﻿DIALECTS. 401 



speak a dialect of the Kutclia-Katchi language, yet 

 they iinderstand and are readily understood by 

 tlie Indians of Frances Lake and the banks of 

 the Pelly. Now these converse freely with the 

 Naha- or Dtche-ta-ut Hinne, and other Rocky Moun- 

 tain tribes, whose language resembles the Dog- 

 rib tongue, and who are, in fact, acknowledged 

 members of the Chepewyan nation. Again, the 

 Frances Lake Indians understand the Netsilley, or 

 Wild Nation, who trade at Fort Halkett, on the 

 River of the Mountains; these again are under- 

 stood by the Sikdnis; and the Sikdnis by the Beaver 

 Indians, whose dialect varies little from that of the 

 Athabascans, the longest-known member of the 

 'Tinne nation. 



From the great resemblance in manners, cus- 

 toms, and person of the ^Tnaina^ or Kenaiyer of 



* Tnai signifies " men," and is used when the Atniier speak 

 of themselves. Their Eskimo neighbours the Kadyakers call 

 them Kenai-yut, and the Russians have adopted this latter ap- 

 pellation. Koltshanen means "strangers" in the Atniier dialect, 

 and Gultzanen " guests " in the language of the Kenaiyer. 

 These people, coming from the interior, about the sources of the 

 Copper River and the water-shed between it and the valley of the 

 Yukon, have commercial relations with the Kutchin who dwell 

 on Deep River, an affluent of the Yukon. Their accounts of the 

 pointed skirts of the Kutchin shirts have given rise to the 

 fable already alluded to of men with tails dwelling beyond the 

 mountains, current among the Kenaiyer. And their rejDorts 

 of the canabalism of the tribes of the interior have a similar 

 foundation. Lynn's canal is not mentioned as the ascertained 



VOI .1. D D 



