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TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIA.V IVSTirUTE. 



[YOL. IV. 



I have never seen 'keilapas played by others than children and young 

 men. But in times past it had a sort of national importance, inasmuch as 

 teams from distant vtllages were wont to assemble in certain localities 

 more favorable to its performance in good style. Indeed, until a few 

 years ago the sporting field of some was literally dotted with small 

 cavities resulting from the fall of the arrows. 



Fig. I02 represents the device doing duty among the Tsi[Koh'tin as a 

 spindle. Prior to the introduction of European textile 

 fabrics, its uses were doubtless of a much wider des- 

 cription than to-day. As a matter qf fact, I have never 

 seen it in actual use except to spin or twist the rabbit 

 skin lines entering into the manufacture of blankets. 

 The discoidal attachment is wanting in the implement 

 such as known among the Carriers. 



There can be imagined no simpler or more primitive 

 method of lighting fire than that originally obtaining 

 Fig. I02. among the Western Denes. Instead of the somewhat 

 elaborate fire-drill in use amongst the northernmost congenerous tribes, 

 such as the Loucheux and the Hares, our aborigines' apparatus was 

 reduced to a short stick, generally of resinous scrub pine (P, contorta) set 

 revolving on touchwood by immediate contact with the hands as is 

 practised by the Wataweita of eastern equatorial Africa.* 



Shall I speak of the Western Denes' canoes .'' They certainly possess 

 no peculiarity to render them worthy of any mention, unless it be their 

 very rudeness of form and finish. Of course I do not here refer to the 

 birch bark canoes, which among the Carriers and the TsijKoh'tin, have 

 gone out of use since the last fifty years or so. Of these I have seen but 

 very few examples, and they were not representatives of their class. 



hig. 103. 



West of the Rocky Mountains, the present Dene canoe is dug out of bal- 

 sam poplar trees {Populns balsamifera), and either because the material 

 will not admit of a similar treatment, or because our Indians have not yet 

 learned the method of expanding the sides by the action of fire under- 

 neath, as is done by the Coast Tribes with regard to their cedar canoes, 

 they are left almost as narrow at the centre as the tree was while in its 



See "Fire making apparatus in the U.S. Museum," by Walter Hough, p. 553. 



