100 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [VoL. II. 



and wife, and a doll, representing a child ; also arrows, a quiver, fire 

 stones (iron pyrites), and other things. 



Of their customs and habits a few words must suffice in this place. 

 Their winter mamateeks, or wigwams were conical. Their frames were 

 of poles covered with skins or birch bark, stoutly constructed, though 

 they looked very light. Several had withstood the storms of over thirty 

 winters. They were made to accommodate from six to eighteen persons. 

 The fire was in the centre ; round it were a number of holes, one for 

 each person, in which the occupant sat, and it is supposed slept. For 

 increased comfort the holes were lined with moss. 



The remains of a vapour bath were also found, the construction was 

 ingenious ; large stones were heated in the open air by burning stones 

 round them, the ashes were then removed, a hemispherical frame work^ 

 closely covered with skins to exclude the external air was fixed over the 

 stones. The patient crept in under the skins, taking with him a birch 

 rind bucket of water and a small dish to dip it out ; on pouring water on 

 the hot stones he could raise the steam at pleasure. 



They produced fire by striking together two pieces of iron pyrites, a 

 custom peculiarly their own, and not known to exist among other tribes. 



They had four modes of sepulture which varied according to the rank 

 of the deceased. One of the repositories resembled a hut lo feet by 8 or 

 9 and 4 or 5 feet high in the centre, floored with square poles, the roof 

 covered with rinds of trees and in every way well secured inside against 

 the weather and the intrusions of wild beasts. Another resembled that 

 of our own Indians, the body was wrapped in birch bark and with the 

 property of the deceased placed on a sort of scaffold about 4^ feet 

 from the ground. The scaffold was formed of four poles about 7 feet 

 high, fixed perpendicularly in the ground, to sustain a floor 5 feet 6 

 inches long by 4 feet broad, the floor was made of small square beams 

 laid close together horizontally on which the body and property lay. A 

 third method was when the body was bent together and wrapped in 

 birch rind and enclosed in a sort of box placed on the ground ; the box 

 was made of small square posts laid on each other horizontally and 

 notched at the corners to make them fit closely ; it was 4 feet long, 3 

 feet wide, 2jE^ feet deep, well lined with birch rind to exclude the 

 weather ; the body lay on its right side. The last and most common 

 way was to wrap the body in birch rind and cover it over with heaps of 

 stones on the surface o( the ground in some retired spot. Sometimes the 

 body thus wrapped was put under the surface a foot or two and the spot 

 covered with stones. In some places where the ground was soft and 

 sandy the graves were deeper and no stones were placed over them. 



