166 KEV. GEO. tATTEESON ON THE BEOTHIKS 



entitled to speak in public parliament. Every one who stands up to speak leans forward 

 on his staff. Frequently in referring to his speech, he calls it " this staff," and when 

 about to end his address will say : " I am now about to lay down this staff." (" Nineteen 

 Years in Polynesia," p. 341.) The similarity of these implements may indicate an affinity 

 between the Beothiks and the Malayo-Polynesiau race, of which the Samoans are among 

 the finest specimens. But the custom really carries us back to patriarchal times, when a 

 rod or staff in the hand of the head of a family or tribe was the symbol of his authority 

 and of tribal unity. Thus Jacob speaks of the sceptre or tribal rod of Jirdah (Gren. xlix, 10), 

 and in Numbers, xvii, 3, we read of the rod of each of the heads of the father's houses. 

 (See also chap, xxi, 18.) So that the rod came to represent the tribe, and the word is 

 commonly used to denote it. (Exod. xxvii, 21, etc.) So also it pointed out the head of one 

 of the divisions of a tribe, the clan, ''family" of our English translation (Hebrew, mishpadiah), 

 as in Numb, iv, 18, " the tribe (lit. rod) of the families of the Kohathitcs)." In kingdoms 

 this became the symbol of rule.' That a sacredness should be attached to such emblems 

 was natural, and we can understand how Mr. Cormack, from Shanandithit's statements, 

 should suppose them connected with their religion. We may add that in a vocabulary, to 

 be noticed presently, taken down from her, of Beothic words, there are three objects of 

 this kind named and representations given of them. One somewhat resembling the 

 second in the upper part of Plate XI is called " the whale's tail," the second resembling a 

 half moon, and similar to the third, is called kewis or the moon, while of the third, which 

 somewhat resembles the lowest, but more exactly answers the description given by 

 Lieut. Buchan of the one seen by him, the meaning of the name is not given. 



It is, I think, worthy of consideration whether the practice of colouring themselves 

 and their possessions red might not have had a religious or semi-religious character. 

 From the prominence given to it by the Jewish prophets it seems to have had some such 

 significance. Thus Ezekiel (chap, xxiii, 14, 15), referring to the idolatrous practices which 

 the Jewish people borrowed from neighbouring nations, describes them as " doting upon 

 the Assyrians, her neighbours," adding to her idolatries, " for when she saw men jioitrtrajjed 

 on the avails images of Chaldeans pourirayed with vermilion." " Jeremiah (chap, xxii, 14) notices 

 the king's vanity specially as manifest in having his house " painted with vermilion." 

 And the Book of Wisdom (chap, xiii, 14) represents them as colouring the idol itself in 

 this manner, " laying on ochre (Grreek miltos) and with paint colouring it red, and cover- 

 ing every spot in it." With this accord the recently exhumed Assyrian monuments. M. 

 Botta noticed several figures on the walls oFKhorsabad yet retaining a portion of the ver- 

 milion with which it had been painted. There is in the British Museum among the 

 marbles sent from Nimroud by Mr. Layard a large slab with a figure of the king standing 

 holding in his right hand a staff, and resting his left on the pommel of his sword, still 

 having the soles of his sandals coloured red. 



The same practice is found elsewhere. In Egypt the Sphinx was coloured red, so in 

 Rome was the image of Jupiter, preserved in the Capitol. The Buddhist monks in Cen- 

 tral Asia all wear a red cloak. We find it, too, among distant and barbarous tribes, who 

 may have lost all idea of its original object. Thus Capt. Cook describ(>s the inhabitants 

 of Tasmania as having their hair and beards anointed with red ointment. And it is 



' See also Psal. xxiii. 4, c x. 2, Jer. xlviii. 17, Ezek. xxxvii. 16, 17. 



'' Heb. SiMshar, translated by Gesenius, red color, red ochre, by Keil, red ochre. 



