1S92-93.J 



NOTES ON THE WESTERN D^NES. 



167 



aborigines. Considering that fine shreds of sinew were formerly, as they 

 are to-day, common in every native household, it would appear, judging 

 by the coarse line of buck skin appended to this "jewel " that very little 

 regard was entertained in olden times for the sensibility of the human, 

 ear. 



Fig. 156. Fig. 157. 



The dentalium pendant was proper to men, while the latter or haliotis 

 ornament belonged to the fair sex. With insignificant exceptions, neither 

 the men nor the women now wear any ear pendant or ring, except 

 among the Babines, whose tdneza- or noblemen have adopted the silver 

 ear-ring,* proper to persons of similar rank among their alien neighbours,, 

 the Kitiksons. 



As among the majority of savage or barbarous peoples, in contra- 

 distinction with civilized nations, the Western Denes were formerly fond 

 of perforating their septum to introduce therein what they considered 

 wondrous ornaments. These might be divided into three different 

 categories : the crescent, the discoidal or cruciform pendant and the 

 , silver ring.j- 



The two first ornaments are figured above, and were of haliotis shell. 

 The crescent was, of course, inserted to the middle through the hole of 



* See Niblack's The Indians of the Northwest Coast, plate vi. fig. 13. 



+ All the nose-pendants are called ni-spas, ;/?, a contraction of nih, "nostrils ;" spas, the root 

 q{ naiiispas, "ring-like" ' 



