat lodge and takes a sweat bath, believing that he can drive out the impurity from his system by profuse perspiration. He who would be holy must have a clean body and soul, and this can be secured by rejecting evil thoughts and deeds and cleansing his body.

Farm instructors and agents have been sent by the Government to teach the Blackfeet agriculture. Schools are established, where the children are taught. A Boys' Home and an hospital have been erected on the Blood Reserve, and an Industrial Home at High river. Missionaries are working hard for the welfare of the people on all the Reserves, and in the coming years there is hope for the uplifting of the people. A new era has dawned, the old-time life is fast passing away, and we may loot for the advancement through the energetic workers who are striving to lead the people toward a nobler life.

THE CREE INDIANS.

The Cree Indians form one of the largest tribes of the Algonquin nation in the Dominion, extending over the greatest extent of territory, and including several distinct branches, speaking different dialects of the same language. Joseph Howse, the eminent Indian scholar, spent twenty years among them, and early in the present century said that they were " dispersed over a vast extent of country, from Pennsylvania south, to Churchill River in Hudson's Bay north, or twenty degrees of latitude; from Labrador and the Atlantic east, to the Mississippi west, from Hudson's Bay east to the Rocky Mountains west—that is, in its greatest width (fifty-five to one hundred and fifteen degrees), sixty degrees of longitude." At the present time they are to be found in the North-West Territory, Keewatin, and Athabasca. In the early history of the country they were designated by various names, including Kristineaux or Kristnaux, Knistinaux or Knistineaux, Chris-tineaux, Klistinos or Klistineaux, Killistine, and Crees. The name by which these people are known among themselves is Nehiyowuk, meaning " Exact People." They are divided into three branches, distinguished more by the locality where they reside than by the dialectical differences of their language, although there is a slight difference in their speech. These branches are named Plain Crees, who reside chiefly on the prairies of Alberta and Assiniboia; Wood Crees, inhabiting Northern Alberta and Athabasca; and the Swampy Crees of Keewatin. There is no definite line of territory for these branches, as they encroach upon the domain of each other, but this division is in the main correct. The Crees of the Saskatchewan district were divided by several writers fifty years ago into Strongwood and Plain Crees, which numbered from three thousand five hundred to four thousand. Rowand, Shaw, Simpson and Lefroy differ in their computation, but place the population in this district at these numbers—Lefroy gives the following estimate in 1852 of the Cree Confederacy:

Plain Crees, about three thousand; Wood Crees, in the country east of the Great Plains and south of the Churchill River, including a few who traded at Fort Chippewayan, Isle a la Crosse, and Lesser Slave Lake, about five thousand; Cumberland House, three hundred; the Pas or Basqua, one hundred and fifty; Norway House, three hundred; Oxford House, one hundred; York Factory, two hundred; Beren's River, one hundred; Red River Dependencies, two thousand; Albany River, Martin Falls, five hundred; Moose Factory and outposts, five hundred; Lake Tamiscaming, two hundred— making a total of over twelve thousand souls. This estimate appears to be large, still it has been generally believed that the Cree Confederacy comprised the greatest number of any of the tribes in the Dominion during the present century. I Even this estimate seems small compared with the Iroquois in the early days of the French regime. At the present time the Cree Indians, who have entered into treaty with the Government, number over ten thousand souls.

The nomadic Cree has always been found at certain times of the year a regular visitor to the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, and no history of the country can be written without frequent reference to these people. They were employed as hunters, boatmen, and guides. Securing an advance of provisions in the beginning of the hunting season, they started off in search of furs, remaining absent for several weeks, returning, if successful, with sufficient to maintain the family for a considerable period. Some of the bands of Wood and

Swampy Crees support themselves by fishing in the lakes and rivers, thus presenting a striking contrast to the Plain Indians, who seldom eat fish.

The male members of the tribe are of medium stature, well-formed and of pleasing countenance. In the early years of the present century they were fond of tattooing their bodies, especially their arms. The Cree women, whom I have met in the camp of the Blackfeet, and in my travels throughout Alberta and Assiniboia, had three tattoo-marks on the chin, one from each corner of the mouth, and one in the middle of the chin, consisting of lines made perpendicularly, and of a blue color.

Many interesting legends and traditions are told by the Indians, one of which I will now relate: Henry B. Steinhauer, an aged missionary, related the following legend to Dr. Sutherland as they sailed down the Saskatchewan. It is the legend of Wisukatcak, who is regarded as a supernatural being, resembling the Old Man of the Blackfeet. "Of his origin little is known, but he had a father, and a mother and one brother. In this family, as in others, there were occasional disturbances, and in one of these the old man killed his wife, and cut off her head S He then told Wisukatcak to take his little brother, and run away. He also gave him a flint, a fire steel and an awl, and said : ' If your mother's head goes after you throw first the flint, then the fire steel, and then the awl behind you, and repeat the words I tell you!' So he told him the words, and Wisukatcak took his little brother, the flint, the fire steel and the awl and went away; and sure enough, the mother's head went rolling after them, calling for her children. So Wisukatcak threw the flint behind hiin and cried :

"'Let a great wall of rock rise up all across the earth!'

"No sooner said than done. A great wall of rock did rise up and that is why the Rocky Mountains stretch along the continent to this day.

"When the Head came to the wall of rock it could not get over it at first; but by perseverance at last succeeded, and went rolling on as before. Then Wisukatcak threw the fire steel behind him and cried:

"'Let a great lire rise up and stretch across the earth !' So a great lire rose up, the remains of which can be seen in the extensive volcanoes of the Sierra and Rocky Mountains. When the Head came to the fire it stopped; but after a time got through, singed and roasted, and went rolling 011 again, calling for her children. Then Wisukatcak threw the awl behind him and cried : ' Let a great hedge of thorns spring up, and reach across the earth !' At once the thorns sprang up, forming a seemingly impassable wall, parts of which may yet be seen in the hedges of giant cactus plants in the South. But in some way the head managed to get through, and went rolling on, calling for her children. After a time Wisukatcak and his brother came to a large river, and seeing a pelican swimming about, he said: ' Grandfather, take us across to the other side, for our mother is coming after us and will kill us.'

"So the pelican took them on his back and carried them safely to the other side.

"After a time the Head came to the river, and seeing the pelican, said: ' I am going after my children. Take me to the other side and I will marry you.'

"But the pelican did not seem to be very anxious for this, and went to work very slowly. The Head tried to hurry him up, but he said: ' You must sit still, my neck is very sore.'

"Near the middle of the river were some boulders rising above the water, and the pelican, suddenly throwing his burden upon one of these, broke the Head all to pieces, and the brains may be seen to this day floating 011 the river in flood time in large masses of foam. So this was the end of Wisukatcak's mother.

"Wisukatcak and his brother journeyed on till they came to a beautiful lake with a sandy beach, where they remained; and Wisukatcak did all he could to amuse his brother. Among other things he made him a ball. One day, when playing with-it, the ball fell into a canoe which they had not noticed before, in which sat an old man, whose name was Wamishus. Wisukatcak called to him and said:

"Throw back my brother's ball. He wants to play with it.'

"But Wamishus said: ' Come into the canoe and get it yourself.'

But Wisukatcak did not like to go. Then the old man said: ' Let your brother come and get it.'

"But the brother would not go; so Wisukatcak concluded to go himself. Then Wamishus put his paddle from the canoe to the shore and said:

"Step on that, and you can get into the canoe.'" Wisukatcak did so, and when he was nearly over, the old man suddenly tipped up the paddle and threw Wisukatcak into the canoe, and with a single stroke sent the canoe out into the lake. Wisukatcak's brother saw them go, and cried:

"'Brother! brother! come back, or I'll be changed into a wolf! I'll be changed into a wolf ! O-o-ow-w-w !'

"And he sent forth a prolonged howl, as though he were a. wolf already. But Wisukatcak could not come back. He remained away for a long time, and then came back, but no one knows when or how. When he landed he began to seek for his brother, but could find only a wolf's track on the shore. Soon he heard a wolf howl, and meeting him soon after, recognized the wolf as his brother, and thenceforth they became companions. Some time after they went to another lake, and here Wisukatcak made bows and arrows for his brother to amuse himself with, and he said to him:

"'Don't shoot your arrows into the water, or if you do, don't go after them, lest some great evil befall you.'

"But little wolves, like little boys, are sometimes very self-willed ; so, in spite of the warning, Wisukatcak's brother one day shot an arrow into the water and went after it; when he was seized and killed by one of the lions who live in the water, and his skin made into a covering for a tent door!

"Then Wisukatcak went all about the lake seeking for his brother. Seeing a Kingfisher gazing intently into the water, he said: 'What are you looking at?'

"And the Kingfisher replied, 'I am looking at the little lions playing with the skin of Wisukatcak's brother.' "'Do they ever go ashore?' asked Wisukatcak. "'Yes,' said the Kingfisher, 'they go ashore on very warm days to sun themselves on the beach.'

"Then Wisukatcak said, 'If you will tell me where they go ashore, I will paint you, and make you a very handsome bird.'

"So the Kingfisher showed him the place, and Wisukatcak painted him as he had promised, and made him a very handsome bird, putting a collar of white wampum about his neck, and a tuft of beautiful feathers on the top of his head. Then Wisukatcak took his bow and arrows and went to the place where the lions came on shore. Here he changed himself into a stump and waited. One hot day many of the lions came ashore, and seeing the stump, one of them said:

"Why should a stump be here where none was before?' And another said, 'Let us go and pull it down.'

"'So they went and began to scratch and pull at poor Wisukatcak till they had like to have torn him in pieces. But they could not pull him over. At last they got tired, and went and lay down to sleep. When Wisukatcak saw they were asleep he took his bow, and aiming at the king lion sent an arrow deep into his side, at which the lion roared, and they all hurried back into the water, while Wisukatcak went to his lodge. The next day he went back to the' shore, and as he was going he met a toad, who appeared like an old woman. She was shaking a rattle and singing, ' I am the rattling quill.'

"Granny," said Wisukatcak, 'where are you going?' "'Oh,' said she, 'I am going to conjure the king of lions, who was wounded yesterday by Wisukatcak.'

"'Will you teach me the time and how to use the rattle?' said Wisukatcak.

"The old woman consented, but as soon as Wisukatcak had learned the time and how to use the rattle, he killed the old woman, and stripping off her skin, put it upon himself. He then took the rattle and went off under the water to the home of the sea lions. When he got to the lodge of the king lion he saw his brother's skin hanging over the doorway. He went in, and then told the other lions that they must put up a division in the lodge, as he must be alone when conjuring for the king lion to heal him of his wound. So they made a partition and left Wisukatcak alone with the king lion. Then Wisukatcak began to shake his rattle and to sing, 'I am the rattling quill.' But instead of pulling out the arrow he pushed it farther in Then the king of the lions cried out that "Wisukatcak was killing him," whereupon the other lions raised a great commotion and rushed into the lodge, and Wisukatcak had only time to snatch his brother's skin from the doorway and run for his life; but as he ran he changed his brother into a living wolf again. When Wisukatcak got to shore the lions sent a great flood of water after him. It rose higher and higher, and he climbed the highest hills to get out of the way, but still the water rose. Then he gathered all the sticks and pieces of wood he could find and made a raft, on which he floated. By and by the water covered the very highest hills, and Wisukatcak saw that the world was drowned!

"After a time he began to consider what could be done. Looking around he saw some water animals who had not been drowned; so he called the Beaver, the Otter and the Musk-rat, and they came upon the raft. Then Wisukatcak said to the Beaver, ' Go down to the bottom and see if you can bring me a little earth.' So the Beaver went down and remained a long time. At last he came up, but he was dead. Wisukatcak examined his mouth and paws, but there was nothing in them. Then he said to the Otter, ' Go down to the bottom and see if you can bring me a little earth.' So the Otter went down, but he, too, came up dead, and brought nothing. Last of all he sent the Musk-rat, who stayed down a very long time, and at last came up dead; but on examining closely, Wisukatcak found a little mud in his paws and in his mouth.

"Then Wisukatcak took the Beaver, the Otter and the Musk-rat, and restored them to life, after which he took the mud which the Musk-rat had brought up, rolled it into a little ball, laid it on his raft and began to blow upon it. As he blew it began to get larger, and grew very large, indeed.

"Then Wisukatcak said to the Wolf, 'My brother, run around this world that I have made and see how large it is.' So the Wolf ran around. It took him a long time, but he came back at last and said, 'The world was very large.'

"But Wisukatcak thought it was not large enough yet. So he blew again and made it very much larger. Then he sent out -a Crow, and said, 'Fly around my world and see how large it is.' So the Crow went out, but never came back again, and Wisukatcak concluded the world was large enough. And this is the story of how Wisukatcak drowned the world and made it over again."

The Cree nation has, in the three leading sub-tribes already mentioned, bands belonging to each of them, elected chiefs and appointed councillors.

The advent of the white man and his influence has changed the style of dress worn by the men and women, who follow the fashions of the pale-faced people. Before the settlement of the country the native costume consisted of leather, made from the skins of the animals which were to be found in their locality. The men wore leather shirts, leggings of the same material reaching to the hip, and fastened to the belt which held the breech-cloth. Leather caps with the hair on, which fastened under the chin, moccasins and mitts of leather were used. The breech-cloth was made of woollen material; but when this could not be obtained, leather was substituted, and this was about nine inches wide and four feet long, the ends drawn inwards, and then allowed to hang down before and behind. A robe was worn as an outer garment, in the same manner as the modern blanket. They painted their bodies, especially the face, with vermilion, using other colors during the sacred festivities and in times of war.

Alexander Henry, describing their mode of arranging the hair as he saw them, nearly a century ago, says: "Their hair is generally divided on the crown, and fastened in large knots behind each ear, from which is generally suspended bunches of blue beads or other ingenious work of their own. Their men have their hair adjusted in various forms. Some of them have it separated on the top and tied in a tail upon each side; others form but one tail, which hangs down behind, around which is twisted a strip of otter skin or the dressed entrails of buffalo. This tail is increased in size and length, frequently by adding false hair. Others again allow it to flow in the loose lank of nature. Combs are seldom used by the men, and they never besmear the hair with grease. Red earth is sometimes rubbed upon the hair. White earth dabbed over the hair generally denotes mourning, The young men sometimes have a bunch of hair formed upon the crown of the head about the size of a small tea cup, and nearly in the shape of that vessel placed upside down, to which they fasten various ornaments of feathers, quill work, ermine tails, etc. Red and white earth and charcoal are also much used in their toilets. With the former they daub their robes and other garments, some red and others white. The women generally comb their hair and make use of grease to besmear it."

Some of these modes of arranging the hair are still in use among the people. I have seen them all used, except the white earth sprinkled upon the head and the fastenings of buffalo entrails.

Various methods of communication were used, such as fire-signals, the curling smoke conveying intelligence to some member of the tribe at a distance; even the fire was so arranged that the smoke, ascending in different forms, might give a different message. The looking-glass methods of riding on horseback, motions with blankets, and the expressive use of the sign language were efficient means of sending news, and may well be called the telegraphic system of the natives.

In states of great destitution cannibalism has existed, but only in rare instances: and the natives look with abhorrence and flee from the guilty perpetrator of such a crime. Captain Back mentions a case of cannibalism, in which an old man killed and ate his wife and children, and so great was the hatred of the people of his tribe, that he was denounced by them, and requested to leave their camp, and upon refusing to do so, was killed by his own people. About the time of our arrival in the country, a Cree Indian was found guilty of a similar deed, and was hanged by the civil authorities at Edmonton.

Although the natives love intensely all kinds of stimulants, they know their failing, and repeatedly have they appealed to the officers of the State to keep liquor out of the country. Especially did they do so at the time when they were making the treaties with the representatives of the Crown.

The natives were in the habit of burning the prairie and the woods, the former in the spring to destroy the old grass and to secure tender and early grass for their horses, and the latter for the purpose of driving the animals they were hunting into the water, where they could be more easily captured. When they were travelling long journeys, they made a cache by the way, which consisted of articles of food and other necessaries, safely hidden free from the depredations of animals, which they might find on their return journey or obtained by some members of the party who were following them, and likely to be in need. Their food consisted of berries pounded and put away in leather bags, to be cooked in grease and eaten during the winter. Large quantities of berries were gathered and kept for this purpose.

Pemmican was, however, the staple food of the Crees in the days of the buffalo, and the half-breeds were especially fond of it. It was made of the flesh of the buffalo. Buffalo meat cut into thin slices and dried was used as dried beef. The pemmican, however, was made by taking the hind-quarters of the bison, cutting the flesh into thin slices, drying it on a pole in the sun and then pounding it with stones. Two parts of the dried meat were placed in a large leather bag made of the hide of a bison, and one part of melted fat poured upon it, which was closed and allowed to cool. Generally one of these bags held the meat taken from one buffalo cow, as it weighed from ninety to a hundred pounds. In this form it was the commonest kind of pemmican. Berry pemmican was made as above, with the addition of wild cherries or Saskatoon berries. Sometimes ten pounds of sugar was added to each bag, and this increased the flavor. The best kind of pemmican was made of meat finely pounded, with the addition of marrow, berries and sugar. Two pounds were sufficient for the needs of any man per day. Sometimes it was eaten uncooked, but generally it was boiled with flour and water, oatmeal and other ingredients, and it was then called rabibu. Mixed with flour and fried in a pan, it was named richat. When well prepared it could be kept for a long time in good condition. When the fat was dirty and hairs of various kinds got mixed with it, a very unsavory dish was it for white men or red, yet hunger gave zest in the partaking of this dish.

In the depth of winter, amid the blinding snow, when no trail could be seen, it was well nigh impossible for the native to lose his way, unless the distance were too great, or he failed through lack of food. When the storm begins and the trail is no longer visible, the native takes his bearings, and having made up his mind as to the course he must pursue, he observes upon what part of his head or body the wind strikes, and then he continues his journey, taking care to keep the wind always on that part of his body. This is travelling by the wind, and is resorted to in times of necessity. Of course, if the wind changes there is danger, but even then he will likely learn that by coming to some well-known landmark, where he can adjust his human compass. Seldom is an Indian lost upon the prairie or frozen to death in even the severest storm.

The Crees learned of the white man's power through the use of firearms, and there were not a few who resorted to other means to intimidate the red men. A small galvanic battery in the hands of the white man, by which he could give a shock to his red companion, greatly increased his influence; or a musical box, placed in another room or secretly hidden, made the native believe that his white friend was a strong medicine man, able to hold communion with the inhabitants of the spirit world.

The beautiful skin-tents of the old days, averaging twenty feet in diameter and perfectly white, were decorated with red and black figures, sometimes of a legendary character or historical. The mythical figures were taken from their dreams, or represented some land or sea monster, of which their aged friends told them, and the historical figures were chiefly autobiographical. Upon the inside of the buffalo robes various designs were made, some of which on the finest robes were excellent specimens of native decorative art. A calendar was oftentimes made, the figure of each year representing the leading event of the year. The symbols are understood by the Indians, and serve to keep fresh in their memories the recent history of the tribe.

One of the famous dances of the Cree Indians is the thirst dance, which is similar to the sun dance of the Blackfeet.

The Cree women have always been workers of beautiful porcupine quill, bead and *silk designs on leather. Of course they were unable to use beads on silk until these were introduced by the trading companies. They are generally industrious and manifest ability in the tanning of the skins of animals, some of these being white and soft, and the ornaments worthy of ladies who had enjoyed years of training. This is especially noticeable among the women of the Wood and Swampy Cree branches of the nation. Moccasins, leather shirts, smoking-caps of leather, ottoman covers, leggings and fire bags are among the articles they delight to make.

Some of the Cree chiefs have been famous warriors, although in the early years, when firearms were introduced among them, they cared so little for them that they would gladly trade their guns for horses with the Assiniboines, and this lack of adaptation to their new circumstances gave the Assiniboines and Blackfeet great advantage over them. They, however, proved themselves brave and warlike, and some of them were heroic in action. They painted their bodies in times of war. When any of their comrades fell in battle with Indians or white men, they took precaution to remove their bodies, so that their enemies would not get them. They were so expert at this during the Riel rebellion that it gave rise to the belief that they practised the custom of other tribes, of fastening stones to their bodies and depositing them in the river.

They always dreaded hanging, and when the treaty was made with them by the Canadian Government, one of the chiefs said he hoped that if anything should arise which would make anyone worthy of death, the guilty person would not be hanged. Again, when eight of the Indians were hanged at Battleford for complicity in the second Riel Rebellion, some of them pleaded to be shot, and not to be hanged. When condemned to death they sing their death song, proclaiming their lack of fear and their determination to brave death.

There is no class of persons who wield a stronger influence among the people than the medicine men. When a young man is desirous of becoming a medicine man, he separates himself from the other members of his tribe for several days, without eating or drinking anything, and during this time he is visited by the spirits who converse with him, and reveal to him the spirits who are to be his servants. These dwell in various animals, as the beaver, otter, mink, musk-rat, bear and wolf. He gains power to commune with the spirits of the wind, rain, snow, ice, and stars. There are four degrees among the Cree medicine men.

First. Wapunu, or the Conjuror of the morning, who has the power of extinguishing fire.

Second. Miteo, the man who uses the bone or shell in killing, and the birdskins. He has an extensive knowledge of roots and herbs, and knows well how to use them in curing disease. He has the power of bringing any person from a distance, if he can only get a lock of hair, or a piece of garment belonging to the person. He ties two images together with the lock of hair or piece of garment on the outside, and no matter what the circumstances are, the person will come to the place after this performance has been done.

Third degree, Kesikauiyineo, or Man-of-the-Day, is the revealer of secrets. Peter Jacobs relates the fact of a number of Ojib-way Indians having become so drunk that they did not know where they had hidden a keg of whiskey, and they sought the aid of the revealer of secrets. This medicine man had a little wigwam erected, made strongly, driving about eight poles, about six feet long each, into the ground to a depth of three feet, and then bending them with two hoops into the shape of a canoe. This was enclosed with birch bark. The Man-of-the-Day entered and began to sing, so that the little spirits came. The wigwam shook with great violence, and the outsiders heard them distinctly speak to one another. The spirits inquired whether or not there were any questions to be asked, and some one outside inquired about the keg of whiskey, when the following answer was given : " You must go to a certain direction " —describing it by the course of the sun—" and you will come to an old man lying down and a young man standing over him,, with one leg on either side. He stands upon the whiskey."

An old man on the outside turned to some boys and said: "The old man is an old tree fallen, the young man is a younger tree with its roots growing over the trunk of the old one."

The boys ran in the direction indicated and found the place, with the keg and some beads. Sometimes the answers given seem to be at variance with what the medicine man himself wishes, as if he were controlled by some agency of spirits.

Fourth degree is Tipiskauiyineo, who has power to nullify the evil influence of the Miteo, and even to heal those he has injured.

All these degrees are conferred by the chief medicine man, and he bestows the medicine bag upon the applicant for the degree. A striking instance of the power of a medicine man of the fourth degree to destroy the evil influence of one of the second degree was related to me by a Hudson's Bay factor. While in the city of Winnipeg he met a half-breed, an old acquaintance, whose mouth was twisted and his head drawn to one side, without the power to bring it into the natural condition. He inquired the cause of this strange freak, and was told that it was a Miteo who had done it. The factor laughed at his superstitious fears, but he received the assurance that it was true, with the additional information, that there was a Tipiskauiyineo residing at Lake Winnipeg who could cure him. The following summer the factor met his friend, who had been cured, and was informed that he had gone to Lake Winnipeg, and the strong medicine man had broken the spell. Several times have I conversed with Cree half-breeds who have told me strange tales of evil wrought upon their bodies, such as hair or warts made to appear over the whole body suddenly, and to disappear as quickly through the agency of a more powerful medicine man.

It is well known that death has been caused through the assertion of the medicine man, and the spell of death has been broken by a more powerful one. Witchcraft is supposed by the Indians to be practised amongst them by women, called wendigos. These are pursued by the Indians and killed. The medicine man has sometimes to resort to the white medicine man to extract a tooth for him.

When the Crees travel by water they sometimes resort to their native method of stilling a storm. When compelled to land because of a storm upon the lake, they may seek to -appease the wrath of the spirit of the lake by a gift of tobacco, meat, or some other article, but should the storm continue they will don a medicine dress and, with rattle bags, sing and shake their rattles for hours, finishing with a speech, and a promise of .a suitable sacrifice made by throwing some meat or tobacco into the fire or lake.

The native religious ideas and the mortuary customs have been changed through contact with the white man, and the influence of the Christian religion.

The Cree language belongs to the great Algic family, which extends from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains. It is a euphonious and expressive tongue, systematic in arrangement, and beautiful, though complicated, in multiplicity of its forms.

Archdeacon Hunter, in his "Grammatical Construction of the Cree Language," says: "The more familiar I have become with its grammatical construction—so peculiar and unique, and yet so regular and systematic—the more I have been impressed with the beauty, order, and precision of the language used by the Indians around us. Although they may rank low in the scale of civilization, yet they carry about with them a vocabulary and a grammar which challenge and invite and will amply repay the acumen and analytical powers of the most learned philologist. If a council of grammarians, assembled from amongst the most eminent in all nations, had, after years of labor, propounded a new scheme of language, they could scarcely have elaborated a system more regular, beautiful and symmetrical."

The Plain Crees speak the language with more elegance and purity, than either the Swampy or Wood Crees.

There are several dialects of the language, due to the locality in which the people dwell, with the difference of flora and fauna, occupation and modes of living.

A very complete syllabic system of the language was invented by James Evans, a Methodist missionary, who came to the country in 1840, and lived for six years at Norway House. By means of this syllabary a clever Indian can memorize in an hour or two all the characters, and in two or three days read the Bible or any other book in his own language.

The reader will find a full account of this missionary and the syllable system, with illustrations, in the author's work— " James Evans, Inventor of the Syllabic System of the Cree Language."

A few words of the language will suffice to illustrate its construction:

The Government has established Reservations by treaty with the Crees, whereon reside agents and farm instructors, who teach the Indians farming, and generally care for the welfare of the people. Schools are also in existence, maintained by the joint help of the State and of the churches.

Missionary work is carried on amongst them by the Roman Catholics, English Church, Presbyterians and Methodists. Education and religious work are prosecuted vigorously, and a large measure of success has followed the labors of devoted men and women. Books have been prepared in the native language, and few Cree Indians can be found who are not able to read the literature printed in the syllabic characters.

THE ESKIMO

"Upon the distant northern confines of the Dominion dwell the hardy hyperborean races of whom we know so little, whose condition excites our sympathy, yet are almost beyond the reach of our love. So widely scattered are the Eskimo tribes, and so far removed from our centres of civilization, that they are the only native race belonging to the old and new world.

Eskimantzik, from which the name of this people is derived, appears to be an Abnaki term, signifying " Eaters of Raw Flesh." " Flesh-eaters," the white people call them; but naturally they designate themselves, like some of the native races, by a noble term, " innuit," signifying men. The Skraelings of the age of the Norsemen may have been the ancestors of the hardy folk who make their home in the land of desolation and snow.

The Eskimos may be divided roughly into three groups—the Eastern, Central and Western—and within each group are several divisions. From Greenland on the east to Behring Strait on the west (more than five thousand miles) the settlements of these " children of the cold " are to be found. Linked by a common language, which reveals contact with other native American tribes, and a long residence in the new world, they form a separate type of men, whose ancestors may have been the primitive people who dwelt in the early age of the world's history, if the speculating scientist is able to prove the

existence of the Garden of Eden at the North Pole. Such a theory is very pleasing, and would prove a fascinating study, if the evidences in its favor were not wanting. So striking is the unity among this race that the Moravian missionaries, who have labored in Labrador, have been able to preach to the Eskimos of Alaska, and use the Bibles already in use among the natives in the east. Still, there are differences in language and customs amongst them, separated, as they are, into more than sixty communities, with isolated dialects, so difficult, in some instances, as to appear in mastering them like a new language.

In physical' characteristics, language and social customs the Eskimo and Indian are distinct, hating each other, and without Any of the affinities so common among the red men. The Indians who dwell on the borders of the territory of the Eskimo are afraid of these daring sons of the Arctic seas, who, in turn, speak in slighting terms of the red men.

History is silent as to the origin of these people, and nothing definite has yet been ascertained regarding their advent to the northern land. Across the frozen Behring Straits their ancestors could easily travel, as some of the hunters do at certain times of the year to visit some of the trading-posts, especially when there is a scarcity of tobacco in the settlements. The drifting kayak has been carried to Europe, and has been found upon the shores of the northern isles; and the adventurous hunters, no doubt, sought out Greenland, which they visited in the fourteenth century. Southward they roamed many centuries ago, as is shown by the innuit relics discovered, so that the home of this people was not confined to its present limits.

The Eskimo land is a dreary waste of ice and snow, with scanty vegetation and less than one hundred varieties of Eskimo flowers. The Artie explorers have described oftentimes, in language which thrills our souls, the sufferings which they endured in their earnest search for a north-west passage. The long, dreary winters were sufficient to appal the strongest hearts, and even the sunshine of the short summers seemed to increase the cares of the travellers with its swiftly-passing joys. The Eskimos are, in general, short in stature and-stout, straight hair, and of a Mongolian cast of countenance.

The communities have slight variations of dress, but the common fashion is for the men to wear boots, trousers and jackets. Their stockings reach above the knee, with a slipper of birds' skin, having the feathers next the skin and the boots over them, reaching nearly to the knee. The trousers are double—an inside pair, with the hair next the skin, and an outside pair, having the hair turned outward. The jacket is made of two sealskins, and is drawn over the head, having no opening in front, and a hood is attached which can be drawn over the head in cold or stormy weather. Their mittens are sometimes made with two thumbs, so that they can be turned when they are wet.

The women wear the same kind of garments—boots, trousers and jacket, the latter with a large hood wherein the baby is deposited for safety and warmth. The jacket has a longer tail behind than that worn by the men, and the garments are more neatly made, besides having ornaments suited to the taste of the wearer.

The dress of both sexes is made of the furs of the animals,, the skin of the seal being chiefly desired.

The young children are dressed in a jacket of deerskin, with their legs bare, until having reached their second year, they wear trousers and boots, and when eight or nine years old, are clothed in the same fashion as the men. Girls are dressed in the same fashion as the boys until they are nine or ten years old, when they are clothed like the women. The Eskimo children enjoy themselves as much in their northern home as their more highly-favored cousins in warmer climes; from the babe,, rolling among the reindeer skins of the iglu, without almost any clothing, while the temperature is kept below the freezing point, to the older boys and girls, happy in sporting with their toys, made for them by their parents.

The ivory is carved into the forms of bears, foxes, geese, gulls,, walruses, seals and whales, and although not more than three inches long, they are good specimens of workmanship, and well represent the animals named.

A kind providence has blessed old and young with extraordinary powers of endurance, enabling them not only to battle successfully with the cold, but to find delight within the iglu while the storm rages outside. Lieutenant Schwatka says that he has seen an Eskimo baby boy taken naked from his mothers hood, made to stand on the snow until his mother sought his reindeer skin clothing from the sledge, exposed to the wind and cold for a minute, while the thermometer was thirty-eight degrees below zero, and a stiff wind blowing, the only protection being the loaded sledge, around and over which the wind was blowing. He has seen a naked man, surprised in his iglu by a bear, rush out and pursue him for two or three hundred yards, and slay him, when the thermometer stood fifteen or twenty degrees below zero. An Eskimo traveller has been seen to throw himself in the snow and rest comfortably while the thermometer registered seventy-one degrees below zero, or one hundred and three degrees below freezing. These children of the cold are intelligent, cheerful and ambitious, and were they transported to a warmer clime would yearn after the land of the walrus and seal, unsatisfied with the adjuncts of civilization, but happy in the presence of the northern lights.

It is estimated there are eighteen thousand Eskimos in Alaska. From the western boundary of Alaska to the eastern extremity of Labrador the population is sparse and widely scattered, the total population of Baffin Land numbering little more than one thousand persons. The people are found in small settlements, consisting of from ten or a dozen souls to several hundreds.

There are no marriage customs among these people, except in the settlements where the missionary has gone. The father of a boy chooses a girl to be the wife of his son while yet the interested persons are young, and a gift of a dog, sled, snow-knife, or other useful article is made to the father of the maiden, and they are betrothed. They do not live together until they are grown up, and although the betrothal is a settled matter, it may be broken. When the affianced have arrived at the time considered advisable to begin housekeeping, the young man goes to the house of the maiden and lives with her parents, where as man and wife they live together, the son-in-law helping to support the family. He does not become his own master until the death of his father-in-law, and after erecting his own iglu he may take two or three wives, the first one remaining the mistress of the home. Usually, however, he is contented with one wife; but it is not uncommon for men to exchange wives.

The women tattoo their faces, arms, legs and bodies in different colors, the prevailing color being black. When they reach the age of twelve years the skin is punctured with a needle covered with soot, and the face is especially adorned. Upon the forehead a figure is made, the two lower points beginning from the upper part of the nose, and the figure drawn upward and outward over the forehead until it reaches the hair. Two lines are drawn upon each cheek, from the lower part of the nose upward toward the cheek bone.

The chin ornaments consist of six or eight single or double lines, sometimes fretted, beginning at the corners of the mouth and covering the whole chin. The women exhibit taste in dressing their hair, parting it in the middle, and forming it at the back in the form of a knob, the sides plaited, and held in place with rings made of ivory or brass.

The Eskimo live during the summer in deer-skin tents; in the autumn in wooden huts, imbedded in part in the ground and covered with earth, when they dwell in a section of country where wood is to be found, but during half of the year their place of abode is in the iglu, a symmetrical snow-house, comfortable, though not always agreeable to men accustomed to the benefits of civilised life.

Bishop Bompas, of Mackenzie River, who has long labored among the Indians and Eskimos, thus describes the erection of a snow-house among these people :In building this snow-house the Eskimo shows a wonderful readiness, which I can compare to nothing but the skill of the bee in making its honeycomb. In the Eskimo country the fallen snow on the wide river mouths, after being driven by the wind, becomes caked or frozen, so as to have considerable tenacity, and at the same time it can readily be cut with the knife. The Eskimo then, with this butcher knife, cuts out square blocks of this frozen snow, as it lies on the surface of the river, of the size of ordinary blocks of stone masonry, and with these he builds a house perfectly circular, of the shape of a bee-hive. With no tool but the knife, which is used as a trowel, he works with surprising rapidity, and the whole is arched over without any support from beneath, except, perhaps, a single pole, during the construction. Any architect or mason at home would, I suppose, be astonished to witness the work, and might fail in imitating it, for without line or plummet, and square or measurement, the circular span and arch is exactly preserved, and the whole finished in the space of a single hour."

Dr. Boaz says that it takes two skilled Eskimos two hours to build a snow-house.

Sir John Franklin spoke of the beauty of the Eskimo snow-house as follows: " The purity of the material from which the house is framed, the elegance of its construction, and the transparency of its walls, which transmitted a very pleasant light gave it an appearance far superior to a marble building, and one might survey it with feelings somewhat akin to those produced by the contemplation of a Greek temple reared by Phidias. Both are triumphs of art inimitable in their kinds."

Sometimes these snow-houses are arranged in apartments, with a long passage, and two or three families dwell together.

When the dreary winter passes away, the hardy Eskimo launches his boat, which is called a " kayak," and goes off in search of salmon, which abound in the river, or with his gun he hunts the wild geese, or he may travel long distances to hunt the seal and walrus. In the winter he fits out his sledge, drawn by eight or nine dogs, and armed with knives, guns and harpoons, accompanied by a friend or relative, he travels over the frozen sea in search of bear, seal or walrus. Sometimes he will stand for hours by an air-hole, awaiting the approach of the seal which comes to blow, and cautiously as it approaches he will listen, until he dashes the harpoon into his victim, and if his aim has been good, he will be fortunate in securing it. He is in great danger, however, of being drawn into the hole as the seal rushes away with the harpoon and line, and in his eagerness to get the seal, and fear lest he lose his harpoon, he may hold on too long and be drowned.

An Eskimo Dog.

The Eskimo dogs are intelligent and hardy, well cared for by their owners, and highly prized. When very young they are fed and cared for in the iglu by the mistress of the home, as they play with the children upon the reindeer skins. Fitted with a harness, and guided by the strongest and most intelligent clog, they will speed over the ice at a rapid rate. The leader is proud of his position, and will not allow any interference with his rights. He is reserved toward the rest of the team, and growls when approached by an inferior. He is fed apart from the rest, and is never subjected to any punishment. When the team is called to halt by the driver, the leader slackens his pace, and makes a curve to the right or left, and faces to the rear until the sledge is stopped. The driver carries a whip, with a lash about twenty feet long, and woe to the lazy dog in the team, for instantly he is called by name and whipped into line.

Amid the dangers of travel in that northern land much depends upon the sagacity and speed of the dogs. Lieutenant Schwatka tells of a lost sailor on the ice, after whom was sent a sled with three men and forty of the best dogs in the settlement. Men, women and children stood in front of the team until all were ready, and on the signal being given the crowd parted, the dogs dashed off, and through the fast approaching darkness pressed on until at a distance of ten miles they found the lost man. The whole distance of ten miles was covered in twenty-two minutes and a half, the returning journey being leisurely undertaken.

At one period in the history of Bishop Horden, of Moosonee, that faithful missionary nearly lost his life as he was travelling on the ice on his return journey from Rupert's House. Travelling by night to avoid becoming blind from the glare of the snow, the Bishop and his two young Indian friends made rapid progress until the warm air, indicating rain, compelled them to encamp. A strong cold wind sprang up early in the morning when they started, and swiftly they travelled until ten miles out on the bay, when one of the guides suddenly exclaimed, "What is this! the tide is coming in, and the ice is breaking up." They looked toward the sea and they beheld the moving ice rising and falling in masses, indicating a general break-up. The guide took a small stick which he carried and struck the ice and it broke with the force of the blow. What was to be done ? Ten miles from the nearest land, and the ice breaking up, struck terror to their hearts. There was not a moment to be lost, and the guide shouted, "Get into the cariole at once, and let us hurry back. We may be saved yet!" Instantly the Bishop sprang into the cariole, and they turned to seek safety on the shore from which they had started in the morning. The guide

ESKIMO SNOW VILLAGE.

ran alongside, and as they pressed forward the end of the cariole broke through the ice. It was a race for life. The dogs seemed to scent the danger, and fear lent speed to their limbs. Anxiously and eagerly they rushed on, dreading every moment the breaking up of the ice. At last they reached, in the afternoon, the point from whence they started, and found the Indians delighted to welcome them in safety from the dangers of the angry waters.

The Eskimos make long journeys to visit their friends in other settlements, spending months and sometimes years in a single visit. Their mode of welcome is to rub their noses together, a performance more gratifying to them than to the civilized visitor. The loneliness of the winter is lessened by numerous games in the iglu, and when the weather is favorable they enjoy their sports in the snow.

The boys indulge in reindeer hunting, which is thus described by Lieutenant Schwatka: "Having found a long and gentle slope on a side hill, they place along the bottom of the hill a number of reindeer antlers, or as we sometimes incorrect ly call them, deer-horns (for you boys must not forget that the antlers of a deer are not horn at all, but bone). These antlers of the reindeer are stuck upright in the snow, singly or in groups, in such a manner that a sled, when well-guided, can be run between them without knocking any of them down, the number of open spaces between the groups being equal to at least the number of sleds. The quantity of reindeer antlers they can thus arrange will, of course, depend upon their fathers' success the autumn before in reindeer hunting; but there are nearly always enough antlers to give two or three, and sometimes five or six, to each fearless young coaster. The boys, with their sleds, numbering from four to six in a fair-sized village, gather on the top of the hill, each boy having with him two or three spears, or a bow with as many arrows. They start together, each boy's object being to knock down as many antlers as possible, and not be the first to reach the bottom of the hill. You can see that, in such a case, the slower they go when they are passing the antlers the better. They must knock over the antlers with their spears or arrows only, as those thrown down by sledge or with the bow or spear in the hand do not count. They begin to shoot their arrows and throw their spears as soon as they can get within effective shooting distance, and, even after they have passed between the rows of antlers, the more active boys will turn around on their flying sleds and hurl back a spear or arrow with sufficient force to bring down an antler. When all have reached the bottom of the hill, they return to the rows of antlers, where each boy picks out those he has rightfully captured, and places them in a pile by themselves. Then those accidentally knocked over by the sledges are again put up, and the boys return for another dash down the hill, until all the antlers have been ' speared.' Sometimes there is but one antler left, and when there are five or six contesting sleds, the race becomes very exciting, for then speed counts in reaching the antler first. When all are down, the boys count their winnings, and the victor is, of course, the one who has obtained the greatest number of antlers."

The little children have dolls, toys resembling sleds, arrows, and kayaks.

The Eskimos, like the red men, are inveterate gamblers. Numerous games have they, not the least form of amusement being story-telling, and the singing of songs. The women and children indulge in a game not unlike our rope skipping.

Parry describes this game in the following fashion: " This is performed by two women holding the ends of a line and whirling it regularly round and round, while a third jumps over it in the middle, according to the following order: She commences by jumping twice on both feet, then alternately with the right and left, and next four times with the feet slipped one behind the other, the rope passing once round at each jump. After this she performs a circle on the ground, jumping about half a dozen times in the course of it, which, bringing her to her original position, the same thing is repeated ,os often as it can be done without entangling the line. One or two of the women performed this with considerable agility and adroitness, considering the clumsiness of their boots and jackets, and seemed to pride themselves in some degree on the qualifi-

cation. A second kind of this game eonsists in two women holding a long rope by its ends and whirling it round in such a manner over the heads of two others standing close together, near the middle of the bight, that each of these shall jump over it alternately. The art therefore, which is indeed considerable, depends more on those whirling the rope than on the jumpers, who are, however, obliged to keep exact time in order to be ready for the rope passing under their feet."

The women are very fond of making figures with strings, similar to what our girls do at home. There are games resembling dice and cup and ball, which are played with zest. Dr. Boaz's description of some of these games is so good that I insert it: "A game similar to dice, called tingmiujang—i.e.

ESKIMO SLEDGE.

images of birds—is frequently played. A set of about fifteen figures belong to this game, some representing birds, others men or women. The players sit around a board or a piece of leather, and the figures are shaken in the hand and thrown upward. On falling, some stand upright, others lie flat on the back or on the side. Those standing upright belong to that player whom they face; sometimes they are so thrown that they all belong to the one who tossed them up. The players throw by turns until the last figure is taken up, the one getting the greatest number of the figures being the winner.

"A favorite game is the nuglutang. A small rhomboidal plate of ivory, with a hole in the centre, is hung from the roof, and steadied by a heavy stone or piece of ivory hanging from its lower end. The Eskimos stand around it, and when the winner of the last game gives a signal every one tries to hit the hole with a stick. The one who succeeds has won. This game is always played amid great excitement.

"The Saketan resembles a roulette. A leather cup, with a rounded bottom and a nozzle, is placed on a board and turned round. When it stops the nozzle points to the winner. At present a tin cup, fastened with a nail to a board, is used for the same purpose. Their way of managing the gain and loss is very curious. The first winner in the game must go to his hut and fetch anything he likes as a stake for the next winner;

ESKIMO HAFT.

who, in turn, receives it, but has to bring a new stake in place of this, from his hut. Thus the only one who loses anything is the first winner of the game, while the only one who wins anything is the last winner."

The Eskimo look complacently on death, and await peacefully the dissolution of the body. The young are placed in their graves with their feet toward the rising sun, and the aged m the opposite direction. The deceased is borne to his grave by relatives, who bury him in the ground, if possible, and all the articles belonging to him, except his kayak, gun, dogs, harpoon, and a few others are placed beside his grave. When a woman dies some pots, lamps and knives are placed beside her grave; and in the case of a child, some toys. For three days the relatives must shut themselves up in their hut, where they mourn for the deceased, and then abandon it on the expiration of that time. For some time they must cook their food in a separate pot. When they visit the graves they deposit articles for the use of the dead, and utter their mourning cries.

Stories of cannibalism are told of these people when in a starving condition.

The angakoq, or medicine man, is a man of influence, who is able to keep the people in subjection by means of his incantations and their superstitions. His power is invoked in times of sickness or during a storm. As he enters the hut, uttering some incoherent sounds or speaking the sacred language of the fraternity, the lamps are made to burn low and the people hide themselves behind screens, and seeking the back part of the hut, he removes his outer jacket, and drawing his hood over his head begins his incantations. In the midst of his conjurations he may fall down in a trance, or arouse the spirits to talk with him. He is paid well for his services. Some of these medicine men are skillful, and resort to changes of diet, cleanliness, and moral living as an aid to their incantations.

A merry group may often be seen in the snow hut in the winter evenings, singing songs or telling stories. The story teller turns his face to the wall and then relates with great earnestness some of the numerous tales or fables, while the listeners' eyes glisten with delight, and they shout with joy.

The Supreme Being of the Eskimo is a woman, named Sedna. Hall, the Arctic explorer says : " There is one Supreme Being, called by them Anguta, who created the earth, sea and heavenly bodies. There is also a secondary divinity, a woman, the daughter of Anguta, who is called Sidna. She is supposed to have created all things having life, animal and vegetable. She is regarded also as the protecting divinity of the Innuit people. To her their supplications are addressed ; to her their offerings are made; while most of the religious rites and superstitious observances have reference to her."

Heaven is called the " Uppermost Ones," and is above. All who live virtuous lives, helping the poor and doing good to their fellows and those who are killed by accident or commit suicide go to that happy land when they die. There they will remain forever, in that land where there is no ice or snow, no darkness or storms, but free from trouble, they will hunt the deer and always find delight.

Hell is below us, and has abodes in a descending scale, resembling Dante's " Inferno," where the wicked will remain forever. In that land of eternal darkness there is no sun, and the cold is intense, severe storms, ice, snow and trouble continually, becoming colder as the wicked descend.

Eskimo Kindling Fire.

They have legends of the Man in the Moon, who makes the snow and takes care of orphans; the Three Sisters, who make the thunder, lightning and rain ; and of the Great Flood, when many of the Eskimos were drowned, and a few saved by means of a boat. They believe that men are the descendants of a dog; fish were made from chips of wood; and thunder is made by rubbing a deerskin.

Long ago there lived a powerful Eskimo, a young chief, who was a conjurer, and found nothing impossible to him. He found the earth too small for him, so climbed up to the heavens, where he made the sun by means of a small fire, which he had taken with him. He took along with him his sister, who lived with him for some time in perfect harmony; but quarrels at last arose, and he began to treat her badly. He became angry with her, and scorched her face, which was beautiful, and, unable to bear his insolence any longer, she fled from him, taking some fire, and formed the moon. He pursued; but was unable to overtake her, and he still continues the chase. When it is new moon the burnt side of her face is toward us, and when there is an eclipse he is very near to her; still, he is unable to catch her.

The stars are the spirits of the dead Eskimos, who have fixed themselves in the heavens. Within the stones in the northern land spirits reside, who are propitiated by means of sacrifices, gifts placed beside the stones, and prayers are offered unto them. The Eskimos have religious feasts and dances, and numerous native songs, tales and fables.

Ever since Hans Egede went to Greenland, missions have been in operation among the Eskimos. The Moravian missionaries have the following mission stations in Labrador: Hopedale, Zoar, Nain, Okak, Hebron and Ramah. Nain is the capital of Labrador, and there the missionaries have been laboring for nearly one hundred and fifty years. The genial agent of the Moravian Mission Rooms in Fetter Lane, London, England, showed to me, some years ago, specimens of articles of Eskimo manufacture from these distant stations, which evinced ability. As you enter the mission church you may hear the peals of the ancient-looking organ, and the intelligent congregation of nearly two hundred souls, singing: "There is a Gate that Stands Ajar," which appears in the Eskimo tongue as follows:

The Moravians have now gone to Alaska to labor among the Eskimos.

In the Hudson's Bay territory and away toward the Yukon river the Roman Catholic Church has established missions, where devoted men come in contact with these children of the cold. The Rev. Messrs. Pettitot, Morice, and other devoted men have toiled for years among the Dene Indians and Eskimos. The English Church has sent out faithful men in the persons of Bishops Bompas and Horden and Rev. Mr. Peck, who have devoted their energies for the salvation of this people.

Grammars, dictionaries and a good supply of religious literature is in existence for the Eskimos of Labrador, but the Eskimos of Hudson's Bay have only portions of the Scriptures, prayers and hymns in their language, and these have been prepared chiefly by Mr. Peck.

The natives have shown an aptitude for carving and drawing, which has been used by some of them for enlarging their geographical knowledge of Eskimo land.

A few words from the Eskimo of Hudson's Bay, by Gilder, will conclude this sketch:

The following is the vocabulary of John Davis, which he collected during his residence among the Eskimos in 1586:

THE SIOUX INDIANS.

The Sioux or Dakota Indians comprise a very large confederacy of tribes widely scattered over the United States and the Canadian North-West.

The meaning of Dakota, the name which in general they give to themselves is, "Our Friends," or "Associated as Comrades," signifying their relationship as tribes. They repudiate the name by which they are known among the white people. Sioux is to them a term significant of enmity, as it means "enemies" or "hated foes," and this no doubt is the name by which they are known among the Indian tribes foreign to themselves, as they are called generally by their enemies " Cut-throats," and in the sign language, when speaking of these people, the Algonquin family draw the finger of the right hand across the throat. The Ojibways called the Sioux Nadowessi, a contemptuous term for " rattlesnake/' and after adding the French plural form to the word, it was cut down by the trappers and voyageurs to Sioux. These people were known as the Dakota family or Confederacy, but this has been changed to the Siouan family, as the earliest name by which they were known was Sioux.

The tribes and bands belonging to this confederacy are numerous, some of which are known by different names, not always correct, as travellers and students fell into error, or chose to call them by some distinctive appellation. In order to show the power of the confederacy, without certifying to the accuracy of the names in every particular, I will give the names of some of the tribes and bands by which they became known.

The Siouan family comprises the Sioux or Dakotas proper, the Tetons or Sansarc, the Santees, subdivided into the WahJ peton or Men among Leaves, and the Sisseton or Men of Prairie Marsh, the Missouris, Omahas, Ponkas, Osages, Otas or Wah-toktata, the Tutelos, Stoneys or Assiniboines, Minnitaris or Hidatsas, also called (Jros Ventres, the Kansas or Kaws, Crows or Upsarokas, Iowas, Mandans or Wahtanis, Quapaws, Biloxi, Brule or Burnt Hip, Oglalas, Winnebagos, Uncpapa, Minne-cowjous, Blackfoot Sioux, Yankton or Yanktonais, Two Kettle Sioux, Arickarees or Rees, Sacs, and Foxes.

There are small bands of Sioux located in Manitoba and the North-West Territories, some of whom are resident upon Reserves, but are not treaty Indians, and a few United States refugee Sioux, who are stragglers in the vicinity of the towns. There are none of these people resident in the Dominion outside of Manitoba and the North-West. They are to be found as stragglers* around Portage la Prairie, Regina, Moose Jaw, Maple Creek, Swift Current, Medicine Hat and Birtle. Those resident upon Reserves, but fire not treaty Indians, are located at Bird Tail Creek, Oak River, Oak Lake, Turtle Mountain, Qu'Appelle Lakes, Moose Woods, and Prince Albert. The Sioux population in Canada, not including the Stoney or Assiniboine Indians who are not classed above, is between one and two thousand.

A century ago the Sioux pursued the Crees to the borders of Southern Manitoba, and since then have roamed over Minnesota and Dakota, until they were located on Reservations. No great influx reached Manitoba or the North-West until the Minnesota Massacre and the defeat of Custer and his troops. Refugees found a home in British territory, and sought the influence of the Canadian Government to aid them in gaining a livelihood. They were not encouraged to remain, but when they had determined to make their home in Canada, and desired the protection of the Government they were allowed Reservations, and assisted to maintain themselves as farmers, without making a treaty with them.

Physically they are a dignified race, whose form and features may be known from their typical chief, Sitting Bull, as he appeared at Fort Walsh.

"Sitting Bull is about five feet ten inches in height. He wore a black and white calico shirt, black cloth leggings, magnificently embroidered with beads and porcupine quills. He held in his hand a fox-skin cap, its brush drooping to his feet, with the grace of a natural gentleman he removed it from his head at the threshold of the audience tent. His long black hair hung far down his back, athwart his cheeks, and in front of his shoulders. His eyes gleamed like black diamonds. His visage, devoid of paint, was noble and commanding; nay, it was somewhat more. Besides the Indian character given to it by high cheek bones, a broad retreating forehead, a prominent aquiline nose, there was about the mouth something of beauty, but more of an expression of exquisite and cruel irony."

Their dress consisted of the general Indian styles, each tribe, however, being distinguished by its own form of moccasins, and some of them were even known by their mode of walking, pointing the toes inward or outward, or placing the feet firmly upon the ground The tribes painted their faces in various styles in times of war, or at sacred feasts, according to their tribes. Even the hair, of which the male members of the tribes were very proud, was dressed in its own fashion, a distinguishing feature of each tribe.

The Sioux Indian mother ties her baby's feet together between pieces of wood, to give them the shape necessary for following the mode of walking peculiar to the tribe. The moccasins reveal the tribe to which the wearer belongs by the shape of the sole and the number of tags fastened behind. So careful are the natives to remove any superfluous hair about the face, that they use tweezers for plucking it out by the roots, and when they desire to remove it from the sides of the head, they do so by running a hot stone over the parts. Before the introduction of mirrors, they used a clear stream for dressing themselves, and this custom is preserved in the name given to a looking-glass, which means, "He peeped into the water at himself."

Sitting Bull

When Catlin, the artist, travelled among the Indians, he found the Sioux a fine-looking body of men, well dressed in their deerskin garments, a noble type of nature's gentlemen. He has preserved for us in his striking portraits of some of the chiefs and warriors the intelligence and force of will depicted on their countenances, their taste displayed in their features, and their dignified mien in their standing and sitting attitudes.

His account of Shoodegacha, a Ponka chief, whose portrait he painted, is full of interest. "The chief, who was wrapped in a buffalo robe, is a noble specimen of native dignity and philosophy. I conversed much with him, and from his dignified manners, as well as from the soundness of his reasoning, I became fully convinced that he deserved to be the sachem of a more numerous and prosperous tribe. He related to me, with great coolness and frankness, the poverty and distress of his nation; and, with the method of a philosopher, predicted the certain and rapid extinction of his tribe, which he had not the power to avert. Poor, noble chief, who was equal to and worthy of a greater empire ! He sat on the deck of the steamer, overlooking the little cluster of his wigwams mingled among the trees, and, like Caius Marius weeping over the ruins of Carthage, shed tears as he was descanting on the poverty of his ill-fated little community, which he told me had once been powerful and happy. That the buffaloes which the Great Spirit had given them for food, and which formerly spread all over their green prairies, had all been killed or driven out by the approach of the white men, who wanted their skins; that their country was now entirely destitute of game, and even of roots for food, as it was one continuous prairie ; and that his young men, penetrating the countries of their enemies for buffaloes, which they were obliged to do, were cut to pieces and destroyed in great numbers. That his people had foolishly become fond of fire-water, and had given away everything in their country for it; that it had destroyed many of his warriors, and would soon destroy the rest; that his tribe was too small and his warriors too few to go to war with the tribes around them; that they were met and killed by the Sioux on the north, by the Pawnees on the west, by the Osages and Konzas on the south, and still more alarmed from the constant advance of the pale-faces—their enemies from the east—with whiskey and small-pox, which already had destroyed four-fifths of his tribe, and would soon impoverish and at last destroy the remainder of them. In this way did this shrewd philosopher lament over the unlucky destiny of his tribe, and I pitied him with all my heart." The Ponkas, according to the testimony of Lewis and Clarke, at one time resided on a branch of the Red River and Lake Winnipeg. The beautiful buffalo-skin lodges of the Sioux, covered with picture writing, so full of interest to those who can read the story of the master of the lodge in these strange characters, are now replaced with small lodges of duck or cotton, among the straggling Indians of the west, and houses on the Reservation. Good houses are erected on the Reserve near Birtle, and at the Moose Wood's Reserve, near Saskatoon. The buffalo was the staple food of these people, but since they have disappeared they are following the customs of the white people in their choice of food. During the winter of 1881, when the buffaloes on the River Missouri were returning to the Chinook region of Southern Alberta, the Crow and other Sioux Indian tribes set the prairie on fire, and the herds were driven southward toward the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers, where they were corralled by the Indians and white people and exterminated.

Frequent visits made to the Sioux camp at Moose Jaw brought me into contact with these people, whom I found industrious even in their unsettled condition, the women working in the town at whatever they could find as washerwomen, and the men splitting and sawing wood, or helping occasionally on the farms during harvest.

Along the line of railroad a precarious livelihood is obtained by them, in polishing buffalo horns and making moccasins, which they sell to the travelling public. The children are happy in their poverty, scantily clad, yet full of joy when they are sporting in the water, or playing at spinning top.

As the white traveller passes by their camp, the women and children seek their lodges, and peep through the holes at the stranger, and talk about him among themselves. Ask one of them his name, and he will turn to another of his friends to answer in his place. An aged chief was accustomed to spend much of his time around the stores, delighting to relate the story of his adventures and the exploits of his tribe. A genial old man was he, and yet, despite the familiarity of the two races, there was great fear manifested by some of the white people during the progress of the second Riel Rebellion, lest they should join the rebels.

The sad wails which I have heard in the Sioux camp when some little child has died has told more impressively than words could do, the depths and intensity of the mother's love. No hand is ever lifted to correct the children, and yet they are obedient to the instructions of their superiors.

The women dress in the same fashion as the other Indian tribes in the West; yet the practised eye can tell by the style of painting the face and the features, especially when they let fall a word or two of their language, the tribe to which they belong.

Polygamy has been and is still practised among them, though it is fast passing away. The girls marry when they are young, and they are sought after by the young men, who have their own method of courtship. The tribes of the Confederacy have different customs of courtship. A young man may require the services of his parents to aid him in making presents and arranging the marriage with the parents of the girl. They have no marriage ceremony, but live together as man and wife, after all the arrangements between the interested parties have been made.

The Sioux have ever been -noted as warriors, having been designated as the tigers of the plains. The young man is therefore desirous of distinguishing himself by securing the scalp of an enemy, which raises him in the estimation of his tribe, and ensures him a place of honor among his people. When they go out on the warpath, they blacken their faces, hold a feast, at which they make speeches, declaring what they will do, and strike at imaginary foes. As they sing and dance within the lodge, they incite each other by their speeches, and under the influence of the excitement go to war.

Colonel Mallery, in his monograph on the " Pictographs of the American Indians," gives a striking sketch of the Dakota Count, which consists of the history of the leading events of the Sioux for the past fifty years, made by means of picture writing, and in this their battles have a leading place.

After the Sioux war, when Custer and his men were slain, Sitting Bull and his tribe fled to Canadian territory, and spent some time at Fort Walsh, one of the posts of the North-West Mounted Police. Some of the Sioux, in 1862, fled after the Minnesota massacre to Manitoba, and located at Sturgeon Creek, about six miles from Winnipeg. The Governor and Council of Assiniboia, at that time governed the Province of Assiniboia under the Hudson's Bay Company, and Mr. Dallas, the Governor-in-Chief, reported to the Council that he had visited the Sioux camp, and found about five hundred men, women and children, who were in great destitution, and after consultation with Governor McTavish, he had offered them provisions to enable them to remove to such a distance from Fort Garry as would free the settlers from any fear of danger, and provisions would be conveyed to them, along with ammunition, as would enable them to secure game, and thus support themselves. They refused to go, urging their inability to remove the old men, women and children in the winter. The Council supplied the means of transit, and they were conveyed to the White Horse Plains, distant from Fort Garry twenty miles. They were supplied with provisions, but 110 ammunition.

The United States authorities applied to the Governor-in-Chief of Rupert's Land and the North-West Territories, and received permission to enter Canadian territory to compel the Sioux to return to the United States, with the intention of punishing the leaders in the massacre, and giving the assurance that all others would be dealt with in a kindly manner. The troops never came, and the Sioux were allowed to remain unmolested.

In the summer of I860 a band of Sioux came from the United States to visit their friends in the Red River Settlement, and as they were leaving quietly with a number of Saulteaux, they were attacked by a band of Red Lake Saulteaux from the United States, about a mile from Fort Garry, and five of the Sioux were slain. Fearing an outbreak, the Council authorized the formation of a mounted military force of from fifty to one hundred settlers to insure peace, but their services were not required, as the hostilities were not renewed.

The United States authorities again renewed negotiations to induce the Sioux to return to their own territory, and the Council sought to secure their consent to return, offering them the means of transit, but they refused to return, and no further efforts were made to have them removed from the country.

When the Province of Manitoba was formed, the Sioux were camped in the parishes of Poplar Point, High Bluff, and Portage la Prairie, and some had gone further west into the NorthWest Territories. They were quietly disposed, and became useful helpers to the settlers. Several times they sent deputations to the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Manitoba requesting the granting of Reservations, where they might live peaceably and receive assistance in securing agricultural implements to enable them to farm. A Reservation was proposed to them on Lake Manitoba, but they were afraid of a renewed conflict with the Red Lake Saulteaux, and were, therefore, unwilling to go there. In 1874 a Reservation on the Assini-boine River, at Oak River, and another at Bird Tail Creek were illotted them, and the Sioux scattered throughout Manitoba ivere removed to them. In 1876 a band of Sioux, living in the listrict of Qu'Appelle, sent a deputation of their chiefs to see Lieutenant-Governor Morris and the Hon. Mr. Laird at Qu'Appelle, asking for a Reservation, and in 1877 another band )f Sioux at the Turtle Mountains sent two deputations to ask tor a Reserve in the locality where they were camped. A Reservation was allotted them near Oak Lake, about fifty miles lorth of Turtle Mountains.

The Sioux in Canada have lived peaceably and worked hard, remaining loyal to the authorities, and during all the time they have resided in the country there has been only one grave offence committed, the putting to death of one of their number according to their own laws. The perpetrators of the deed escaped, and there was no further trouble.

The aged Saulteaux chief, Kouchroche, aided by messengers from the Government, visited the Sioux, and the enmity between these tribes was buried. The American Sioux sought to enlist the Canadian Sioux in the war with the United States Government, but they steadily refused, and did not in the least aid the rebels.

In 1877 Sitting Bull and his tribe fled to Canada, and much uneasiness arose among the Canadian people at their presence | in the North-West. Major Crozier, commanding Fort Walsh, dealt firmly with Sitting Bull, and, along with Lieutenant-Colonel Macleod, maintained peace. The American Commissioners visited Fort Walsh, under an escort from the Mounted Police, and treated with the famous Indian chief, who refused to return to the United States.

The chief recounted, in one of his speeches before the commissioners, the troubles which had been brought upon his people, blaming the white people as the cause of all the depredations he had committed. After stating the reason for coming to Canada, he said:

"You have got ears, and you have got eyes to see with them, and you see how I live with these people. You see me. Here I am. If you think I am a fool, you are a bigger fool than I am. This house is a medicine house. You come here to tell us lies, but we don't want to hear them. I don't wish any such language used to me—that is, to tell me lies in my Great Mother's house. This country is mine, and I intend to stay here and to raise this country full of grown people. See these people here. We were raised with them."

He shook hands with the Canadian officers, and then closed his speech with a touch of humor—" I wish you to go back, and to take it easy going back."

At this conference a Santee chief said, "I will be at peace with these people as long as I live. This country is ours. We did not give it to you. You stole it away from us. You have come over here to tell us lies, and I don't propose to talk much, and that is all I have to say. I want you to take it easy going home. Don't go in a rush."

An Indian woman, named " The One that Speaks Once," said: "I was over at your country, I wanted to raise my children there, but you did not give me any time. I came over to this country to raise my children and have a little peace. That is all I have to say to you; I want you to go back where you came from. These are the people that I am going to stay with, and raise my children with."

An Indian, named "The Crow," spoke boldly to the commissioners of the Canadians, adding: "These people that don't hide anything, they are all the people I like."

The hatred of the Sioux toward the American soldiers was described by him in a few sentences. "Sixty-four years ago I shook hands with the soldiers, and ever since that I have had hardships. I made peace with them, and ever since then I have been running from one place to another to keep out of their way."

After Sitting Bull had contemptuously rejected the offers of the American commissioners, he made an unqualified submission to the terms proposed by the Canadian officers, which has been preserved for us by one who was present.

"My friend, and all the Queen's men whom I so .respect: I have heard of your talk. I knew you would speak to me in this way. Nobody told me. I just knew it. It is right. I came to you, in the first place, because I was being hard driven by the Americans. They broke their treaties with my people, and when I rose up and fought, not against them, but for our rights, as the first people on this part of the earth, they pursued me like a dog, and would have hung me to a tree. They are not just. They drive us into war, and then seek to punish us for lighting. That is not honest. The Queen would not do that. Long ago, when I was a boy, I heard of the Queen, now my Great Mother. I heard that she was just and good, now I know it. You gave me shelter when I was hard pressed. My own life is dear to me, but I did not value it when I fought the Americans, but I did value the life of my nation. Therefore, I brought my people to you. I do thank you for what you have done for them. I will go to the Red River and be at peace. Tell the Queen that. Tell her I will be a good man, that my people will be good. Tell her also that we never were bad, for she knows it is not wrong to fight for life. My people are weary and sick. I will take them to Red Deer River; and now I declare to you that I will not make trouble or annoy you, or give pain to the Queen. I will be quiet. I will never light on your soil unless you ask me to help you, then I will fight. I wish you good. Good-bye. Place me where you like. I will be at peace in Canada. But you who are brave soldiers and not treaty-breakers, thieves and murderers, you would think me a coward if I did not die fighting the Americans. Therefore while I go to the river of the Red Deer now to live at peace, I will come back when my braves are strong; or if they will not eome with me, I will come alone and fight the Americans until death. You I love and respect; them I hate; and you, Queen's soldiers, would despise me if I did not hate them. That is all. I am ready to go with you to the Red Deer river."

The Sioux under Sitting Bull ultimately left Canada and submitted to the American Government. Since that time we have not been molested by any Sioux from the United States, and the Canadian Sioux have devoted themselves to their farming operations on the Reservations. Having spent so much of their time in warlike operations, they admired bravery whenever manifested, even in the person of an enemy.

The Blood Indians relate the story of one of their young men who was desirous of distinguishing himself in war, and the opportunity of joining a small war party having come, he united with it and started on the warpath. The Bloods journeyed southward for several days, until they saw encamped in a valley a large band of Sioux, so formidable in appearance that their courage departed, and they resolved to return home. This young man determined to remain, and refused to follow his companions, who failed to persuade him to accompany them. With fears for his safety, the war party left him, and turned their faces toward home. Our youthful warrior loosened his horse, struck him with his whip, and sent him home. He hid himself until darkness rested upon the prairie, and the Sioux were fast asleep. Creeping slowly into the camp, he sought out the lodge of the chief, where a noble-looking horse was fastened in readiness for any emergency. Entering quietly he sat down by the fire, ate heartily from the contents of a pot which hung upon a tripod, and after satisfying himself, unloosed his moccasin, and left it where he sat. Leaving the lodge, he cut the horse loose which stood near by, sprang upon his back, shouted the war-cry and fled. The whole camp was roused.

The young men sprang upon their horses and followed him, but he had one of the best horses in the camp, and far ahead he rode from his pursuers. The Sioux gave up the chase reluctantly, and returned full of admiration for the young brave who had dared to perform such a feat. As they recited the heroism of the young man, whose nationality they learned from the moccasin left in the lodge, they said that such a man was too good and brave to be killed, and were they able to capture him, they would make him a chief.

The Sioux are inveterate gamblers, and in many of their forms of amusement they will join, until they have nothing left. Horse racing and card playing they frequently indulge in, spending their evenings in the lodges in the latter form of amusement. They have numerous dances, most of which are expressive of sacred things. Dancing societies exist amongst them, the members of which perform the dancing in connection with the dances.

Dr. Owen Dorsey divides the dancing societies into three classes, those which are sacred, including those connected with the practice of medicine; those connected with bravery and war; and those merely for social pleasure. Sometimes they dance when a patient recovers, or when they are going on the warpath. When any of the warriors have been slain, they sometimes place them in a sitting posture with a rattle of deer's claws fastened to one arm, and dance over their bodies. The men dance alone in their feasts, and the women have dancing societies by themselves. They have their sacred tents with men to look after them, and sacred pipes with their keepers. They are a religious people, praying to the Great Spirit, and looking unto him for help in their hunting or war expeditions, and holding many things sacred to their religion. Of course their ideas on religious matters differ from those of the white people, yet they are sincere in their devotion. Numerous sacred festivals have they, including the sun dance, similar to that of the Blackfeet. They have myths of the creation of the world, the origin of man, the flood, and the coming of a Redeemer.

During the spring of 1888, the son of the Sioux chief of the band of Moose Jaw died, and the deceased was placed in a coffin covered with red cloth and deposited upon a platform raised about ten feet in the air, on four stout poles. When the body was placed on the platform, a horse belonging to the deceased was tied by the tail to one of the posts, and shot. I saw the bones of the animal under the scaffold, the dogs having eaten the flesh. A large and a small coffin, trimmed alike, were lying on the scaffold. The medicine man's drum has often sounded in my ears, and the drum and songs of the gamblers have reminded me of the days spent among the Blackfeet. One of the last raids made by the American Sioux in Manitoba was in the vicinity of Pilot Mound, before that portion of the country was settled by the white people, when they attacked the Delorme half-breed settlement and killed several persons, besides stealing their horses.

When the Sioux settled upon their Reservations, some of them were anxious to have a missionary reside amongst them.

Among the Canadian Sioux were some who had been Church members of the Sioux mission, under the care of Rev. Dr. John P. Williamson and Dr. S. R. Riggs. One of them was Wamde-okeya (Eagle Help), who had been Dr. Riggs' helper in his Dakota translations. These isolated native Christians corresponded with their old friends in the south, and their appeal was placed before the Presbyterian Board by Dr. Williamson, and an appropriation was made to send a native preacher among the Canadian Sioux. Solomon Toonkanshaecheye, an ordained native pastor, who was an efficient worker and had relatives in Canada, was sent in June, 1875, accompanied by Samuel Hopkins, as his assistant. They began their labors among the Sioux at Bird-Tail Creek, and travelled among the scattered bands. Owing to the poverty of the people, these two devoted men, after laboring with success for a few months, were compelled to return to the United States.

In the month of March, Henok Appearing Cloud, one of the Canadian Sioux, wrote that he had taught school during the winter and preached among the people. So great was the desire for a missionary by these people that Henok wrote: " Although I am poor and often starving, I keep my heart just as though I were rich. When I read again in the Sacred Book what Jesus the Lord has promised us, my heart is glad. I am thinking if the minister will only come this summer and stay with us a little while, our hearts will rejoice. If he comes to stay with us for a long time, we will rejoice more. But as we are so often in a starving condition, I know it will be hard for anyone to come."

The Rev. Dr. John Black, of Kildonan, heard of the strong desire of the Canadian Sioux to have a missionary, and becoming deeply interested in them, wrote to Dr. Williamson, proposing that the Presbyterian Board in Canada assume the responsibility of caring for them. Dr. Black's overtures were not entertained by the Missionary Committee, but the following year the mission was undertaken, so that in the month of October, 1877, Solomon set out for his mission at the Bird-Tail Creek Reserve.

In the summer of 1879, Solomon reported a church organized, with thirteen members, which they named Middle Hill. Solomon and Henok made a missionary tour among the scattered settlements of Sioux in Canada. They visited the people, preaching and praying, and were cheered with the results of their tour, though they met with some opposition. The church prospered under Solomon's care. Some of the people died rejoicing in the truth of the Gospel.

The missionary relates the story of the death of his son, aged seven years, in a pathetic strain: "From the time he could hear me speak I have endeavored to train him up in all gentleness and obedience, in truth and in peace. Now, for two years in this country he has been my little helper. When some could not say their letters, he taught them. He also taught them to pray, and when any were told to repeat the commandments, and were ashamed to do so, he repeated them first, for he remembered them all. Hence, I was very much attached to him. But this last winter he was taken sick, and from the first it seemed that he would not get well. But while he lived it was possible to help him, and so we did to the extent of our ability. He failed gradually. He was a long time sick. But he was not afraid to die. He often prayed. When he was dying, but quite conscious of everything that took place, then he prayed, and we listened. He repeated the prayer of the Lord Jesus audibly to the end. That was the last voice we heard from him. Perhaps when our time comes, and they come for us to climb up to the hill of the mountain of Jehovah, then we think we shall hear his new voice. Therefore, although we are sad, we do not cry immoderately."

Solomon labored faithfully for some years with great success, not only on the Reserve, but as far west as Moose Jaw, and then returned home to die. He has gone, but the work still continues.

The English Church commenced a mission upon the Reserve at Oak River, near Griswold. This was begun shortly after the Indians located upon the Reserve.

Some years ago I had the pleasure of visiting the Sioux school at Portage La Prairie, supported chiefly by the enterprise of the ladies of the town. The children were intelligent, and sang for their visitors very sweetly some hymns, in their own tongue. A school is maintained by the Presbyterians among the Sioux at Prince Albert, and a good work is being carried on in connection with the Methodist Mission at the Moose Wood's Reserve, near Saskatoon.

The Canadian Sioux are making progress in the art of agriculture, and advancing in civilization. The picture writing and sign language of these people present features of great interest, exhibiting intellectual power and taste.

The language of the Siouan family has several dialects. So extensive is the language, that Dr. Riggs' dictionary contains sixteen thousand words. It is a melodious tongue, has nearly one hundred primitive verbal roots, numerous separate and incorporate prepositions, three conjugations of the verb; three numbers, singular, dual and plural; three moods, indicative, infinative and imperative; and two tenses, the indefinite and future. There are several forms of the verb, named by Dr. Riggs, the frequentative, absolute, possessive, reflexive and dative, with other numerous forms. A single verb, conjugated, will show in its modifications more than five hundred changes.

The following words were collected in the lodges of the Sioux at Moose Jaw, as I visited them in the summer of 1890:

There is an extensive literature in the Sioux language, comprising the Bible, hymn-books, catechisms, " Pilgrim's Progress/' grammars, dictionaries, vocabularies, and a newspaper, called the Word-Carrier. These belong to the American Sioux, but some of them are in use among the Canadian Sioux. Canada may well feel proud of the fact, that these aliens have ever been faithful. The late Sioux war cost the United States two million dollars, besides much anxiety and vexation, but the policy of the Canadians towards the Sioux has been to treat them justly, asking from them loyalty to the Government, and an earnest endeavor to labor for the welfare of their race.

THE MICMAC INDIANS.

In the summer of 1534, as Jacques Cartier and his associates were in search for a passage to the Indies, after having discovered Miramichi Bay, they were surrounded by a large number of canoes, containing several hundred people, who caused them so much annoyance, and foreboded danger, that the noble Frenchman was compelled to fire his cannon among them so as to disperse them. These were the Micmac Indians, a hardy coast tribe of red men, who found a livelihood in the summer as fisher-folk, and in the winter repaired to the interior, where they hunted the animals which roamed the forests during those early years in Eastern Canada.

Jacques Cartier met these people again upon the mainland after his encounter with them in their canoes, and propitiated their chief by the gift of a red hat—a precious thing always in the eyes of a Canadian red man.

These Micmacs, sometimes spelled "Mikmaks," are supposed by some students of Micmac history to be related to the lost tribe of Beothuks, who formerly dwelt in Newfoundland, and of whom very little is known. The strongest evidence from the difference of language points to a hatred of each other, ending in the destruction of the Beothuks. From an examination of their mythology, Leland concludes that the Micmacs and Norsemen came in contact with each other in the prehistoric times of Canada, for in the old Norse legends there is to be found much in common with the Micmac.

Not far distant from their home were to be seen the Eskimo of Labrador, and this coast tribe of red men, in their hunting expeditions, met the hardy children of the cold, who have left the impress of their associations with them, in the stories which still linger in the memories of the aged men, and in their traditions there abides the record of a visit of some Eskimos to the land of the Micmacs.

These people belong to the great Algonquin family, comprising one of the largest divisions of the red men on the continent. The Micmac, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Abnaki, and Malicete Indians call themselves the Wabanaki, which means the "People who Live in the East," or near to the rising sun.

In the maps of the eighteenth century the Micmacs are located in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, while in the early records of missionaries they were found along the coast from Nova Scotia to Gaspe, and within the interior of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland.

In the Micmac traditions we learn that before there were any white men in the country a young woman, belonging to the tribe, had a singular dream of a small island floating toward the land with tall trees upon it and human beings, and a young man dressed in rabbit-skin garments.

The wise men of the tribe were unable to interpret the young woman's dream, but next day the people saw an island float toward the land and become stationary, having trees upon it, with bears in the branches. They seized their bows and arrows and rushed toward the shore, when they found a ship, and instead of bears on trees, men were climbing the rigging of the vessel. A canoe was lowered into the water, and several men sprang into it, having with them a man dressed in white garments, who was paddled to the shore, and went among the people speaking a strange language, but evincing by his manner his desire to be on friendly terms.

This was a priest who had come to teach them a new religion, and though the people listened to the truths he taught, the wise men opposed him, for the dream had been given to a woman, and not to a wise man.

Since the advent of the sailors with their strange ways, the white people have mingled with the Wabanaki until the present day, sometimes on friendly terms and sometimes in war.

Within the Dominion there are about four thousand Micmacs. In 1890 there were in the provinces as follows: Quebec, six hundred and twenty; Nova Scotia, two thousand and seventy-six; New Brunswick, eight hundred and thirty-nine ; Prince Edward Island, three hundred and fourteen, and a few in Newfoundland.

Dressed in the garments of primitive people, and armed with bows and arrows, they contrived to maintain themselves by the products of the sea and forest, wandering from place to place, and locating for a short period when successful in their hunt. The old-time native costume, usually worn by Indians, was kept up among the Micmacs until within the past two or three decades, but at the present day, only a few old women are to be found wearing the old-fashioned head and shoulder gear.

As the. tribe is scattered over the eastern provinces there exist difficulties in their attempts to become self-supporting, and variety as to their work. They are engaged chiefly in farming and fishing. In some places, especially on the west coast of Newfoundland, their services are sought as guides, whereas on the Lennox Island Reserve they manage to eke out a precarious living by means of the prolific oyster beds, and the

Jim Globe, the MicMac Hunter

manufacture of Indian goods, which, they sell in the towns within easy travelling distance from their home.

The Micmacs, despite their hard fare, were liappy in their poverty, singing and dancing with great glee when nature smiled upon them. Upon the rocks of Nova Scotia may still be seen the pictographs of the Micmacs, and amongst, these may be noticed the elaborate masks worn by them in their dances. They have among their dances one called the " snake dance," which, in the early history of the people, had no doubt a religious significance, but has been lost. This dance is generally performed with other dances, and is known by the tortuous performances of the dancers, resembling the motions of a snake. Another significant dance is called the " trade dance," from the fact that the dancer repairs to the lodge of a friend, and before entering sings a song. Singing his song the man enters the lodge, dancing and looking around, fixes his eyes upon something he desires, and pointing to it, offers a price for it. The owner of the article must sell this article or something else of equal value.

Tlie language of the Micmacs belongs to the Algonquin stock of language. It was first reduced to writing by the Recollet missionaries who dwelt among the people. When Biard, the Jesuit missionary, was living in the Micmac camp in 1611, he struggled hard to master the language, but found it lacking in many terms needful to enable him to express religious ideas. Bribing an Indian by a mouldy biscuit he sought to know the Micmac equivalents for faith, hope, charity, sacrament, baptism, and other religious terms, and with the result, as Parkman tells us, that the Indian amused himself by giving unto him unseemly words. When the missionary used these in his teaching and his Indian catechism, the effect was ludicrous, and tended not to the elevation of their minds and the growth of piety.

In 1655, Chretien Leclercq, a member of the Hecollet Order of Franciscans, was sent to Canada as a missionary, and for six years he labored among the Indians along the coast of the Island of Gaspe. During the second' year of his residence among the Gaspesians, he determined to devise some easy method for teaching the people to read. Little progress had been made under the old system of using Roman characters, and by simply memorizing the prayers taught them by the missionary, the people had not been greatly enlightened. Observing some children making marks on a piece of birch bark, and after repeating a word of a prayer, pointing to the mark representing this word, the missionary thought that he might prepare such a system as would be easy for them to learn to read. Accordingly he prepared a system of hieroglyphics, which enabled the Micmacs to learn the prayers in a short time, and this syllabary, Leclercq said, was prized so much by the people that they preserved their papers in neat bark cases adorned with wampum, beads and porcupine quills. This Micmac syllabic system is still in use. This system has been used extensively by the Roman Catholic missionaries in the preparation of religious works for the Micmacs, but the Rev. Dr. S. T. Rand, who was an eminent scholar of the Micmac and kindred languages, discarded its use, .believing that it hindered the people in their progress in civilization. Several grammars and vocabularies have been prepared in the Micmac, and Dr. Rand completed a Micmac dictionary of forty thousand words.

Grammars and vocabularies in manuscript by various authors remain in the possession of individuals, or in libraries, especially in that of the Archbishopric of Quebec. The Abbe Maillard prepared a grammar of the Micmac and other works relating to the customs of the people, or as religious helps. The most able linguist, however, was Dr. Rand, who spent over forty years among the Micmacs, laboring as a missionary, studying their language, mythology and early history, and writing numerous works upon the Micmac tongue. He speaks of singing hymns in the mellifluous Micmac tongue, which is endless in its compounds and grammatical changes, and utterly incapable of being represented by signs. Micmac words become Anglicised, like those of other Indian languages, so that they become almost unrecognizable. As in the word Cadie or Ivady-Quoddy, which simply means a " place or region," and is used in conjunction with some other noun, as Sunakady, the place of cranberries, and Pestumo-quoddy, the place of pollacks. Upon the rocks of New Brunswick and the State of Maine there have been discovered Micmac inscriptions, some of which antedate the advent of the white man, and others show the influence of the teaching of the missionaries. Colonel Mallery says these rock inscriptions can best be interpreted by means of the sign language, but as the Micmacs do. not now use this form of speech, the gestures of the other members of the Algonquin family must be applied to their interpretation. Aboriginal figures of fishes, whales, wigwams, native animals, with sketches of modem things, have been found; and Colonel Mallery was fortunate in securing impressions of a five-pointed star, an animal supposed to be a bear, an aboriginal head and bust, a very artistic moose, and a clustre of three trees, separated at the roots, conjectured to signify the first, second and third chiefs of the tribe.

During the struggle in Acadia the Micmacs were instigated by the French priest Le Loutre to light against the English, and so determined were they to assist the French that the English were compelled to retire. They fought with great valor against their Mohawk foes, who came down upon them in great numbers. Strange tales are told of the hated Iroquois and the Micmacs in the days of war. In the quiet harbor of the picturesque village of Bie, and not far distant from Cacouna, lies L'lslet an Massacre, washed by the waters of the St. Lawrence. The centuries have come and gone since a band of three hundred Micmac men, women and children, fleeing in their canoes from the blood-thirsty Iroquois, sought, amid the darkness and the storm, rest for their weary limbs within the dark recesses of the cave upon the barren Islet beside the village of Bic. Soundly they slept, heedless, because unsuspicious, of the knowledge their foes had of the course they had taken. Guards there were none to keep a sharp look-out for the enemy, for who could find their way to this rocky speck by the sea on such a stormy night. Having dragged their boats up the steep cliffs and hidden them in the rocky recesses, daring would be the foe who would risk his life to explore this rock on such a stormy night. Asleep upon the rocky floor, secure from all alarm, the night wore on, when the Micmac warriors were aroused from their slumbers by the war-cries of the Iroquois, and the shrieks of their wounded friends.

Driven from their rocky retreat, the poisoned arrows found sure lodgment in the bodies of the Micmacs, and soon, amid the cries of the dying and the wailing of the storm, the bloody work was done. When the sun rose, five timid Micmac warriors, the last of that noble band, cautiously surveyed the scene. The bodies of their comrades lay in pools of blood, their scalps taken to grace the lodges of the Iroquois. Assured of the departure of the enemy, they sought and found some canoes which remained unharmed, and in them they sought the settlement at Bic, to relate to deeply-interested listeners the massacre of their friends. Such a tale seemed incredible, and the doubting-ones sought the Islet to certify the truthfulness of the story-which had filled their ears. Alas ! it was too true. The Islet bore traces of a terrible struggle, and all around lay the bodies-of the Micmac dead. The quaint villagers of Bic tell, with striking emphasis, the story of LTslet au Massacre, the departure* of the lonely Micmac survivors, the weird cries heard, and the strange spectres seen by their forefathers, as they gazed upon the Islet on stormy nights.

The legends of the Micmacs have furnished an interesting-field for numerous explorers. Dr. S. T. Rand collected nearly one hundred Micmac tales. Charles G. Leland has written an interesting work, "The Algonquin Legends." Edward Jack, of Frederickton, has assiduously gathered many legends from the Micmacs, and other workers among the same tribe have treasured tales of these people worthy of preservation. The Indian tribes have each a distinctive culture-hero, as Hiawatha among the Six Nations, the Old Man of the Blackfoots, and Glooscap of the Micmacs. The Blackfoot Old Man and the Micmac Glooscap performed noble and ignoble deeds, ruled as giants in their respective tribes, and although they have gone from earth, they are not dead, but live in a land unknown to the red men.

Dr. Rand related in the "American Antiquarian" some of the legends of these people, which will illustrate the mythology of the Micmacs. One of these is called "A-Cookwes," a story showing the stupidity and physical strength of the giants: " Some little boys were out hunting. A-cookwes, a giant, was prowling around watching for his prey—hunting for people. In order to attract the boys, he imitated the noise of the cock partridge, the drummer. This he did by slapping his palms upon his breast. The little boys hearing the noise were deceived by it ^ind fell into the trap. The huge giant—they are amazingly .strong, covered with hair, and are cannibals, regular gorillas— seized the boys and intended to dash their heads against a stone, but mistook an ant-hill for a stone, and so merely stunned and did not kill them, except one—one was killed. The giant then placed them all in a huge boochkajoo, a large birchen vessel, and strapped them on his back and started for home. The boys soon recovered from their stunning, and began to .speculate upon their chances for escape. It certainly must have seemed rather a hopeless undertaking, but we never know what we can do till we try. One of the boys had a knife with him, and it was agreed that he should cut a hole through the boochkajoo, and that one after another they would jump out and scud for home. In order not to awaken suspicion, they waited until they heard the limbs rattling 011 the bark as the giant passed under the trees, before the process of cutting commenced. As soon as the hole was large enough, one slipped out, and another, and another, until all were gone but the dead one. The giant being so strong he never perceived the difference in the weight of the load. When he arrived at home lie left his load outside and went into his wigwam. There he had a comrade waiting for him, to whom he communicated his good success. But on opening the cage, the birds had flown, all but one—Tokooso-goobohsijik. Then they proceeded to roast the prey, and sat down by the fire to watch and wait till it was done.

"The children soon reached their home and spread the alarm. A number of the men armed in hot haste and pursued the giant. Before the meal was cooked they reached the place. Whiz! came an arrow, and struck the one in the side who had carried off the children. He made a slight movement and complained of a stitch in the side. Soon another arrow followed, and another, but so silent and so swift that neither perceived what they were; but the fellow fell slowly over as though falling asleep. His companion rallied him on being so sleepy and going to sleep before his tender morsel had been toasted. But soon he also began to be troubled. Sharp pains began to dart through him, and sharp darts to pierce him, and he also fell dead."

Another interesting legend is that of the Moose wood Man: "Away in the woods dwelt a young woman alone. She had to depend upon her own exertions for everything. She procured her own fuel, hunted her own food and prepared it. As she had no comrade she was often lonely and sad. One day when gathering fuel she cut and prepared a noos-a-gun, a " poker for the fire," of minkudowok—moosewood—and brought it home with her. She did not bring it in the wigwam, but stuck it up in the ground outside. Some time in the evening she heard a sound as of a human voice outside, complaining of the cold.

"'Numus, my sister, kaoochee, I am cold.'

"'Come in and warm yourself, then,' was the answer.

"'I cannot come in; I am naked,' was the reply.

"'Wait then, and I will put out some clothes,' she tells him.

"This is soon done. He dones the robes tossed out to him and walks in, a fine-looking young fellow, who takes his seat as the girl's younger brother; i.e., younger than she. (The Indians, and it is the same with the Bannacks, have a word for a brother older than the speaker, and another to designate a brother who is younger than the speaker. Sisters are distinguished in the same way). The poker she left standing outside the door had become metamorphosed, and proves a very beneficial acquisition. He is very affable and kind, and withal a very expert hunter, so that all the wants of the home are bountifully supplied. He is named Minkodowogook, from the wood from which he sprang. After a time his female friend hints to him that it would be well for him to seek a companion.

"'I am lonely,' says she, 'when you are away. I want you to fetch me a sister-in-law.'

"To this reasonable suggestion he consents, and they talk the matter over and make arrangements for carrying their plans into execution.

"The sister tells him where to go and how to pass certain dangers. 'You will have to pass several nests of serpents, but you must not fight them nor meddle with them. Clap one end of your bow on the ground, and use it as a pole to assist you in jumping, and leap right straight across them.' Having received his instructions, he starts on his journey. After a while his sister becomes lonely from the loss of his company, and resolves to follow him. To give him warning she sings, and he hears and answers her in the same style, instructing her to go back and not come after him. She does so. He goes on until he comes to a large Indian village. He follows his sister's instructions and enters one of the lodges.

"There, as he had expected, he finds quite a bevy of girls, and one—she is the youngest of the group—who excels in beauty. He walks up and takes his seat by her side. This, as she remains seated and the parents' silence, show their acquiescence, settles the matter, and consummates the marriage. The beauty of his countenance and his manly bearing have won the heart of the maiden and conciliated the esteem of the father. But the young men of the village are indignant. The young lady has had many suitors, who have all been rejected, and now to see her so easily won by a stranger—this is outrageous. They determine to kill him.

"Meanwhile his father-in-law tells him to go out and try his hand at hunting. When he returns, successful, they will prepare a festival in honor of the marriage. So he takes his wife with him, and his father-in-law's canoes, and pushing up the river to the native grounds, following the directions given by the old man, they come to a steep descent and push up through the rapids, land and construct a temporary hut, and he goes into the hunting business in earnest. He is at home in that occupation, and before many days he has collected a large amount of furs and venison, and is prepared to return. But a company has been formed to cut him off and rob him of his prize. A band of young men in the village, who are skilled in magical arts have followed him, and reached the place where he has pitched his hut. But now the trouble is how to proceed. They dare not attack him openly, and as to their wiles, he may be able to outdo them. But they adopt this plan : One of them is to transform himself into a mouse and insinuate himself under the blanket while the man is asleep, and thus give him the fatal stab. But our hero is wide awake. When the mouse approaches he quietly claps his knee on him all unconsciously, as he pretends, and squeezes the little fellow most lovingly. The poor mouse cannot stand the pressure, and sings out most lustily. This arouses the wife, who, perceiving that her husband is resting, his leg heavily upon some poor fellow, jogs him and tries to make him understand what is going forward. But he is wonderfully dull of comprehension, and cannot understand what she is saying, but manages, by what seems an all unconscious movement, to squeeze the wily foe—the small mouse— more affectionately, He does not design to kill him, however, but to overcome and frighten him, and send him off. So finally he releases him, and never did a poor mouse make greater speed to escape. He carries the warning to his companions, and they conclude to beat a hasty retreat.

"Minkodowogook now prepares to return. He asks his wife if she is willing to take the canoe with its load back to the village alone, and allow him to go and fetch his sister. She says she is willing, and he sees her safely off. She arrives in due time and makes a report to her father. All are amazed at the amount of food and fur collected in so short a time. They convey it all up safely to the village, and then await his return. After a few days he comes, bringing with him his sister, and the feasts and sports commence. He is challenged to dive and see who can remain the longest under water. He accepts the challenge, and goes out with his antagonist.

"'What are you?' asks Minkodowogook.

"'I am a loon,' answers the other proudly.

"'I am a Chigumoveech,' he answers.

"Down go the divers, and after a long time the poor loon floats up to the top and drifts—dead—down the river. The spectators wait a long while and finally the Chigumoveech comes up, flaps his wings exultingly and comes to land in triumph.

'Let us try a game of growing,' says another.

"'What will you choose to be ?' says Minkodowogook.

"'I will be a pine tree.'

"'Very well; I am the elm.'

"So at it they go. One rises a large white pine, but encumbered himself with branches, which exposes him to the blasts of the hurricane. The other rises high, naked of limbs, and when the blast comes, he always bends, but retains his hold on the earth, while his rival is overturned and killed. The stranger comes off' victorious in every contest, and returns exultingly to the camp. His father-in-law is proud of him, but his other daughters, especially the eldest, are full of envy and rage.

"Meanwhile our hero is presented by his wife with a fine, little boy. The sister pretends to be very friendly and asks to nurse the child, but the mother declines her assistance. As she is suspicious of the ill-suppressed jealousy of her sister. ' I can take care of my babe myself,' she tells her. After awhile the father-in-law advises him to move back to his own native place. The jealousy of the hunters is deepening. He takes the advice and departs. His father-in-law provides him with a canoe, provisions, and weapons to defend himself with if he is attacked. He has not gone far before he is pursued and overtaken, but he is found to be as good in battle as in a chase. His foes are soon killed or dispersed, and he and his family return safely to his own land."

In this story of the Moosewood Man we have the familiar myth of the Twin Brothers of the Iroquois and the Blood-Clot Boy of the Blackfeet. We observe the same contention between the Good and Bad as in this story among other Indian tribes, the minor details of the story being variable.

The story of Glooscap is like unto that of the Blackfoot. Old Man. Glooscap came from the far East across the great, sea, and it was he who taught the Indians all they know. He was their teacher, guide and friend, teaching them how to hunt,, fish, and till the soil. He was good, kind and brave, and directed the Indians how to become wise and good. When he came to this land his boat \vas a granite rock, and he was. accompanied by a woman, but she was not his wife, as he never had one. He put to sea in his strange canoe, taking with him. a young woman who was a bad character, which was evidenced by the storm which arose, and determined to get rid of her, he sought the land, and as he sprang ashore, he pushed the craft seaward. Finally she was transformed into a ferocious fish. Glooscap went away toward the far West, telling the Indians, that if they were good, they could follow him at death and make their abode with him.*

The sacred number among the Micmacs is seven, resembling that of the white man, and differing from the Dakotas and Blackfeet, whose sacred number is four.

The Micmacs of the present day, when brought under the civilizing influence of the Gospel, are an honest and industrious, people, but in too many cases contact with the white race has. induced them to manufacture goods for sale, by which they visit the villages and towns to sell their wares, and become reduced, through drink and idleness, to extreme poverty. Some of the Micmac bands are industrious and attend to farming, but-others are thriftless. The Micmacs of Quebec are favorably situated, the soil on their Reserves being good, and when they work, a bountiful harvest rewards their labors. They are good trappers and fishermen, yet their progress is slow. The population is increasing slowly, but their love of intoxicants is a great hindrance toward civilization. The Micmacs of Nova Scotia are generally self-supporting, and are reputed an honest, industrious, and law-abiding people.

One of the agents of the Government says, concerning them: " There is one trait in the character of the Micmacs which cannot be too highly praised. Living, as they do, they frequently suffer many privations. This evening they may not have to-morrow's breakfast in reserve for themselves and families, and yet a case of theft from their white neighbors is, I believe, utterly unknown. The gradual elevation of a race with a fair characteristic like 'this so firmly impressed on them ought not to be despaired of. ... I am happy to be able to report an unmistakable improvement in the condition of all the Indians in my agency. Each succeeding year shows more clearly than the preceding one that it is only a question of time to find them good and useful citizens, provided only that they are well treated, and have fair opportunities of improvement."

These people are engaged in various occupations, as fishing, hunting coopering, basket making, cutting timber and porpoise-shooting, while some find employment at mills, or on the railways. Yet they are slowly decreasing in numbers.

The Micmacs of New Brunswick are engaged chiefly in fishing and farming, and are decreasing in population, induced through the use of intoxicants.

In Prince Edward Island the Micmacs may be divided into those who stay at home and devote themselves to agriculture, reaping a blessing in comfort, an improved moral sentiment, and the pleasure which arises from industrious habits, and those who pursue a nomadic life, loitering around the towns in poverty, with little to eat and very poorly clad. The latter, •especially, are passing away.

Missionary work among the Micmacs was begun in the beginning of the seventeenth century, the rudiments of the Micmac language being collected as early as 1613. The Recollet Fathers roamed the coast of Acadia in the first years of the century. The Jesuit missionaries, Perrault and Turgis, devoted themselves to the Micmacs, itinerating among the scattered camps, caring for the sick, and suffering many hardships. Biard, Richard and Lyonne studied the language, and founded a mission among them, but few converts were won to the faith. Lyonne died in 1661, devotedly attached to his flock ; Richard continued his labors, and gained a measure of success. When Bishop Laval visited Gaspe in 1659, one hundred and forty Indians were presented for confirmation.

The Recollets took charge of the Micmac Mission, and the indefatigable Leclercq labored hard, devising his syllabary of the language, which remains till the present as an evidence of his zeal and devotion. The majority of the Micmacs have received missionary instruction from the Roman Catholic missionaries until the present day.24

The Rev. Dr. S. T. Rand was drawn toward the wandering Micmacs about 1846, and resolved to devote himself to the study of their language. Meeting with a French sailor in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, who had lived among the Indians, and was conversant with the French, English and Micmac language, he obtained help from him in studying the language.

Dr. Rand was a remarkable man. He began life as a poor stonemason, eager for knowledge, which he sought in various ways. One month at the Wolfville Academy studying Latin was his last effort at securing an education through an institution, for after this experience he resolved to teach himself. He mastered Syriac, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and the languages of the Micmac and Maliseet Indians. He labored as a missionary among the Micmacs from 1846 till his death, in 1889, and for twenty years he received no salary from any missionary society. Legends, catechism, hymns, portions of the Bible, a Micmac grammar, and a dictionary of the same language, comprising forty thousand words, were part of the work.*

There are several religious works in the Micmac language, including hymn books, catechisms and prayer books, by Roman Catholics and Protestants. Dr. Rand translated the New Testament, some portions of the Old Testament, and tracts. Several grammars have been prepared and various vocabularies. As an illustration of the structure of the language I append Leclercq's translation of the Lord's Prayer :

THE KOOTENAY INDIANS

Small parties of Kootenay Indians were sometimes met with on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains during my early years in the Macleod district, when they had come to trade with the white traders or barter horses with the Blood Indians. They were a noble-looking lot of men. The sounds of their deeply guttural language and the fine dresses worn made an impression not soon to be forgotten. The traders spoke of them as an honest and industrious tribe, dignified and intelligent above any of the tribes of the plains. Women belonging to the Crow and Cree tribes were found living with Blackfoot husbands, and although I have met some of these, only one Kootenay woman have I seen in the Blood Indian camp. She spoke her own language and the husband interpreted, while the children conversed in the language of their mother. The husband had lived for several years in the camp of the Kootenay Indians, and his wife had never been from the home of her own people.

The Blackfeet, in their native language, called these people Kutenae, an individual Kootenay being called Kutenaekwan. This latter word was sometimes used as a proper name, one of my Blood Indian friends being named Kutenaekwan. These people are called by various writers: Kootanie, Kootenuha, Koetenay, Cootonais, Cootanie, with other forms of the same name. They were known when De Smet was among them, in 1845, by the general name of the Skalzi, and were divided into two tribes, called the Flat Bows and the Kootenays. Flat Bow and Kootenay have been used interchangeably as names for these Indians. Dawson divides them according to the areas occupied by them, into the Upper Kootenay, Lower Kootenay, Tobacco Plains Kootenay and Flathead Kootenay. Some writers divide them into the Upper and Lower Kootenay Indians. Alexander Henry speaks of the Flat Bows or Lake Indians, and distinguishes them from the Kootenays. He made a trip to the Rocky Mountains in 1811, and came in contact with several Indian tribes. In the Kootenay Plain he found the old tents of the Kootenays made of split wood, thatched with branches and grass. In his journal he says: "Of the several tribes of Indians to the southward and westward of the Kootones we are but only just beginning to be acquainted; those whom we now actually trade with at present are the following : The Flat Bows or Lake Indians, the Saleeish or Flatheads, the Kully-spell or Earbobs, the Skeetshues or Pointed Hearts, the Simpoils, | and the Sapetens or Nez Perce. The Flat Bows dwell on a large lake on McGillivray's river, in its course to the Columbia. ' They have no horses, and their canoes are made of pine bark, which are very slender and weak. The Flatheads are numerous, and dwell more to the southward along the Saleeish river. They have large numbers of horses. Liquor not having been supplied to the Columbia River Indians, they were free from many of the vices common to the eastern tribes."

They speak a deep, guttural language, called by Howse " the rapid Cootonais," difficult for a stranger to learn, distinct from that spoken by any other tribe, and forming, according to Dr. ' Chamberlain, a stock by itself. Its grammatical construction has been studied by Drs. Boas and Chamberlain, the latter having prepared a grammar, and vocabularies of the language have been compiled by these writers and by De Smet and Dawson. Like the other Indian tribes, they have a significant sign language. The noun has no cases, the singular and plural are not distinguished by separate forms, and the adjective precedes the noun.

The construction of the language can best be seen by selections of words from those who have specially examined it, the spelling of them being given according to the methods adopted by each writer, Dr. Boas gives the personal and possessive pronouns in this manner:—

I, kamin; thou, ninko; he, ninkois; we, kamina'tla; you, I niuko'nisgitl; they, ninko'isis.

My, ka; thy, nis; his, is ; our, ka-na'tla; your, ni's-gitl; their, Isis.

In 1859 De Smet and Dr. G. M. Dawson in 1883 collected separate vocabularies of the language, which are worthy of comparison, and a selection from these writers is now given:

The Upper Kootenay Indians are chiefly canoe Indians, and the Lower horse Indians. This change in the Lower Kootenays has very likely taken place through their contact with the Flat-heads, who owned large bands of horses. The Piegans kept up a continual feud with the Kootenays, but made peace with them, that they might be able to pass through their territory to that of the Flatheads to procure horses. When Alexander Henry went amongst them they had no horses, and the subsequent possession of these must have arisen through contact with other tribes. A singular fact is .mentioned by Sir George Simpson, namely, a female chief among these people. In 1843, llowand, an old trader, estimated the Canadian "Kooteenaies" at one'l hundred lodges, containing eight hundred souls. De Smet visited their camps in 1845 and 1859, and he gives the population of the "Kootenays and Flat Bows" at more than one thousand souls. The census returns for 1891, for the Kootenay Agency, which includes forty-one Shuswap Indians, give the population at six hundred and ninety-six souls. These Indians inhabit the valley of the Columbia and Kootenay rivers, west of the territory of the Blackfoot and Stoney Indians. The name of the people has been given to the valley, district, lake, river and pass in the region where they dwell, a land rich in minerals and beautiful scenery, and abounding in fish and game, j Mountain sheep, goats and deer afford a supply of skins which, in former years, were made into garments, but are not used as extensively now, because of the proximity of the white people and the tendency of the Indians to adopt the customs of their neighbors. The lofty mountains shelter the tortuous rivulets which flow into the valley, making numerous beautiful lakes, and the mild climate is favorable for the growth of grasses, capable of pasturing large herds of cattle. Amid the beauties of their home in the valley and plains the people live happily. Before the advent of the white man they were noted for their industrious habits, honesty and freedom from vice. Wherever the white race travels, however, immorality and degradation mark their trail.

The women are industrious, and are very handy with their needles at making shirts, moccasins, leggings, and other native articles, ornamenting them with beads according to the custom of the native tribes.

There is no native marriage ceremony performed by the members of this tribe. When a young man desires a young woman to become his wife, he makes a bargain with her parents by giving them some presents, and when they start housekeeping the parents give some articles to the young couple. An old warrior generally gives a boy his name, that he may become courageous and successful in war.

Dr. Boaz records their burial customs as he found them during a visit made to their camps. He says the dead are buried in an outstretched position. The head was probably always directed eastwards. They kill the deceased's horse and hang his property to a tree under which his grave is. The body is given its best clothing. The mourners cut off their hair, which is buried with the body.

When a warrior dies, they paint his face red, and bury him between trees, which are peeled and then painted red. Before the body is buried, they prophesy future events from the position of his hands. These are placed over the breast of the body, the left nearer the chin than the right. Then the body is covered with a skin, which, after a few minutes, is removed.

If the hands have not changed their position, it indicates that no more deaths will occur in the same season. If they are partly closed, the number of closed fingers indicates the number of deaths. If the point of the thumb very nearly touches the point of the first finger, it indicates that these deaths will take place very soon. If both hands are firmly closed, they open the fingers one by one, and if they find beads (torn from the clothing ?) in the hands, they believe that they will have good fortune. If they find dried meat in the hand, it indicates that they will have plenty of food. If both hands are closed so firmly that they cannot be opened, it indicates that the tribe will be strong and healthy and free from disease. These experiments are repeated several times.

While a few men bury the body, the mourners remain in the lodge motionless. When those who have buried the body return, they take a thorn bush, dip it into a kettle of water, and sprinkle the door of all lodges. Then the bush is broken to pieces and thrown into a kettle of water, which is drunk by the mourners. This ends the mourning ceremonies.

After the death of a woman, her children must wear, until the following spring, rings, cut out of skin, around the wrists, lower and upper arms, and around the legs. It is believed that else their bones would become weak.

Hemmed in by the mountains and unassisted by the aids of civilization, they were compelled fifty years ago to carry on their agricultural operations with implements of the most primitive kind. They scratched the earth, as I have seen the Blood Indians do, with a pointed stick, and used a piece of brushwood for a harrow. They even made their lines and hooks for fishing. Scanty oftentimes was their fare, as they dug up the wild roots, fished in the lakes and rivers, or hunted in the mountains. Without agricultural implements or firearms, they did not advance rapidly, yet were contented and happy in their poverty.

A change has taken place, and now they arc blest with horses, farming implements, and fishing gear. The Lower Kootenays arte principally fishermen, and the Upper, hunters. The Lower Kootenays, in their dugout canoes, navigate the lakes and rivers, pursuing their favorite occupation of fishing. The Kootenays sometimes crossed the mountains to hunt buffalo on the plains, and I have seen them come to the camp of the Blood Indians to trade horses, of which they have a large number, and many of them excellent animals.

They dress in the fashion of the prairie tribes, with moccasins, leggings, breeches, and a buckskin shirt, sometimes replaced by a blanket coat. The white traveller to the Kootenay camps is reminded of the camps on the plains by the presence of dogs innumerable, who make the midnight air resound with their howls, and steal whatever lies within their reach. They live in lodges like the plain tribes, covered, in the buffalo days, with the hides of the buffalo, but now replaced with canvas. Many of the manufactured articles of these people show ability. Men and women are skilful in making native goods, consisting of canoes, cradles, gloves, bows and arrows, fish-spears, pipes, moccasins, knife-sheaths, whips, necklaces, root-baskets, and other articles.

Sitting around the old-timers' camp fires on the prairie after a hard day's ride, a few hours were sometimes spent before retiring to rest, wrapped up- in our buffalo robes, upon the ground, in relating stories of Indians, buffaloes, half-breeds and camp life. At one of these camp fires I listened to the tale of a Kootenay chief.

A priest had gone in the early days to Blackfoot Crossing to minister to the Blackfeet, and anxious to discourse upon his religion, had gathered the Indians around him. Whilst engaged in this pleasant duty he was confronted by one of the Blackfeet, who told his fellows that the white man was not speaking the truth. He said that a " Kootenay chief had died and his spirit went to the white man's heaven, as he had accepted the Christian faith. Upon arriving at the gate of heaven he knocked to gain admittance, whereupon a messenger came, inquired his name, and informed him that as he was not a white man he could not be admitted, but must seek a heaven elsewhere. Retracing his steps he journeyed along the path which led toward the heaven of the Indians, and upon reaching the gate sought admittance. The door-keeper asked his name, and on hearing it, declared that he was not an Indian, having only the skin of an Indian and the heart of a white man, as he had rejected the faith of his fathers and accepted the religion of the white man. He was told that there were two religions given by the Great Spirit unto man. One was written in a book for the guidance of the white people, who, by following the teachings of the book, would at least find a home in the heaven for the white man; and the other was given unto the Indians, and was written in their hearts, upon the sky, rocks, rivers, and mountains, so that those who follow the teachings of nature, as the Great Spirit speaks unto them, will find a home in the heaven of the Indians. When the Kootenay chief found that he was debarred from entering either heaven, and was left out in the cold, he knew not what to do: but whilst he was thinking seriously over the matter, the attendant had compassion upon him, and said that he would be given another chance of reaching his own final abode. He must return to earth, reject the faith of the white man, and instruct the Indians to retain their own religion, and not to listen to the teachings of the white men."

The Blackfoot prophet found an interested audience, and he continued: "The old Kootenay chief has returned from the dead, and is living at the Kootenay village, and he says that all the Indians are to keep their own religion, or they will not reach the Indians' heaven."

The priest listened attentively to the address of the Blackfoot, and when he had finished, announced to the red men that as it was getting late, he would reserve his reply, and he would call them together to answer the words of the prophet.

Two young men from the camp were sent out that evening stealthily to the territory of the Kootenay Indians to learn the truthfulness of the report. A long journey of two hundred miles lay before them, which they quickly passed over, and in a few clays they entered the Blackfeet camp unseen, and reported themselves. A crier went through the camp calling the people together to hear the reply of the priest. Amongst the large number who assembled that day was the prophet, dignified and defiant, assured of his victory over the white teacher, and eager for the recognition of his tribe for his skill and spiritual insight. The white teacher left his lodge and came among the people to address them. He related the circumstance of the address of the Blackfoot, the departure and return of the young men, their visit to the camps of the Kootenay Indians, where they found the chief referred to, who was alive and had never died. No vision of heaven had ever been given unto him, and he was a faithful follower of the Great Teacher, and a firm believer in the Christian faith.

Turning toward two young men who stood near, he said: " Here are two of the sons of the old chief who have come to our camp to corroborate the testimony of the two young men whom I sent to the Kootenay camp."

The people looked at the prophet expecting an answer, but he was silent and crest-fallen, and the words of the white teacher made an impression not easily removed from the hearts of the red men of the plains.

De Smet relates two instances of religious zeal performed by members of the tribe. An aged chief, who was blind, was anxious to receive baptism, but for a long time had been restrained through poverty. Guided by his son he travelled to the place where the priest was pursuing his ministrations and informed him that he owed a small debt of two beaver skins, worth about ten dollars, and not until he was able to pay this did he dare approach him for baptism. He said:

"My poverty has always prevented me from fulfilling this obligation; and until I had done so, I dared not gratify the dearest wish of my heart. At last I had a thought, I begged my friends to be charitable to me. I am now in possession of a fine buffalo robe; I wish to make myself worthy of baptism."

The old man and the missionary went to the trading post to settle the debt, but the clerk could not find anything against him on the books, and refused to take the robe. The old man insisted on giving it, and the clerk steadily refused.

At last he exclaimed: "Have pity on me, this debt has rendered me wretched long enough; for years it has weighed on my conscience. I wish to belong to the blameless and pure prayer (religion), and to make myself worthy of the name of a child of God. This buffalo robe covers my debt."

Concluding his speech he spread the robe on the ground at the feet of the clerk and departed. Receiving the rite of baptism, he returned home happy and contented.

The other case mentioned was that of a young man who had been baptized in infancy, and removed with his parents to the territory of the Shuswaps, in the mountainous region near the Fraser River. Desiring to marry a young woman who was un-baptized, and having a sister who had not enjoyed that rite, the three persons resolved to visit the missionary that the baptism and marriage ceremony might be performed. The young man had not seen a missionary since he was a child, yet he had subjected himself to penance that he might be prepared for his first communion. Upon the day appointed for the consummation of all the rites, he presented himself before the priest, holding in his hand some bundles of cedar chips, about the size of matches, and as he mentioned some particular sin, he handed a bundle of chips to the priest, telling him that the bundle represented the number of times he had committed it. The new method of remembering transgressions was deeply significant, and manifested sincerity and contrition.

The missionary De Smet went, in 1845, among the Kootenay Indians as their first white religious teacher. The Indians are under the care of the Roman Catholic church, which has ministered faithfully unto them for nearly half a century. An industrial school is maintained among them by the Government, where the Kootenay youth are instructed by the principal and nuns who devote their time and talents toward the elevation of the rising generation. Good buildings have been erected, and there is no doubt but rapid progress will be made.

The Indians are directed in their efforts in agriculture by an agent of the Government with a measure of success. Good crops have been raised in the vicinity of the Columbia lakes and at Tobacco Plains; but the Lower Kootenays are not very successful in their farming operations, owing to the swampy nature of their Reserve.

Considerable uneasiness has been manifested at times through the influx of settlers, yet no serious difficulties have been experienced. Some of the native customs of these Indians correspond to those of the Blackfeet, especially in their relation to the worship of the sun. They erect a large medicine lodge in the winter, where they dance and pray for snow, that they may be able to hunt game, almost similar to the Blackfoot sun dance, which is held during the summer months. They make vows to the sun, pierce their arms and breasts, and, before going to war, have a great festival, when they make offering to the sun, praying for protection on the warpath and success in their expedition. Like the Blackfeet, they begin some of their religious gatherings by filling a pipe and then turning it toward the four points of the compass, that the sun may have a smoke, which is their consecration vow to their deity.

The medicine men are initiated in a manner almost similar to the Blackfeet. Dr. Boaz says: " The shamans of the Kutona'qa are also initiated in the woods after long fasting. They cure sick people, and prophesy the result of hunting and war parties. If this is to be done, the shaman ties a rope around his waist and goes into the medicine lodge, where he is covered with an elk skin. After a short while he appears, his thumbs firmly tied together by a knot, which is very difficult to open. He re-enters the lodge, and after a short time reappears, his thumbs being untied. After he has been tied a second time he is put into a blanket, which is firmly tied together like a bag. The line which is tied around his waist, and to which his thumbs are fastened, may be seen protruding from the place where the blanket is tied together. Before he is tied up, a piece of bone is placed between his toes. Then the men pull at the protruding end of the rope, which gives way; the blanket is removed, and the shaman is seen to lie under it. This performance is called k'eqnemna'm, "somebody cut in two."

"The shaman remains silent, and he re-enters the lodge, in which rattles, made of pieces of bone, are heard. Suddenly something is heard falling down. Three times this noise is repeated, and then singing is heard in the lodge. It is supposed that the shaman has invoked souls of certain people whom he wishes to see, and that their arrival produced the noise. From these he obtains information and instruction, which he, later on, communicates to the people."

Amid the beauties of their mountain home these hardy sons of the west strive to maintain themselves, but the advancing bands of white men have made already a change in their condition, the minerals of the Kootenay district attracting the wealthy and adventurous to seek fortunes in the foothills and plains where the red men dwell. Isolated they may remain for a few years, but the time is not far distant when the railroad will bring its thousands and the mountain torrents will be utilized by the white men seeking the rewards of industry. The red man fails not to mark the change, and predict the fall of their mighty chiefs, with the departure of the glory of their tribe.

THE IROQUOIS INDIANS.

When the European explorers first came in contact with the Six Nation Indians, they were formed into a confederacy of five distinct tribes, under the general name of Iroquois. These are supposed to have descended from a family pair of tribes, known as the Huron-Iroquois, of which the Hurons were the oldest branch. Of the early history of these tribes when distinct, we have no records, but the language show^s that the Hurons were the oldest. When the French explorers reached New France, they found the Hurons separated from the Iroquois Confederacy, and at deadly enmity with the members of it, as well they might, for they were the most terrible foes the French or Hurons met in those early years.

The name Iroquois was given to the Five Nations by the French, which Charlevoix says is derived from hiro or hero, meaning, "I have said it," a phrase which they used when they had evaded their speeches, a custom which is still employed by the Indians in the west, as they say, "I am done," or " hat is all I have to say."

The French called them Iroquois, but their English name is Six Nation. The Indians, however, had two names by which they designated the confederacy. Aquanoschioni, or "United People," and Hodenosaunee, or the "People of the Long House."

Charlevoix says: "The name Iroquois is purely French, and has been formed from the word hiro, 'I have spoken,' a word by which these Indians close all their speeches, and koue, which, when long drawn out is a cry of sorrow, and when briefly uttered is an exclamation of joy."

Horatio Hale is inclined to seek the origin of their name in Ierokwa, meaning "They who Smoke," or "They who use Tobacco," or briefly, the "Tobacco People." In the sixteenth or seventeenth century, or even earlier than that, the Iroquois separated from the Hurons, and the tribes which were originally a family pair became distinct.*

The traditions of these people inform us that in the prehistoric era a famous Onondaga chief, named Hiawatha, observing that his tribe was being destroyed through continuous wars with other tribes, with skill and determination conceived the plan of uniting several tribes together in a confederacy, whereby they could present a bold front to their enemies.

Amid great opposition he formed the Iroquois League, which was composed of Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas and Senecas, and became known as the Five Nations. The Tuscaroras united afterward with the confederacy, which has been called since that time the Six Nations.

This league became so powerful that the Hurons, Delawares and Ojibways dreaded the approach of these terrible foes, who roamed as far east as the territory of the Micmacs, and westward to Lake Superior. The Eries occupied a central position between the Hurons and Iroquois, which induced them to remain neutral, and the latter vowing death to all who would not unite with them, the Eries were destroyed. The native name of the confederacy is Kanousionni, meaning "A house extended."

The confederacy was compared to a house which was enlarged in the manner they employed when the families were increased by marriage, by taking out the end of the bark dwelling and making an addition, afterwards closing the end. As the confederacy increased by the addition of tribes, the house was extended, signifying that the members of the confederacy were not distinct tribes, but members of one family.

The Iroquois were known to the Delawares and southern Algonquin tribes as the Mingoes, which is the contraction of a Lenape word, meaning the "People of the Springs," from the fact that they possessed the head waters of the rivers which flowed through the country of the Delawares. This league of the Iroquois made them formidable, extending their influence throughout a great portion of Canada and the Northern States, making the interests of the tribes common, enabling them to cope successfully with their foes, and raising them in the esteem of the white race.

Morgan says: "They achieved for themselves a more remarkable civil organization and acquired a higher degree of influence than any other race of Indian lineage, except those of Mexico and Peru. In the drama of European civilization they stood for nearly two centuries, with an unshaken front, against the devastations of war, the blighting influence of foreign intercourse, and the still more fatal encroachments of a restless and advancing border platform. Under their federal system the Iroquois flourished in independence and capable of self-protection long after the New England and Virginia races had surrendered their jurisdictions and fallen into the condition of dependent nations ; and they now stand forth upon the canvas of Indian history prominent, alike for the wisdom of their civil institutions, their sagacity of the administration of the league, and their courage in its defence."

The earliest home of the Iroquois was on the St. Lawrence, from which place they wandered to the State of New York, spreading themselves over a wide area, until they were met with roaming through the forests or gliding over the rivers in their canoes from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from Virginia to the far northern districts of Hudson's Bay, where the descendants of the early Iroquois voyageurs are still to be found, speaking no longer their native tongue, but the euphonious Cree of the neighboring tribes. From the high latitudes they journeyed toward warmer climes through a country well adapted to their habits ; and it is a singular fact that the white race has traversed the great highway of the Six Nations with railways, towns and cities, once populous with the towns of the Indian allies; but now the habitations of the progressive palefaces cover the territory of the adventurous tribes.

The history of the Iroquois or Six Nations has been preserved by means of an institution peculiar to the Indian tribes, consisting of some of their greatest men being designated wampum record keepers. When a new chief was to be elected, a condolence ceremony was held in honor of the deceased chief, and when the candidate for the position of chief was introduced the induction ceremony was begun, a new name being given to the man and the duties of his office recited in a measured chant. After his installation he took his place among the nobles of his nation, and then the wampum belts were brought in and the officiating chief began the reading of the archives of the nation. The people were conversant with the events recited, having heard them reported oftentimes, and in this manner the history of the nation has been preserved.

The Iroquois mythology informs us that the Indians formerly dwelt underground, but upon learning that there was a fine country above, they left their subterranean abode and came upon the surface of the earth. We learn from their myths that, in the ancient days, they had good and evil spirits, the latter possessing great power—superhuman beings who could not be controlled because they had an evil disposition, strong intellectual abilities and an unconquerable will. One of these was Atotarho, whose prowess is preserved for us in an Onondaga legend. Horatio Hale gives the substance of this legend as follows: "Another legend, of which I have not professed to give the origin both of the abnormal ferocity and of the preterhuman powers of Atotarho. He was already noted as a chief and a warrior, when he had the misfortune to kill a peculiar bird, resembling a sea-gull, which is reputed to possess poisonous qualities of singular virulence. By his contact with the dead bird his mind was affected. He became morose and cruel, and at the same time obtained the power of destroying men and other creatures at a distance. Three sons of Hiawatha were among his victims. He attended the councils which were held and made confusion in them, and brought all the people into disturbance and terror. His bodily presence was changed at the same time, and his aspect became so terrible that the story spread, and was believed, that his head was encircled by living snakes."

There is an ancient myth of primeval days, when there existed nothing but a vast ocean wherein dwelt great monsters of the deep. In the heavens there abode supernatural beings, and one of these, a woman, fell through the sky toward the primeval waters. She found a resting-place upon the back of a turtle, and one of the water animals having brought her some mud, she formed the earth. She gave birth to a daughter who grew to womanhood, and became the mother of two boys named Juskeha and Tawiscara.

These were twins, and the young woman died in giving birth to Tawiscara. She was buried, and from her dead body sprang forth abundant vegetation, which clothed the earth formed by the grandmother, Ataensic. The two boys grew to manhood, with dispositions exactly opposite. Juskeha kind and good, and Tawiscara ignoble and turbulent. Juskeha found the earth dry and he made springs, rivers and lakes to beautify and replenish it, but Tawiscara formed a large frog which drank the water and left the earth a waste. He started for the country of Tawiscara, and on the way saw the frog which he pierced, and the waters again flowed over the earth. His mother's spirit revealed to him the intent of Tawiscara to slay him, and he accordingly prepared himself against injury. They agreed to fight, but as they were superhuman beings they could not kill each other, and according it was resolved that each should tell the other the weapon which would be effective in destruction. Juskeha revealed the fact that a branch of the wild rose would slay him, and Tawiscara acknowledged that a deer's horn would destroy him. The battle between the two brothers commenced, and Juskeha was stricken down with a branch of wild rose in his brother's hand and left for dead. In a short time he revived and struck Tawiscara in the side with a deer's horn, making a deep wound from which flowed blood.

He fled, besprinkling the ground with the blood issuing from the wound, and still Juskeha pursued him as he fled and slew him. It was impossible to slay him outright, as they were superhuman beings who could not die, but his power was broken, and he fled to the far West, where he became the ruler of the realm of the (lead, and there he awaits the coming of all the Indians to preside over them in the land of spirits. Juskeha was now free to devote himself to the good of the earth which his grandmother made, so he stood at the mouth of a cave and caused animals to issue from it, maiming each one as it came out, so that it might be caught, but the wolf, by his cunning, evaded the stroke and was not maimed, which accounts for the difficulty experienced in catching him.

Afterward men were created, unto whom he gave life and taught them how to make fire and cultivate the soil. He is the master of men and of the earth, who is always ready to aid the hunter as he goes in search of food, and the farmer as he-tills the soil. He is the master of life, who helps the people when they are sick and comforts them in trouble. Tawiscara dwells in the far West, whither the Indians go at death; but Juskeha lives in the far East where he presides over the living. His old grandmother lives with him, whose work is to bring death upon all living which is her delight, and therefore men fear this aged ruler over the destinies of men.

Of the character of the Iroquois one of the Jesuit missionaries, in 1636, said: "You will find in them virtues which might well put to blush the majority of Christians. There is no need of hospitals, because there are no beggars among them; and, indeed, none who are poor, so long as any of them are rich. Their kindness, humanity and courtesy not merely make them liberal in giving, but almost lead them to live as though everything they possess were held in common. No one can want food while there is corn anywhere in the town."

Such was the influence of this confederacy, and so striking their advancement in their savage state, that Parkman, in his work on the Jesuits in North America, said: "Among all the barbarous nations of the continent the Iroquois stand paramount. Elements which among other tribes were crude, confused and embryotic, were among them systematized and concreted into an established polity. The Iroquois was the Indian of Indians. A thorough savage, yet a finished and developed savage. He is perhaps an example of the highest elevation which man can reach without emerging from his primitive condition of the hunter."

Faithful were they in their alliance with other tribes, but though widely separated from those who refused to co-operate with them, they pursued them with relentless fury, heedless of distance or danger, until they laid them low in the dust. The war cry of the Ivaniounsi was heard upon the shores of Lake Superior and under the walls of Quebec.

The houses of the Iroquois in the seventeenth century were sometimes one hundred feet in length, constructed of bark, having an arched roof, the walls made of posts and poles, planted in rows, with two tiers of platforms running through the interior of the building, and a line of lires in the open space between the platforms. In the latter part of the eighteenth century these long-houses were made to accommodate a few families, a fire being placed on the ground in the middle of the house for each family. Along the top of the house was an aperture for the purpose of allowing the smoke to escape and light to enter, and from the poles of the roof hung the varied stores of the families. A number of these houses, irregularly arranged, formed a town, which was fortified by means of palisades.

Hospitality is a common virtue among the Indian tribes, and none were more noted for this than the Iroquois, who treated strangers with great respect, preparing for them venison, maize or other native foods in great abundance. When not engaged in hunting, farming, or war, they spent their time in conversing about the great events of peace or war, or in the common a flairs of the town, and in various kinds of amusements. Various native dances afforded great amusement, but some of these were used to incite the young men to deeds of bravery, as the warriors danced and sang, and then recited their exploits in war.

When the white people came in contact with the Indians they introduced cards, dice, and other forms of entertainment. The Iroquois became enamoured with card playing and dice throwing, as they lost and won numerous stakes at these games.

In times of peace and war they sang their songs with great effect, arousing or depressing the people, as the subject of the song was of love, war or death. Some of these were chanted, as we find them in the Book of Rites. Horatio Hale gives a selection from an historical chant, in the Onondaga dialect, which is as follows :

Men and women had their natural divisions of labor—the men hunting, fishing, building houses and canoes; and the women attending to their domestic duties, dressing hides, making garments, and caring for the patch of ground containing the crops. This division of labor, allotting the duties of farmer to the women has been the cause of the Europeans looking upon them as being overburdened and ill-treated, whereas it was their natural division of labor, the women having their rights, which were respected by the tribe. The children belonged to the mother, and the compensation for the slaying of a woman was double that of a man, as they held that upon them devolved chiefly the continuation of the tribe. Contact with the white race has, however, modified their opinions on these matters, and individual Indians oftentimes treated their wives with coolness, and oppressed them with heavy loads, exhibiting a contemptible spirit, at variance with the teaching of the wise men of the tribe.

The forests resounded with the war cries of the savage heroes of the confederacy, as with their flint-head lances and arrows and their stone battle-axes they fought with the Hurons or French under Champlain and his "successors, or with the Delawares and other tribes. War was their pastime; and

HURON-IROQUOIS SKULL.

relentless was their ferocity when pursuing their foes along the courses of the rivers or through the thickets. Whenever one of the tribe was killed by an enemy, war was declared, as each member was injured by the death of one of their number; but when a member of the confederacy was killed by another, the matter was discussed in solemn assembly, the young men not being allowed to listen, lest they might be incited to retaliate, and the unity and harmony of confederacy be endangered. Thus internal strife was not permitted, and the peace of the people was maintained. War being declared against a common foe, preparations were made for going upon the warpath. The captain of a war party (chosen for his prowess and good judgment) led the warriors in their war feast, at which they all ate and drank, smoked and sang, and with recitals of prospective brave deeds and dancing the whole night was spent. They painted their bodies in a hideous fashion.

Almost exhausted with their war dance and its festivities, they started upon their journey toward the country of the enemy, carelessly travelling so long as there was no danger, but so soon as they entered the territory of their foes, they exercised great care. The records of their exploits were sometimes painted or carved on trees or rocks, and as they passed these places they studied them, encouraged and incited to imitate the valor of their warriors. Amongst all the Indian tribes prisoners were severely treated, especially if they had been guilty of acts of cruelty or meanness. Men were burned at the stake, but women were never treated in this fashion by the Iroquois. Various forms of cruelty were indulged in before the unhappy prisoners were burned.

When peace was determined, the chiefs of the opposing tribes smoked together the pipe of peace. Faithful have they been in their adherence to the treaties made, the remembrance of them being preserved by their belts of wampum, and the traditions of the record keepers. The League of the Iroquois is an evidence of their intelligence and faithfulness. It is a model form of government, a native republic with good laws wisely administered. The insignia of a chief was striking in its import, the head-dress surmounted with horns, now disused, indicating his position as the crown of a European queen.

The native orator in the council strode slowly to and fro as he delivered his address in figurative, suggestive and beautiful language, appealing to the shades of the departed, recalling the former greatness of his nation, and then, with a dignified attitude, bewailed the degeneracy of the latter days, he sought to arouse a spirit of patriotism among the nobles of his tribe. With a language well adapted for a patriotic address, the orator of the Iroquois stood in the council as the prophets of ancient days, thrilling the hearts of his audience with the recital of brave deeds, and captivating them with the beautiful imagery he employed.

The Jesuit Relation of 1660 placed the Iroquois population at twenty-five thousand. Since that time they have been scattered widely, and many of them were destroyed in their wars with the French, and in later years during the war of the Revolution. Many of the Iroquois followed Brant to Canada during this latter period, and their descendants still remain with us. Less than eight thousand now dwell in Canada, located in the Muskoka district, at Caughnawaga, St. Regis. Oka, the Oneidas on the Thames, the Six Nations at Grand River, and the small band near Smoking River in the Canadian NorthWest. They are no longer the ferocious Iroquois of history, but a civilized confederacy, as the visitor may easily observe when he looks upon the homes of the people at the Grand River or Caughnawaga.

Industrious farmers and mechanics and educated men and women are to be found upon these Reserves, delighting in art and literature, or pursuing quietly the various occupations of common people. Brawny fellows at Caughnawaga astonish the spectators with their skill at lacrosse, and expert mechanics and farmers and industrious women take their share of prizes at the Industrial Fair. Wherever poverty and filth is found lurking in the homes of these self-supporting communities, the cause is not far to seek in the drunken habits of some members of the families.

Many famous warriors are numbered among the Iroquois, whose memory is treasured as a precious memorial of a bravo people. Among their enemies heroic tales are told of devotion to their cause against the hated Iroquois. The blood of the I Frenchman is stirred as he listens to the brave deed of Dollard and his faithful band, as valiant as Leonidas and his Spartan heroes or Scotia's Wallace and his men. The struggling colony at the foot of Mount Royal, predecessor of the commercial metropolis on the St. Lawrence, was scarcely twenty years old, when brave Adam Dollard and his illustrious band of seventeen bade farewell to home and friends, and swiftly sped toward the home of the Iroquois to strike a blow for liberty and peace. The infant colony, sheltered within the recesses of the fortress, trembled at the approach of the red men who sought, by strategy, to surprise and slay the hardy pioneers of New France. Frequent were the secret visits of the savages, who vowed to sweep the pale-faces from the face of the earth, and well might soldier and citizen dread the coming of the denizens of the forest, for no quarter was given to any innocent straggler from the palisades, and the peaceful arts of agriculture and commerce were injured, and the peace of the community destroyed through constant fear. None knew when retiring to rest the moment the alarm would be given that the savages were upon them, and too often had the citizens been aroused by their terrible war cry. Spring was drawing near, the time adapted for the advance of the natives, and fear was coming on apace. The future was as dark as ever, with no silver lining to the cloud which overcast the sky.

The same terrible routine of tragedy seemed inevitable, when a daring thought of revenge and peace sprang up in the heart of Adam Dollard. What could he not do with a band of young men to follow him into the heart of the Iroquois country, to strike a blow for freedom and show these cruel red men the stuff of which the pale-face was made. It was a bold thought for a young man of twenty-five, but he was no gentle courtier, •fawning at court, but the gallant captain of the forces of Ville Marie, bred to military life, revealing in his stern, swarthy countenance the hardships of former days, and the courage which nestled in his soul, awaiting the hour to find a worthy foe to strike. Gathering a band of heroic men as young as he, and as devoted to their country, he made known his determination, and with one single exception they vowed allegiance to a cause so noble and a plan so fraught with danger. The citizens of Ville Marie might well rejoice at such a daring resolve, and gladly welcome the faintest ray of hope; but what could such a band of men, hardy, generous and brave though they be, perform against three hundred foes accustomed to fight in the forest depths. But Adam Dollard knew and loved the forest paths, warfare with the Indians was his delight, and he longed to do a valiant deed for home and country. Before a notary they made their wills, unburdening themselves with the -entanglements of earth; and then, with firm steps and slow, they repaired to the Hotel Dieu, before whose altar they consecrated themselves anew. Tearful eyes watched the hardy band launch their canoes, following them until lost to view they passed away, never more to return. On they sped past the swift waters of Sainte Anne, across the Lake of the Two Mountains, and up the Ottawa, until within a deserted fort they sheltered themselves, awaiting the coming of the terrible foe.

Two Huron chiefs with forty braves came secretly through the forest glades as allies, to find delight in meeting a common foe. The roofless stockade afforded little comfort as they lay ready for the sound of the war-cry, but they had not long to stay, the swift gliding canoes with three hundred warriors were | at hand, and the shouts of the savages evinced their joy at finding their opportunity and hope. With savage glee they rushed toward the entrenchment assured of an easy victory, but in many a redman's heart the Frenchman's bullet found its goal, and upon the sod the Iroquois fell to rise no more. Repulsed but not defeated they returned to the attack, bearing in their hands lighted torches made from the canoes of the faithful band, determined to set fire to the stockade, but the steady aim and relentless fire compelled them to desist.

Led on by a daring Seneca chief they rushed toward the fort, but the defiant leader licked the dust and his followers fled away. Bold were the hearts of the Frenchmen, and out they rushed to seize the Seneca and but a few moments elapsed till his head graced the front of the stockade. Wild with rage I the Iroquois renewed the attack only to fall back upon their improvised defence. The shades of evening fell upon the combatants, but darkness brought no sleep, for the bullets whizzing as they flew past revealed the wakefulness of the savage horde. The Huron allies had weaker hearts than Dollard and his men, for in the midnight shades they sought safety in flight, leaving the leader and his heroic band alone. Morning came at last to the invaders and their enemies, but the Iroquois had met their match, for these Frenchmen would win or die in the attempt.

The invaders held a conference, unwilling to risk again the chances of defeat. Some counselled retreat, when several bundles of wood were laid on the ground, and each warrior willing to continue the battle was urged to lift one of them. One by one they advanced and lifted the bundles, some through determination and others through dread of being called cowards, until all had signified their intention of contest. Ingeniously they cut poles with their hatchets and fastened them together, making a portable defence, a shield of trees. In this fashion they advanced to the attack, protected by the wooden battery. The French were amazed, unable to comprehend the meaning of this strange proceeding; but soon they learned to their dismay the stratagem of the Iroquois. Rapidly they fired, but strategy had accomplished what valor failed to do. Onward they came, one falling here and there, until they reached the stockade, when Dollard, filling his musketoon with powder and shot, and lighting the fuse, attempted to throw it amongst the invaders, but it fell .short, and bursting amongst his men, blinded them, causing such excitement that they left the loop-holes and gave the enemy an opportunity. Casting aside the trees, the Iroquois seized their hatchets and sprang within the stockade, dealing death around. Dollard bravely fought, determined in death to strike a blow for Ville Marie. Beside his comrades he fell, and none remained to tell the story of their fate. The thought of the Iroquois to save their lives that the prisoners might be subjected to a slow torture, did not bear fruit, and they were compelled to return, to tell the brave deeds of this heroic band to the warriors of their camps.

Victorious in death, the heroes of the infant colony won the day, for the Iroquois wisely thought that if such brave men were to be found upon the slopes of Mount Royal, no savage horde could ever break their hearts or sweep their habitations from their sites beside the majestic stream.

Anxiously the citizens awaited the return of brave Dollard and the heroic seventeen, but they came not again; and not until some Huron deserters from the Iroquois told the tale to eager listeners at Ville Marie did they learn the fate of their beloved band. That noble exploit bore fruit in the early and later days, for many years passed away before the Iroquois dared to return, and when they mustered courage to meet in battle the countrymen of brave Dollard, they found them well prepared for the contest and eager to imitate the valor of their faithful chief.

In 1642, Isaac Jogues, the Jesuit missionary and martyr, was captured by the Iroquois and subjected to excessive torture.

During his captivity he was compelled to run the gauntlet with his companions, became the drudge of the Indian women, and with his fingers cut off and flesh lacerated, was scoffed at and inhumanly treated as a sorcerer and friend of the Hurons. At a subsequent period his flesh was torn in strips from his body, and he fell under the blow of the tomahawk of the savage. During his captivity he baptized some of his enemies and instructed others in the Christian faith.

Le Moyne, Fremin, Menard, Bruyas and other devoted missionaries toiled among the Iroquois, but with little success, hindered by frequent wars. They labored in the State of New York and Canada with a heroism worthy of admiration, enduring great hardships and in constant danger of their lives, and ultimately were compelled to abandon the missions. Some of the Christian Iroquois sought instruction and protection from their Roman Catholic guides near Montreal, where the mission of St. Francis Xavier was founded for their benefit. This village was moved to Sault St. Louis, and became Caughnawaga, of which St. Regis is an off-shoot.

Beside the Village of Algonquins, at the Lake of Two Mountains, is another village of Iroquois, and these comprise, with those mentioned before, the sole remnants of the Iroquois missions of the Jesuits.

Queen Anne and her English subjects were jealous of French interference with the Iroquois, and desirous of securing them as allies in war, sought also to win them over to Protestant Christianity. Missionaries were sent from England to labor amongst them in the States of New York and Pennsylvania, who were zealous in their ministrations, but not successful in leading the natives to change their lives by following the doctrines of Christ.

The Moravians, under the eminent missionary David Zeis-berger, were entreated by the American Iroquois to commence a mission amongst them after he had explained to the Sachems his deep interest in them.30

Addressing Zeisberger, in 1742, they said: "Brother, you have journeyed a long way, from beyond the sea, in order to preach to the white people and the Indians. You did not know that we were here; we had no knowledge of your coming. The Great Spirit has brought us together. Come to our people, you shall be welcome. Take this fathom of wampum. It is a token that our words are true." The faithful missionaries .of the Moravian Church met with a measure-of success, but we cannot follow them in their work, as we are concerned with the Canadian Indians, and not with their brethren in the United States.

The enthusiasm of Queen Anne for the conversion of the-Iroquois was manifested by the gift of a silver communion service to the Mohawks 011 the Grand River Reserve, bearing the? following inscription:

"A. R, 1711. The gift of Her Majesty, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, and of her plantations in North America, Queen; to her Indian Chappel of the-Mohawks."

Protestant missionary work among the Iroquois was begun by English Church missionaries under the auspices of the New England Company, which was established under the favor of Cromwell, "for the propagation of the Gospel in New England," and was revived on the restoration of Charles II., with the eminent philosopher, Robert Boyle, as its first Governor.

In 1714, the Book of Common Prayer with catechism, and some parts of the Bible were printed in Mohawk at New York. In 1704, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began work among the Mohawks in New England, by sending the Rev. Thoroughgood Moor as missionary, who remained but a short time. The Rev. Mr. Freeman, minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Schenectady continued the work, and translated several portions of the Bible, along with the morning and evening prayers. When the Rev. Mr. Andrews came in 1712, he was given the use of the manuscript of Mr. Freeman, and by the aid of Lawrence Claesse, the interpreter, the Book of Common Prayer was completed and the whole printed. This book became scarce and a new edition was issued. Colonel Daniel Claus, Deputy-Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Canada, supervised the printing of one thousand copies. It was printed at Quebec in 1780 by William Brown, who established a press there in 1763. The publication cost the Government ninety-three pounds and ten shillings. The most of this edition was destroyed during the war, and a new edition, with the Gospel of Mark, translated by Captain Joseph Brant, appended, was published in England in 1787, the Prayer Book being revised by the Rev. Dr. Stuart, missionary to the Six Nation Indians at Grand River, who was aided in his revision by Captain Brant during the residence of the latter at Canajoharie. A later edition was printed in 1842, revised by Archdeacon Nelles, of the Grand River Reserve.

In 1783, Chief Joseph Brant came to Canada with the United Empire Loyalists, bringing with him a large number of Iroquois, who settled at Grand river. Missionary work received an impetus through the influx of Indians, and chiefly by the presence of Brant. The old Mohawk church was built, and the bell, bearing the date 1786, was hung. Ever since that period, earnest missionaries have labored there, the New England Company spending large sums of money for the education and Christianizing of the people.

Eleven district schools are maintained, and the Mohawk Institute affords abundant educational facilities for the instruction of the youth.

The Methodist Conference sent Alvin Torry among the Iroquois in 1820, and for a long term of years, under the able leadership of William Case, the work of religious training was carried on with energy and success. But our Iroquois confreres have their religious differences, like their pale-faced brethren, and now we have Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Plymouth Brethren, and the Salvation Army striving to lead the descendants of savage red men toward a noble life.

The Iroquois language is represented by the separate dialects of the Six Nations. The Huron language, through the migrations of the people, became the Mohawk, which approaches nearest to the Huron speech of the present, revealing to us the fact that the Huron is the source from which all the Iroquois dialects are derived. Such is the harmony of the Mohawk, that Max Muller says: "To my mind the structure of such a language as the Mohawk is quite sufficient evidence that those who work out such a work of art were powerful reasoners and accurate reasoners."

The Mohawk speech was used as the medium of communication with the Six Nations. Yet the members of each of these tribes, when addressing the council, are easily understood by all, except the Tuscarora, which must be interpreted in one or other of the five dialects.

The Iroquois language is perfect in construction, which is seen by the study of its grammatical forms, and especially in the verb, which has nine tenses, three moods, an active and passive voice, and at least twenty forms, showing the various changes which it undergoes.

So great is the wealth of the language that Horatio Hale says: "A complete grammar of this speech, as full and minute as the best Sanscrit or Greek grammars, would probably equal

and perhaps surpass those grammars in extent. The unconscious forces of memory and of discrimination required to maintain this complicated, intellectual machine, and to preserve it constantly exact and in good working order, must be prodigious."

The Lord's Prayer in the Mohawk tongue, from the old prayer-book in use among the Six Nation Indians on the Grand River will show the construction of the language: " Shoegwaniha karonhyakonh teghsideronh wagwaghseanadokeaghdiste Say-anertsherah aoedaweghte tsineaghsereh egh neayaweane ne-oughweatsyake tsioni-nityonht ne-karonhyakonh takyonh ne keagh weghniserate ne-niyadeweghneserake oegwanadarok neoni toedagwarighwiyostea ne-tsiniyoegwatswatough tsiniy-onht ne-oekyonhha tsitsyakhirighwiyosteanis ne-waonkhiyats-watea neoni toghsa tagwaghsharinet tewadadeanakeraghtoeke nok toedagwayadakoh tsinoewe niyodaxheah ikea iese saweank ne-kayanertsherah neoni ne-kashatsteaghsera neoni ne-aewese-aghtshera tsiniyeaheawe neoni tsiniyeaheawe."

The New Testament, portion of the Old Testament, sermons, tracts, catechisms, hymn books and prayer books have been published in some of the dialects of the Six Nation Indians. Grammatic treatises, dictionaries and vocabularies have also been issued, and to the Iroquois language belongs the honor of being the first American Indian tongue of which we have any records.

A noble confederacy, with a beautiful language and an eventful history, has attracted many industrious men and women to study its archives, counting themselves well repaid by having fellowship with a people of so great renown.31

THE OJIBWAY INDIANS.

The Ojibway tribe is scattered throughout the Dominion, and embraces several branches, including the Ojibways proper, Mississaugas, and Saulteaux.

The name of the tribe has been spelled in various ways, as Achipoes, Outchepoues, Otchipwes, Ojibways, Ojibwas, Chip-pewas, and Chippeways.

The term Ojibway, signifies. "pucker," derived from the peculiar pucker of the moccasin, or to "roast till puckered up," referring to the inhuman method employed by this tribe, as well as others, of burning the captives taken in war. Some writers have sought the origin of the Ojibway, and indeed of numerous Indian tribes, from the lost tribes of Jewish history, a solution more satisfactory to their own minds than to those of their readers. When the white people first came in contact with the Ojibways, early in the seventeenth century, they found them inhabiting the south-eastern shores of Lake Superior, especially in the vicinity of Sault Ste Marie. This does not, however,, appear to have been their original home, as their traditions assert that, long before the advent of the white race, they were living at the salt water in the east, probably on the St. Lawrence.

Henry Warren, a native Ojibway, relates a tradition which he heard in a speech delivered by one of the native priests wherein their religion is symbolized in the figure of a sea-shell, and the migrations of the people recorded.

"Our forefathers were living on the great salt water toward the rising sun, the great Megis (sea shell) showed itself above the surface of the great water, and the rays of the sun for a long period were reflected from its glossy back. It gave warmth and light to the An-ish-in-aub-ag (red race). All at once it sank into the deep, and for a time our ancestors were not blessed with its light. It rose to the surface and appeared again on the great river, which drains the water of the Great Lakes, and again for a long time it gave life to our forefathers, and reflected back the rays of the sun. Again it disappeared from sight, and it rose not till it appeared to the eyes of the An-ish-in-aub-ag on the shores of the first great lake. Again it sank from sight, and deatli daily visited the wigwams of our forefathers, till it showed its back and reflected the rays of the sun once more at Bow-e-ting (Sault Ste Marie.) Here it remained for a long time, but once more, and for the last time, it disappeared, and the An-ish-in-aub-ag was left in darkness and misery, till it floated and once more showed its bright back at Mo-ning-wun-a-kaun-ing (La Pointe Island), where it has ever since reflected back the rays of the sun and blessed our ancestors with life, light and wisdom. Its rays reach the remotest village of the wide-spread Ojibways."

Mr. Warren relates another tradition referring to the same matter, only in another form : There is another tradition told by the old men of the Ojibway village of Fond du Lac (Lake Superior), which tells of their former residence on the shores of the great salt water. It is, however, so similar in character to the one I have related that its introduction here would only occupy unnecessary space. The only difference between the two traditions is that the otter, which is emblematical of one of the four Medicine Spirits who are believed to preside over the Midawe rites, is used in one in the same figurative manner as the sea shell is used in the other, first appearing to the ancient An-ish-in-aub-ag from the depths of the great salt water; again on the River St. Lawrence; then 011 Lake Huron at Sault Ste. Marie ; again at La Pointe ; but lastly at Fond du Lae, or end of Lake Superior, where it is said to have forced the sandbank at the mouth of the St. Louis River. The place is still pointed out by the Indians where they believe the great otter broke through."

According to tradition, the Ojibways separated into different bands, some travelling towards the south and others westward and northward on the shores of Lake Superior, while the main body remained in the vicinity of the Sault. It is evident that a large band of them must have entered Pigeon River, on the north shore of Lake Superior, and travelling westward, become scattered widely throughout Algoma, locating at various points in the Thunder Bay and Rainy River districts, where their descendants still remain.

As they became known as the Bois Forts, the "Hardwood or Timber People," they must have lived for quite a long period in these districts, having entered Manitoba and the NorthWest Territory.

The Ojibways proper and the Saulteaux have resided in Manitoba for a long time, a large camp of the Ottawas and Ojibways having been located on the present site of the city of Winnipeg in the last decade of the eighteenth century.33 From the shores of Lake Superior warriors from this tribe went in bark canoes to Georgian Bay and destroyed the Iroquois, with whom they were at war. Representatives of the tribe are to be found throughout Ontario at various points, and as far west as Fort Ellice in the North-WTest Territory, while away north of Winnipeg the Saulteaux are found in the hunting grounds of the Cree Indians.-]- The Jesuit missionaries, early in the seventeenth century, found the Saulteaux in the vicinity of Sault Ste. Marie, and the Mississagas on the River Missisauga. Eastward and westward the Ojibways travelled, until they were to be found throughout Ontario, Manitoba and the North-West. They carried on incessant war with the Sioux and Iroquois, the latter being compelled to sue for peace, and were granted tracts of land by their conquerors near Napanee and Grand River, in the Province of Ontario, and the former being driven southward, along with the Sacs and Foxes, until the Ojibways became the possessors of all the region surrounding the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Pequahkoondeba Minis or Skull Island, in Georgian Bay, received its name from the fact that a large number of the Iroquois were killed there by the Ojibways about the time the French arrived in the country.

The defiant attitude of the warrior sometimes covered a heart that was brave, kind and generous, which is sometimes forgotten when we read of their cruel treatment of the prisoners taken in war. Burning was frequently resorted to by wrapping the prisoner within the folds of birch bark, and, after setting it on fire, compelling him to run the gauntlet. The light-hearted Ojibways pursued their enemies in their swift-glancing canoes, stealing upon them and striking them down with unmerciless severity. No quarter was given to the Sioux or Foxes, whom they chased among the islands and along the courses of the rivers, driving them from their haunts toward the south. Many brave deeds were performed by the Ojibway warriors, one of which, recorded by Henry Warren, will suffice :

Biauswah was a noble chief, living with his band in the vicinity of La Pointe, by whom he was held in esteem for his prowess and wise counsel. Having gone for one day's hunt, he was surprised, and his heart filled with anguish, to find the camp destroyed, the lodges burned, and his people dead and scalped. A war party of Foxes had fallen upon his people during his absence and slain them, among whom were the members of his family.

Bent on revenge he followed the trail of his enemies and, reaching their camp, heard the yells of the people as they were rejoicing over their success. Secreting himself in the bush he awaited his opportunity for revenge. The Foxes assembled at a short distance from their camp, having with them an old man and a lad, whom they had secured as captives, and now they made preparations to subject them to torture.

The old man was enveloped in birch bark which they had set on fire, and as he run the gauntlet they beat him until he fell dead at their feet. The young lad was placed on some faggots, arranged in a long row, over which he was to run backward and forward until he was burned to death.

As Biauswah looked upon the scene from his hiding-place he recognized in the lad his own son. His heart was filled with strong affection for the youth, and knowing how helpless he was to rescue him single-handed, he stepped forth from his place of safety as the Indians were about to light the faggots. Much to the amazement of his enemies he bravely strode among them, until he stood near the lad, and then addressing them, said, "My little son, whom you are about to burn with fire, has seen but a few winters; his tender feet have never trodden the warpath, he has never injured you. But the hairs of my head are white with many winters, and over the graves of my relatives I have hung many scalps, which I have taken from the heads of the Foxes. My death is worth something to you. Let me, therefore, take the place of my child, that he may return to his people." His enemies listened in astonishment, and having long desired his death, accepted his proposal. They allowed the young lad to return to his people, and the father was burned in his stead. A terrible revenge was meted out to the Foxes when the lad told his sad tale, for a large war party fell upon the Foxes, destroying so many of them that the remainder left the district and made their home in Wisconsin.

Proudly the warriors walked through the camp admired by the young men, women and children, wearing on their heads the eagle feather, signal tokens of their bravery. This eagle feather had significant markings, denoting the particular exploit of the warrior. An eagle feather, tipped with a piece of red flannel or horse-hair dyed red, was the privilege enjoyed by one who had killed an enemy. When split from the top toward the middle the feather denoted that the wearer had been wounded by an arrow, or if there were painted upon it a small red spot, it signified that he had been wounded by a bullet. The war bonnet having several eagle feathers was worn only by those who had killed many of his foes, the specific number not being designated.

It is estimated that there are nearly thirty-two thousand Ojibways in Canada and the United States. No definite statistics can be given of the population, as the census returns report other tribes in the same districts and members of other tribes upon the same Reservations. The following returns, taken from the report of the Department of Indian Affairs for 1891, will show the strength of the tribe within the Dominion:

Chippeways, located at the Thames, Walpole Island, Sarnia, Snake Island, Rama, Saugeen, Nawash, and Beausoliel, three thousand and forty-three ; Mississaugas, at Mud Lake, Rice Lake, Scugog, Alnwick, and New Credit, seven hundred and

OJIBWAY DRUMS.

ninety. Ojibways and Ottawas of Manitoulin and Cockburn Islands, one thousand nine hundred and four; Ojibways of Lake Superior, two thousand and sixty-five; Ojibways of Lake Huron, three thousand one hundred and seventy-eight; making a total of ten thousand nine hundred and eighty. There are Ojibways and Saulteaux reported with the Cree Indians in Manitoba and the North-West, but we are unable to give any proper estimate of the number of Ojibways. The whole Ojibway population of the Dominion may be safely stated to be about twelve thousand souls.

Seated in the lodges, with a gourd filled with seeds or pebbles or a cylindrical tin box containing grains of corn, the natives sang their sacred songs, accompanied by two or three persons beating upon a drum. Songs of love and war resounded through the camp in the long evenings in which men and women joined, their sweet voices blending together in the weird musical tones, which exerted a strange influence upon the white visitors to their camp. The songs of the Mida, belonging to their sacred festivals, were recorded upon birch bark in the symbolical character of animals, and by the use of these mnemonic records the words and tunes were easily preserved. The members of the medical priesthood composed some of these songs and tunes, the manner of composing them having been taught them during the periods of their initiation to the four degrees of their Religio-Medical Fraternity. The songs of love and war were sung with spirit, according freely with the nature of the subject, and differing in a great measure with the Mida songs, the latter being sung for the purpose of impressing the people with feelings of awe and reverence. Sometimes the people will sing for hours in a lively strain, changing the words and tune.

A Mida song will occupy from fifteen minutes to half an hour in its rendition. Dr. Hoffman has given several illustrations of Mida songs set to Music, of which the following is one:

" He-a-we-na-ne-we-do, ho, He-a-we-na-ne-we-do, ho, He-a-we-na-ne-we-do, ho, He-a-we-na-ne-we-do, ho, Ma-ni-do-we-a-ni, ni-kana, Ni-ka-na, ho, ho."

The translation of this song is: "He who is sleeping. The Spirit, I bring him, a kinsman."

Their native songs sometimes consist of a single syllable, sung indefinitely. The melodious voices of the Ojibways since they have become in a measure civilized, have been used in singing the hymns of the religious assemblies of the Christians, and their musical talent has been admired by those who have listened to the instrumental bands from Saugeen, St. Clair, Sault Ste. Marie and other Reservations.

The animated war dance of the natives deeply impressed the beholder, as the dancers sang with great vehemence. They danced for amusement, and at their sacred festivals dancing was frequently indulged in, the men dancing alone. Occasionally a woman danced in their social gatherings, but the men always, and then singly. With head bent forward, and body in a crouching posture the feet were lifted from the ground, keeping time with the music, but there was no attempt at any particular movements with the feet. The native spectators oftentimes made a hoarse sound with their voices, something like a grunt, at the deeper strains of the music.

The Ojibways had numerous sacred feasts. They prayed and made sacrifices to propitiate the evil spirits which were supposed to dwell in the caves, strangely contorted trees, peculiar looking stones, the rapids of rivers, and indeed in any strange object in nature. They sought to allay a storm upon the lake by sacrificing a black dog, fastening a stone to his neck and casting him into the angry waters. Offerings of tobacco, bread, clothing and trinkets were made to the spirits. They blackened their faces and fasted to ward off' the evil influence of the avenging gods by propitiating them. When a male child was born the friends of the family were invited to a feast, and a Mida named as godfather, who dedicated the child to ^ome special pursuit in life. Stone boulders and erratic pieces of copper were raised to the dignity of idols, and as the Ojibways passed them on their hunting expeditions they made offerings to them. Such stone figures were supposed to be vital, and became fetiches, the shape having come by nature, was proof sufficient that they were possessed by spirits.

Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby), on one of his missionary tours to Walpole Island, urged the Ojibways there to embrace the Christian religion, and received a significant reply in relation to the native religion from the head chief, Pezhekezhikquash-kum.

"Brothers and friends, I arise to shake hands with you, not only with my hands, but with my heart also do I shake hands with you.

"Brothers and friends, the Great Spirit who made the earth, the waters, and everything that exists, has brought us together to shake hands with each other.

"Brothers and friends, I have listened to your words that you have spoken to us this day. I will now tell you what is in my heart.

"Brothers and friends, the Great Spirit made us all; he made the white man, and he made the Indian. When the Great Spirit made the white man he gave him his worship, written in a book, and prepared a place for his soul in heaven above. He also gave him his mode of preparing and administering medicine to the sick, different from that of the Indians..

"Brothers and friends, when the Great Spirit made the Indian he gave him his mode of worship, and the manner of administering and using medicine to the sick. The Great Spirit gave the Indian to know the virtue of roots and plants to preserve life; and by attending to these things our lives are preserved.

"Brothers and friends, I will tell you what happened to some of our forefathers that once became Christians. I have been informed that when the white people first came to this country, our fathers said to one another, ' Come, brothers, let us worship like our white brothers.' They did so, and threw away all that their fathers had told them to do, and forsook the path that their fathers had pointed out to them to walk in. When they had thrown away the religion of their fathers, sickness came among them, and most every one of them died, and but a few escaped death. Again, since my own recollection, there was one man who came among the Indians at the River Miamme, who told them the Great Spirit was angry with them on account of their witchcraft and living in the way of their forefathers. They listened to this babbler, and threw away all their medicines, all their pouches, and all their medicine bags, and everything they used in their arts into the river. They had no sooner done this than great sickness came among them also, and but few escaped death of them that had taken heed to the words of this babbler.

"Now, brothers and friends, if I should follow the example of those that once worshipped like the white man, I should expect to incur the anger of the Great Spirit, and share the same fate of them that perished. I will therefore remain as I am, and sit down alone and worship in that way that the Munedoo Spirit appointed our forefathers to do and to observe.

"Brothers and friends, how can I, who have grown old in sins and in drunkenness, break off from these things, when the white people are as bad and wicked as the Indians ? Yesterday two white men, Christians, got drunk, quarrelled and fought with one another, and one of them is now on the Island with a black eye.

"Brothers and friends, what you have said concerning the evil effects of the fire-waters is very true. Strong drink has made us poor and destroyed our lives.

Brothers and friends, I am poor and hardly able to buy enough cloth for a pair of pantaloons to dress me like the white man, if I should become a Christian or live like the white man.

"Brothers and friends, I am glad to see you as native brethren, but will not become a Christian. This is all I have to say."

Among the Ojibways there are several classes of mystery men, including the Wabeno, Jessakid, Herbalists and Mida. The Wabeno, or " Men of the dawn," constitute a class of men who practice mysterious rites by which they confer upon the hunter the power of securing successes in the hunting expeditions, enable men and women to exercise an unfailing influence over certain persons, such as compelling them to fall in love with them, and are able, by the use of magic medicine, to handle red-hot stones, or bathe their hands in boiling water without suffering any injury or experiencing any discomfort. In their midnight orgies they dance and sing, pretending to handle fire, and by means of their superstitious craft wield a powerful influence among the people.

The Jessakid is a prophet, " a revealer of hidden truths," who has received a special gift from the thunder god, by which he performs feats of jugglery which astonish the natives, and hold them in dread of these mystery men. He possesses the power of injuring anyone, even at a distance.

A similar class of men are to be found among the Crees, and many strange stories have I heard upon the plains of the west, of persons having their bodies suddenly covered with warts, being afflicted with paralysis, palsy and other diseases one year distant to a day, according to the time pronounced by the mystery man. They can call to their aid evil spirits to aid them in their work. An empty sack will move upon the ground,' a lodge on a calm night sway violently, as if shaken with a strong wind, and when tied by an Indian will unloose themselves, and the rope will be found with the numerous knots still untied in a distant lodge. They are therefore termed sorcerers, and their spiritualistic feats and seances are equal to those of any white wizard or tricks of legerdemain performed by white men.

The herbalist is skilled in the knowledge of plants of medical value, and practices the art of healing. Men and women are to be found in this class, as they are also to be met with amongst the Blackfoot and Cree Indians.

The Mida is a shaman and in his person is united the offices of priest and medical man. The term medical priesthood will appropriately apply to this class of men. There are four degrees or grades of Mida; entrance to each of which is by means of elaborate rites, feasts, special training and ability. The elaborate ceremonial, with the traditions, constitute the religion of the people.

In the seventeenth annual "Report of Bureau of Ethnology" there is a very full monograph on " The Midewiwin or Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibways," by Dr. W. J. Hoffman, which presents all the features of the medical priesthood, and will repay the careful student who desires to know accurately the ancient religious rites of these people.

HERBALIST PREPARING MEDICINE,

The rites of the Medicine Lodge of the Crees and Blackfeet, popularly called the thirst dance and the sun dance, have a striking corroboration in many of the rites of the Ghost Lodge of the Ojibways. The Mida treat the sick and act as the medical and spiritual advisers of the people.

The Ojibways, as all the other native tribes of Canada, are lovers of their pipe and tobacco. At all their social gatherings the pipe is brought out, and after mixing the tobacco with kinni-kinnic, it is lighted and passed around. In their native worship tobacco is offered to their gods, and at their sacred feasts the pipe-stem is pointed toward the sun. They have smoke ceremonies in connection with the Grand Medicine Society, and the calumet dance is a significant feature of their religious rites. When the treaty was made with the Saulteaux in 1873, at the north-west angle of the Lake of the Woods, a dance was given in honor of Lieutenant Morris, and then the pipe of peace was handed to him. Some of the pipes were beautifully carved, and others had significant pictographs painted on them. The Indians of the Manitoulin Islands made their pipes from the black stone of Lake Huron, the white stone of St. Joseph Island and the red stone of Coteau des Prairies.

In the early days the men were employed in hunting and fishing, and the women attended to their simple domestic duties, making in their leisure, various ornamental and useful articles. The men manufactured their axes, pipes and other necessary implements of stone, which were discarded through their influence with the white men. They still manufacture beautiful birch-bark canoes, and have added to their occupation of hunting and fishing that of farming.

Through their contact with the white people, the women have been taught basket-making and other useful manufactures. Beautiful mats and dainty articles for the home, ornamented with colored beads and dyed porcupine quills, are made by the women and sold to the white people.

The wild rice was gathered from Rice Lake by the women for food. They went together in pairs in a birch canoe, and raising it from the water, thrashed it into the canoe, and took it home. A hole was dug in the ground and lined with a deerskin, into which the rice was poured, and boys trampled it until the chaff was removed, when it was afterward fanned, and was then ready for use.

Different tribes build different kinds of tents. The Ojibway lodge was round, covered with bark. The native style of dress has given place to that worn by the white men. They painted their faces, fanciful at times, or as a sign of the degree held by the person as a Mida. The special feature of the native dress was a garter made of a band of beads from two to four inches in width, and about twenty inches in length, to the ends of which were fastened strands of colored wool two feet long, which were passed round the leg and tied in a bow on the front part of the leg. The garter was made of various designs, according to taste, and of different colored beads. When the Ojibways were receiving their annual distribution of presents at Holland Landing, in 1827, Captain Basil Hall was there, and his account of his visit shows us the style of ornaments worn by the people at that time:

"The scene at the Holland Landing was amusing enough, for there were collected about three hundred Indians, with their squaws and papooses, as the women and children are called. Some of the party were encamped under the brushwood, in birch-bark wigwams or huts, but the greater number, having paddled down Lake Siincoe in the morning, had merely drawn up their canoes on the grass, ready to start again as soon as the ceremonies of the day were over. The Indian agent seemed to have hard work to arrange the party to his mind; but at length the men and women were placed in separate lines, while the children lay sprawling and bawling in the middle. Many of the males, as well as the females, wore enormous earrings, some of which I found upon admeasurement to be six inches in length; and others carried round their necks silver ornaments, from the size of a watch to that of a soup-plate. Sundry damsels, I suppose at the top of the fashion, had strung over them more than a dozen of necklaces of variously stained glass beads. One man, I observed, was ornamented with a set of bones, described to me as the celebrated wampum, of which everyone has heard; and this personage, with four or five others, and a few of the women, were wired in the nose like pigs, with rings, which dangled against their lips. Such of the papooses as were not old enough to run about and take care of themselves, were strapped up in boxes, with nothing exposed but their heads and toes. So that when the mothers were too busy to attend to their offspring, the little animals might be hooked up out of the way upon the nearest branch of a tree, or placed against a wall, like a hat or a pair of boots, and left there to squall away to their hearts' content."

When Peter Jones was a child, a grand feast was held for the purpose of giving him a name and dedicating him to the particular care of one of the gods. He was named Kahkeway-quonabay, which means " Sacred Waving Feathers," and referred to the feathers plucked from the sacred bird, the eagle. As the eagle was the symbol of the god of thunder, he was dedicated to the god of thunder. A war-club, denoting power, and a bunch of eagle-feathers, representing the flight of the god of thunder, were given to him as a memorial of the feast, and so long as he retained these he would retain the influence conferred upon him by his god.

The Ojibways were inveterate gamblers, and were not slow to learn the games of the white people., Amongst the native forms of amusement they had a game in some respects similar to the Eskimo game, ajegaung. Peter Jones mentions this game in his book on the Ojibways. It is called Pepengunegun, which means " stabbing a hollow bone."

It consisted, according to the description given by David Boyle, Curator of the Canadian Institute, of " seven conical bones strung on a leather thong about eight inches long, which has fastened to it at one end a small piece of fur, and at the other a hickory pin three and a half inches long. The game was played by catching the pin near the head, swinging the bones upwards, and trying to insert the point of the pin into one of them before they descended. Each bone is said to have possessed a value of its own; the highest being placed on the lowest bone, or the one nearest to the hand in playing. This bone has also three holes near the wide end, and to insert the pin into any of these entitled the player to an extra number of points. Above each hole is a series of notches, numbering, respectively, four, six and nine, which were, presumably, the values attached."

Suggestive records were made by the people on birch bark. Birch-bark rolls were made containing the records of songs, traditions, religious ideas, feasts, the geographical features of the country, individual exploits, and various rites of the Grand Medicine Society. The devices of their picture writing were expressive to the minds of the ^natives, embodying the beginnings of literature amongst a people not blest with the privileges of civilized li£e.

The Ojibway language evinces the strength of intellect possessed by the people, in its numerous forms of the verb, the nice distinctions in its grammatical constructions, and the fulness of its vocabulary. The language belongs to the Algonquin family, which includes several important languages spoken by tribes in Canada and the United States.

Adopting Baraga's classification the language has no articles. Gender is distinguished by different words, but has two forms, called animate and inanimate. The plural is formed by adding a letter or syllable, without any change in the noun itself, and there are no less than twelve different terminations for the plural, seven for the animate, and five for the inanimate nouns. The noun has many diminutives and four cases, and in order that the meaning of the sentences may not be ambiguous, there is a beautiful arrangement of three third persons. There are five classes of pronouns, but no relatives. The language is rich in verbs, which are divided into transitive and intransitive. There are four classes of transitive, and six of intransitive verbs. There is an active and passive voice, affirmative and negative forms, four moods, six tenses, and nine conjugations. A separate paper would be required to discuss the language, so we shall be compelled to content ourselves with the following short vocabulary:

As early as 1641 the Jesuit Fathers, Jogues and Kaymbault, visited the Ojibways at Sault Ste. Marie, to be followed by Claude Allouez and other missionaries in later years. The Jesuit missions in Canada were confined chiefly to theMicmacs, Huron-Iroquois and Ottawas after this period, although they must have come in contact with the Ojibways without establishing any missions among them.

The first Protestant missions among the Ojibways in Canada were established by the Moravians, who ministered to them when they began the Fairfield mission among the Delawares on the Thames River in 1792. About the year 1820, a strong missionary spirit was aroused among the Christian people of Ontario, and in the ten succeeding years the Ojibway bands were visited by the English Church and Methodist missionaries. Christian influences reached the Ojibways from the mission to the Iroquois on the Grand River, and some were inclined to listen to the teachings of the white men and Indians. The Government was anxious to help the Iroquois, and the churches became eager to reach the natives with the Word of Life. A great impetus was given to the work among the Ojibways by William Case, and subsequently by Peter Jones and John Sunday. Jones and Sunday were natives, who were ordained as missionaries of the Methodist Church. They made long journeys to the scattered tribes on Lake Simcoe, Georgian Bay and as far west as Sault Ste. Marie. They visited Manitoulin Island, preaching to the natives, and returned to tell to delighted audiences the story of their success. Many noble successors have followed in their footsteps, and missions are now widely scattered among the Ojibways. Deuke, among the Moravians ; Baraga, of the Roman Catholics ; O'Meara, of the English Church; and Hurlburt, of the Methodists, are prominent names among the Ojibway missions; but there have been numerous workers who have toiled faithfully whose names are preserved in the missionary annals and their record is on high.

Wonderful legends relating to the deeds of Nanibozho, the creation of the world, the flood, the thunder god, northern lights, the gift of the good things of this life, and the exploits of the gods, are full of interest, which the reader may find in special works, or sitting beside one of the wise men may listen to in a modified form.

Since the days of Jonathan Carver many travellers have written about these people. Histories of the tribe, dictionaries and grammars have been prepared, and in the native language the Bible, hymn books, spelling books and other works have been translated. An extensive literature is now in existence for the use of the white and red men who desire to learn about things human and divine.

A large portion of Ontario was claimed by the Ojibways, who gradually, by selling their land to the Government and by making treaties, have become dispossessed of it. They still possess lands in the Province of Ontario, and the scattered branches of the tribe are located on Reserves.

Whenever any important matters were to be discussed they held a council, and delegated their chiefs to act as spokesmen for them. The ablest men were elected chiefs, and were held in esteem, although some were jealous of their position. They have been noted for their allegiance to the Crown, despite influences which have been brought to bear upon them to beget disloyalty.

As the aged men lay in their lodges they believed that their souls would travel toward the west, and they therefore commanded their friends to deposit in their graves bows and arrows, a knife, dish, spoon, blanket and other articles for their use on the journey. The dead were buried with their heads towards the west to indicate the direction in which the departed spirit had gone. They travelled toward the " Land of the Sleeping Sun." Burial mounds are supposed to have been made by them.

Some of them, however, adopted a method practised among the Blackfeet, of burying in the ground and then erecting a small house over the grave. Feasts were given in honor of the dead, and dishes of food brought into the "Grand Medicine Lodge" for the departed spirits.

The Ojibways held the same animistic belief as the western Indians, that the souls of the articles deposited in the graves were of service to them, as being now in the spirit land, they could live no longer on material food, but must have spiritual food suitable to their spiritual natures.*

An old myth of these people says, "Gitci Gauzini was a chief, who lived on the shores of Lake Superior, and once, after a few days illness, he seemed to die. He had been a skilful hunter, and had desired that a fine gun, which he possessed, should be buried with him when he died. But some of his friends not thinking him really dead, his body was not buried; his widow watched him for four days, he came back to life and told his story. After death, he said, his ghost travelled on the broad road of the dead toward the happy land, passing over great plains of luxuriant herbage, seeing beautiful groves, and hearing the songs of innumerable birds, till at last, from the summit of a hill, he caught sight of the distant city of the dead, far across an intermediate space, partly veiled in mist, and spangled with glittering lakes and streams. He came in view of herds of stately deer, and moose and other game, which, with little fear, walked near his path. But he had no gun, and remembering how he had requested his friends to put his gun in his grave, he turned back to go and fetch it. Then he met face to face the train of men, women and children who were travelling toward the city of the dead. They were heavily laden with guns, pipes, kettles, meats and other articles ; ornamented clubs and their bows and arrows, the presents of their friends. Refusing a gun which an overburdened traveller offered him, the ghost of Gitci Gauzini travelled back in quest of his own, and at last reached the place where he died. There he could see only a great fire before him and around him, and finding the flames barring his passage on every side, he made a desperate leap through and awoke from his trance. Having concluded his story, he gave his auditors counsel that they should no longer deposit so many burdensome things with the dead, delaying them on their journey to the place of repose, so that almost everyone complained bitterly. It would be wiser, he said, to put such things in the grave as the deceased was particularly attached to, or made a formal request to have deposited with him."