1892-93.] NOTES ON THE WESTERN DBN^S. 47 



black thorn,* Primus spinosa, as is shown through fig. 9. The adzes thus 

 obtained never had a cutting edge fine or hard enough to serve crosswise 

 against wood, and the axeman's strokes had always to be directed 

 obliquely.f 



It must be noted also that, among the Carriers, such instruments were 

 possessed by the notables and a few wealthy heads of families only. 

 The common people had recourse to fire to cut their provision of wood. 

 After having freed the main roots of a tree of the earth adhering thereto 

 b}' means of slight excavations underneath, they would light there a 

 small fire with vegetable matter with the result that the tree would 

 inevitably topple over at the latest on the morrow thereafter. Then the 

 smaller limts were trimmed off either with a hard stick, with a stone club 

 if any was at hand, or, among the Babines, with a bone or horn implement 

 specially fashioned for the purpose. Smaller trees were next crossed 

 over the trunk at the proper intervals to give the desired length to the 

 pieces of wood, after which a fire was started at each point of intersection 

 and maintained by the children or the women until both the larger and 

 the smaller trunks were burnt asunder. 



If too bulky to easily burn in the fire-place, the wood was then split 

 with the help of wedges and a roughly formed wooden maul. Except 

 among the Tsi[Koh'tin, the stone hammers and sledges so common 

 among the coast Indians were unknown. For peculiarly heavy work 

 such as sinking down the stakes on the solidity of whith depends the 

 firmness of the salmon weirs, they sometimes did, and even now do, use 

 such elongated stones as bear the greatest resemblance to their Invot'sdz 

 or wooden maul ; but these are never pecked or fashioned into regular 

 sledses. ' 



Fig. 10. 

 The Carriers' wedgesl: were either of hard wood, of the part of the 



" 111 Carrier v^w^s-tco^ " bi<^ tliorn." 



tTIie axe is called tsej in TsiiKoh'tin, tsei in Tse'kehiie and tsii in Babine ; whilst, curiously 

 enough, the Carriers now call it, and seem to have done so as long as any old man can remember, 

 tse-tsi'i, or stone-axe. Nevertheless, the Dene name of this primitive implement is evidently tse/ 

 or (si/, a primary root. 



t Yil, pr. root. 



