118 TUANSACTIONS OF THK CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Vol,. IV. 



the tcju-dsfju (sticks-interwoven) of the Babines. Its name indicates 

 its mode of fabrication, but leaves us in the dark as to its shape or 

 destination. Imaijine a rouijh arm chair without lesfs and made of stout, 

 split sticks of willow (Salix longifolia) or other wood secured by skin 

 strings, and you have a perfect idea of its form. As for its use, it ma}' 

 be properly pointed out by a simple reference to the plate xx illustrating 

 Ancient Mexican Carriers, in Cyrus Thomas' paper on the Manuscrit 

 Troano.* The packing devices seem to be identical in both cases, while 

 the modes of handling the implement appear to have been different. 

 Our Western Dene women — useless to remark that among primitive 

 peoples heavy work alwaj's falls to the lot of the woman — pack from the 

 forehead with a skin line broadening in the middle, and, if the load is 

 unusually weighty, the ends of this line are made to pass around the 

 chest so as to render the burden more manageable. Among the 

 Hwotso'tin, a fraction of the Babine sub-tribe, I have seen a woman thus 

 packing, apparently with the greatest ease, her invalid husband, a man 

 of more than average size and weight. 



I shall purposely avoid speaking of the board boxes likewise used as 

 carrying mediums by some of our Carriers, because they are imported 

 from the coast, not indigenous to the Western Denes. 



These other objects which, as sociological items, are also due to the 

 influence of the maritime tribes, but had become naturalized among, and 

 were made by, the Carriers, were the ni/rivas, the hand' taih;\ and the 

 fsak. The first two are respectively the ceremonial rattle and mask, 

 none of which can now be illustrated from existing specimens. These 

 were almost the only objects of art of genuine Dene manufacture to 

 which I can point, and yet I do not think I unduly depreciate my 

 Indians' artistic capabilities by adding that they were rather below than 

 above the average of similar aboriginal carvings. The masks were used 

 only by mimics accompanying by grotesque gestures and jerking of the 

 head the dance of a privileged {q\v. But the rattles served a double 

 purpose: they did service in connection with a notable's dance, being then 

 held in the hand by the dancing personage himself, and also as an 

 accompaniment to the incantations of the niiq3n,% or shaman. Both 

 implements are, even at the present day, so common among North 

 Pacific Coast tribes that no description of either is needed by readers 

 ever so little ait fait with American aboriginal paraphernalia It may 



* Contributions to North American Etlinology, vol. v., p. 20. 



+Lit. " that (round obj.) which is taken off;" the verb ha-nes'aih in the potential mood. 

 :;:Lit. "he makes people sing." Not to forget that among most aboriginal races, song and 

 magic are convertible terms. 



