THE DENES OF AMERICA IDENTIFIED WITH THE TUNGUS OF ASIA. 179 



numbers, and put them to death, as it is a principle with them never to 

 make prisoners. At the same time, they tamely submit to the 

 Knisteneaux, (Crees), who are not so numerous as themselves, when 

 they treat them as enemies." 



" They do not affect that cold reserve at meeting, either among them- 

 selves or strangers, which is common with the Knisteneaux, but 

 communicate mutually and at once, all the information of which they are 

 possessed. Nor are they roused, like them, from an apparent torpor to 

 a state of great activity. They are, consequently, more uniform in this 

 respect, though they are of a very persevering disposition when their 

 interest is concerned. * * * In their quarrels with each other they 

 very rarely proceed to the greater degree of violence than is occasioned 

 by blows, wrestling, and pulling of the hair, while their abusive language 

 consists in applying the name of the most offensive animal to the object 

 of their displeasure, and adding the term ugly, and chiay or stillborn. 

 This name is also applicable to the foetus of an animal, when killed, 

 which is considered as one of the greatest delicacies. * * * The 

 country which these people claim as their land has a very small quantity 

 of earth, and produces little or no wood or herbage. Its chief 

 vegetable substance is the moss on which the deer feed, and a kind of 

 rock moss, which, in times of scarcity, preserves the lives of the natives. 

 When boiled in water, it dissolves into a clammy, glutinous substance, 

 that affords a very sufficient nourishment. * * * They are also of 

 a querulous disposition, and are continually making* complaints ; which 

 they express by a constant repetition of the word eduiy, "it is hard," in 

 a whining and plaintive tone of voice." 



My copy of Hearne's Voyage is a French translation, which will 

 account for the variation of the extracts from the original. He says : 

 " The Northern Indians are, in general, of medium stature, well propor- 

 tioned, and strong ; but they have little corpulence. They lack the 

 activity and suppleness natural to the Indians whose tribes inhabit the 

 western coast of Hudson's Bay. The color of their skin approaches that 

 of dark copper. Their hair is black, thick and shiny, like that of other 

 Indians. * * * The features of these Indians differ entirely from 

 those of the other neighboring tribes, for their foreheads and eyes are 

 small, their cheek bones high, and their nose aquiline, their face pretty 

 full and their chin, as a rule, large. Their features vary but little in the 

 individuals of the two sexes ; but it might be said that nature has 

 submitted to fewer abnormalities in the case of the women. These 

 natives have an e.xceedingly soft and even skin, and when the}' 



