1892-93.] NOTKS ON THK WESTERN DENES. 19 



■carefully locked against any possible intruder. Compare these puerile 

 fears of the Carriers with the indomitable spirit, the warlike disposition 

 ■of the " terrible Apache." Compare also the rude, unartistic implements, 

 the primitive industries of the same tribes with the products of the Navajo 

 ingenuity, their celebrated blankets and exquisite silverwork especially- 

 and tell me if in this case psychology is a safe criterion of ethnologic 

 certitude. 



A noteworthy quality of the Northern Denes, especially of such as 

 have remained untouched by modern civilization is their great honesty. 

 Among the Tse'kehne, a trader will sometimes go on a trapping ex- 

 psdition leaving his store unlocked, without fear of any of its contents 

 going amiss. Meanwhile a native may call in his absence, help himself 

 to as much powder and shot or an)- other item as he may need ; but he 

 will never fail to leave there an exact equivalent in furs. Now compare 

 this naive honesty with the moral code in vogue among the Apaches. 

 Read also what is said of the Lipans, another offshoot of the Dene stock: 

 they " live in the Santa Rosa mountains from which they stroll about 

 making inroads in the vicinity to steal horses and cattle."* 



With regard to mental attainments and force of character, I have 

 shown in a paper read before the Royal Society of Canada.f that all the 

 north-western tribes, Nah'ane Carriers and Tsi|Koh'tin, which have come 

 into contact with alien races have adopted the most prominent practices 

 and customs of the latter. Such is, to a great extent, the case even as 

 regards mythology. Nay more : they have gone as far as to borrow the 

 language of their neighbours in connection with their traditional songs 

 and ceremonies. On the other hand, many TsijKoh'tin and not a few 

 Babines speak Shushwap or Kitikson, while not one full blood individual 

 of the two latter stocks has acquired enough of the Dene languages to 

 decently hold conversation through them. The Denes think it a mark of 

 enlightenment to imitate the alien races with which they have intercourse, 

 while these show the little esteem they profess for them by calling them 

 ^' stick savages." 



Now hear what a competent authority says of the Denes of North 

 California: "Next after the Karoks, they are the finast race in all that 

 region, and they even excel them in their statecraft, and in the singular 

 influence, or perhaps brute force, which they exercise over the vicinal 

 tribes. They are the Romans of North California in their valour and in 

 their far-reaching dominions. They are the French in the extended 



* The Karaukwa Indians, by A. S. Gatschet, p. 41 ; 1891. 



•tAre the Carrier Sociology and Mythology Indigenous, etc? Trans. R. S. C. Sec. n, 1892. 



