1914] Northwestern Denes and Northeastern Asiatics 149 



inhabited by very wicked people, and had traversed a great lake, which 

 was narrow, shallow and full of islands, where they had suffered great 

 misery, it being always winter, with ice and deep snow".^ 



If we are to believe Franklin, the Rocky Mountain Indians are 

 even more explicit on this head. They claim that "they came origin- 

 ally from the westward, from a level country, where there was no winter, 

 which produced trees and large fruits now unknown to them. It was 

 inhabited by many strange animals, amongst which there was a small 

 one whose visage bore a striking resemblance to the human countenance.^ 

 During their residence in this land, their ancestors were visited by a 

 man who healed the sick, raised the dead, and performed many other 

 miracles, enjoining them at the same time to lead good lives, and not 

 eat of the entrails of animals, nor use the brains for dressing skins until 

 after the third day; and never to leave the skull of deer upon the ground 

 within the reach of dogs and wolves, but to hang them carefully upon 

 trees. No one knew from whence this good man came, or whither he 

 went. 



"They were driven from that land by the rising of the waters, and, 

 following the tracks of animals on the sea-shore, they directed their 

 course to the northward. At length they came to a strait, which they 

 crossed upon a raft, but the sea has since frozen, and they have never 

 been able to return".^ 



So much for the Chippewayans and the Rocky Mountain Indians. 

 The northernmost D^ne tribes are the Hares and the Loucheux. In 

 the early sixties Father Petitot, who could speak their languages, recor- 

 ded the following from the mouths of the former: 



"lis habitaient jadis bien loin dans I'occident, au-dela de la mer et 

 au milieu d'une nation fort puissante, chez laquelle les magiciens avaient 

 le pouvoir de se transformer en chiens ou en loups durant la nuit, tandis 

 qu'ils redevenaient hommes pendant le jour. Ces ennemis avaient pris 

 des femmes parmi les Den(§s, mais ces creatures ne participaient en rien 

 aux pratiques occultes de leurs maris. 



"Ces ennemis, les Peaux-de-Lievre les nomment Kfwi-detele (tetes 

 pelees) ; car ils se rasaient la tete et portaient perruque".'* 



The Loucheux have their habitat both in the Lower Mackenzie 

 basin and in the Yukon and Alaska. They are, therefore, those who 



^ "Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of North America", p. CLXIII 

 of his preface (Toronto reprint). 



* Evidently some kind of Simiidcs, none of which is to be found in America. Father 

 Petitot also records a similar tradition. 



^ Op. cii., vol. I, p. 293, 



* Essai sur VOrigine des DenS-Dindjie, p. XXVIII. 



