322 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xix. 



the little children had also new suits of clothes, which, 

 with their hair close-cropped, quite changed their appear- 

 ance, and gave them a dirty half-civilised look, much less 

 agreeable than the wild air of forest children which they 

 possessed when we saw them on the Moisie. 



On the 12th my brother and I went to visit Otelne in 

 his lodge. Several Indians, seeing us enter, came in soon 

 afterwards, and squatted round the fire. I counted 

 twenty-five persons in all, squaws and children included ; 

 the motley assemblage consisted of five Nasquapees, 

 seventeen Montagnais, one half-bred interpreter, and our- 

 selves. 



They placed -seal skins for us to sit upon, and we 

 squatted round the fire with the rest and endeavoured to 

 make ourselves as little uncomfortable as possible ; but 

 the heat was terrific, and induced a general turn-out in 

 shirt-sleeves. Otelne's lodge was constructed of birch 

 bark, the pieces being stitched together with caribou 

 sinews ; it was both broader and lower than the Ojibways 

 lodges I had seen on Rainy River. Otelne is a very 

 handsome Indian, with delicately chiselled features, a 

 deep copper-coloured skin, long and intensely black hair, 

 small and delicately formed hands and feet, handsome 

 and expressive eyes, and a thoroughly Indian manner in 

 everything he does. Arkaske resembles him in most 

 particulars ; and indeed there is such a marked difference 

 between the appearance of Nasquapees and Montagnais, 

 that, judging from their exterior, one would suppose 

 them to belong to different families of the human 

 race. But the language they speak is Cree, or rather 

 dialects of that tongue, and differing only in minor par- 



