ABORIGINAL AMERICAN POETRY. 31 



Of the three great groups of American aborigines, which, according to Mr. A. H. 

 Keane's classification, belong almost exclusively to Canada — the Tinné, Dené-Dindjie, 

 Athabascan, or Chipewyan, the Escjuimaux, or Innuit, and the Columbian races— a 

 good deal of valuable information has been collected by Dr. Scouler, Mr. H. Hale, Father 

 Petitot, Dr. Franz Boas, Dr. Gr. M. Dawson, Dr. Boyd Dawkins, Mr. Dall, and other recent 

 writers. Dr. Boas divides the Vancouver and mainland coast tribes into four chief 

 groups: the West Vancovrver, the Tsimpshiau. the Selish and the Kwakiootl.' On this 

 last important division of the Columbian family, Dr. Dawson has contribiited a paper to 

 this Section. 



Among these far western tribes, we find the use of dance and song, for ceremonial 

 purposes, as firmly established as among the Indians of the east and south. Dr. Dawson 

 describes no less than six distinct kinds of dance as in existence among the Haidas alone. 

 These dances are, for the most part, accompanied by characteristic songs." 



Among the traditions and folklore of these people, Dr. Dawson gives a strange 

 creation myth, in which the origin of man, animals, fire, water, etc., is accounted for.'' 

 Curiously this myth corresponds with what he had been told on the same subject by some 

 of the Tinné tribes of the northern interior of British Columbia. This is not surprising, 

 if Father Petitot's view as to the far-reaching extent of those myths be correct. The 

 monographs of the zealous missionary and philologist on both the Dené-Dindjie and the 

 Esquimaux-Tchiglit, were translated by Mr. Douglas Brymner, chief of the Archives 

 Department, and printed in the Dominion Mmilhly for 1878. They form a valuable addition 

 to our library of native American folklore. Some specimens of the dirges of the Dené- 

 Dindjie may serve to illustrate their poetic capabilities. A man who had lost his brother 

 sang, weeping : — 



" My younger brother, the celestial reindeer 



Allures but to deceive thee I 

 My younger Erother, return to earth ! " 



A brother, lamenting the loss of a sister, sang : — 



" In the river whc-^e course the great isle turns, 



My sister has, unknown to mo, drunk of the little wave, alas ! ^ 



My little sister who condemned the little net, alas ! " 



In carrying the corpse of a hunter around the tents in a hasty course, they affected 

 disorder and a pretended flight, sounding a rattle and singing at the same time : — 



" In the upper earth thou huntest thy lakes for the white deer, 

 Fiercest the antelopes with thy darts; thy parents ask thee: 

 Why art thou come to this earth to hunt the elk 

 Which has caused thy death ? " 



But, if they celebrate the death of an enemy, they vary the funeral theme : — 



" The fogs of the Glacial Sea descend on the waters; 



The great sea groans over his fate, alas ! 



For the enemy of the Flat country will never return thither safe and sound." 



' Science, March 25, 1887. - Geol. Survey of Can., Report of Progress, 1878-79, pp. 127d, 128b, 129b. 



^ Md., 149b. 



