ne TUANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTH:. [VoL. IV. 



only are tanned for use. Moose is rare within the Carriers' territory, 

 and still more so is the deer. Therefore, with that tribe, mocassins, 

 mittens and gloves, bags, etc., are almost exclusively of cariboo skin. 

 We will here pass over skin articles, which belong to the native accoutre- 

 ment or wearing apparel, as these shall be treated of in the next chapter. 



Confining ourselves to household or non-personal objects, we may 

 mention no less than seven varieties of leather bags or pouches in use 

 among the primitive Carriers. Fig. 134 represents the household bag or 

 eztjai. This is generally the property of women and serves to contain 

 the family chattels, but more particularly such as are proper to the 

 women, clothes, pieces of tanned skins, working tools, articles of orna- 

 mentation, etc. This bag needs no description ; the cut cannot but give 

 an exact idea of its form. The bead work in some is much more elabor- 

 ate than in the specimen herewith figured. Before the introduction of 

 glass beads, dyed porcupine quills served to ornament this and all other 

 kinds of skin receptacle. The cover piece of this eztjai is also, I am 

 told, a modern innovation. This bag is never used as a packing con- 

 trivance. 



A variety of the same, but much reduced in dimensions, was formerly 

 the regular badge of widowhood among Carrier women, so much so that 

 the custom which required its use has given the Carriers their distinctive 

 name. Among them cremation was the national mode of disposing of 

 the dead. As a rule, on the morning following the funeral ceremony, the 

 relatives of the deceased, accompanied by his widow, were wont to pick 

 up from among the ashes of the pyre the few remaining charred bones 

 which, if too large for the purpose in view, they did not scruple to 

 reduce by breaking to the desired size, These were then handed to the 

 widow to daily pack till her liberation from the bondage consequent on 

 her new condition. This gruesome task devolved on her for the space of 

 at least two or three years, and in extreme cases was prolonged to a 

 period of some five years. Upon the final giving away of property 

 which was the signal for the cessation of mourning, these bones were 

 deposited with the satchet containing them in a box laid on the top of a 

 funeral column near the village. 



"■fe^ 



Some of these satchets were still in existence a few years ago. Their 

 cover, instead of fitting over the whole bag as in the household eztjai, 

 reached only half way down. Its sides were also sewn with those of the 

 satchet itself, so as to preclude the possibility of its contents being acci- 

 dentally thrown out. Of course, a string was attached to the satchet 

 and passed across the neck or or breast of the packer. A lining of birch 



