1892-93.] 



NOTKS ON THE WESTERN D^NES. 



139 



fluous facial hair. " Superfluous " should be understood here as synony- 

 mous with " any " hair growing on the lips, the chin or the cheeks, since 

 the Western Denes kept themselves beardless. The prehistoric 

 Tse'kehne, if they are to be judged by their immediate successors, the 

 eldest among the modern Tse'kehne, indulged in the possession of a 

 queer looking partial moustache, which was obtained by leaving un- 

 touched the hair growing on the upper lip below, and exactly corres- 

 ponding in width with the septum, while on both sides the lip was other- 

 wise free of hair. The tweezers were worn on the breast, hanging from 

 the neck. They are still to be seen among the Tsi^Koh'tin and the 

 Tse'kehne. 



The Ca-Tvier na-///ian* or metallic bracelets (fig. 126) were of an ex- 

 ceedingly simple pattern. 

 As the hair tweezers, they 

 were originally of cariboo 

 horn ; but as commercial 

 relations became more ex- 

 tended, copper was soon 

 manufacture. In later 

 times pewter was even adopted and beaten to 

 the desired shape out of the spoons of com- 

 merce. I speak in the past time, because among 

 the Carriers especially, such trinkets are now 

 practically unknown. 



When jbartered from the Coast Indians, the 

 copper was generally in sticks or slender bars, 

 which were then wrought by hammering by the 

 Carriers. These bars remain almost unaltered 

 when used to give consistency to the collars of 

 their dog-harnesses, f When not ornamented, 

 these harnesses are probably similar to those in 

 use among the eastern Indians, and as such 

 would hardly deserve any mention. But the Carriers' fondness. of parade 

 has long prompted them to add to the original pieces the blanket and 

 collar ornaments which I have thought worth the while to show in fig. 

 127. Of course these two additions are detachable paraphernalia, which 

 are not generally used, except when reaching or leaving a village. The 

 frame of the upper parts is of copper. 



Fig. 126. 

 preferred in their 



* Lit. " it (of a heavy material) is around.'' 

 t ji-l'/ii/, dog-ropes, 3rd cat. nouns. 



