1892-93.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN D^N^S. 27 



rendezvous of representatives of three different tribes, namely : the 

 Tse'kehne who periodically congregate there for trading purposes and 

 have no permanent residence ; the Carriers, a band of whom now 

 inhabit the village and hunt in the vicinity of the lake with the consent 

 of the former ; and the gtnas or Kitiksons from the Skeena river who 

 are considered as mere intruders and as such live there only on sufferance. 



Both the Na'kraztli'tenne and the T'laz'tenne receive from the Babines 

 the name of 'Kutane. 



The following subdivisions might be designated under the collective 

 name of Babines, since in language they are practically one, and the 

 custom of wearing labrets which gave its distinctive name to one of them 

 was common to both. They are : — 



8. The NituUimii (in Upper Carrier Natdtenne) or Babines who 

 inhabit the northern half of Babine lake in three villages and number 

 actually some 310 souls. 



9 The Htvotsu' tinni (in Upper Carrier H'zvotsd tenne) or people of the 

 river Hwotsutsan.* They are called Akwilget, " well dressed," by the 

 Kiliktons, their immediate neighbours of Tsimpsian parentage, and after 

 them by the whites. They inhabit two villages, Tse-tcah,+ Key9R- 

 hwotq9t,:j: and two smaller places now organizing, Tsei-'kaz-Kwoh,§ and 

 Moricetown on the HwotsotssnKwoh or Buckley river and what is 

 known in the country as the telegraph trail. All of these localities are 

 within the northernmost extremity of these Indians' hunting grounds 

 which extend from Francjais Lake up to the Skeena River. Several 

 member^ of that sept are allied by blood with their alien neighbours, the 

 Kitiksons. They number about 300. 



The language of these different branches of the Carrier tribe, while 

 remaining essentially the same, undergoes however marked variations 

 corresponding to its ethnographical subdivisions. Upon that ground 1 

 have even sometimes asked myself whether distinct individuality as a 

 tribe should not be granted to the Babines whose linguistic or even 

 psychological peculiarities are so glaring that they cannot escape 

 detection even by the most careless observer. Much of their dialect 

 would indeed be " greek " to an ^thau'ten visitor. 



It is also but right to warn the reader that the three main divisions 

 of the tribe into Lower Carriers, Upper Carriers and Babines, although 



* Almost equivalent to "Spider." 

 t Down against the Rock. 

 JOld Village. 

 § River of the axe edge. 



