156 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute [vol. x 



Indian type with that of the inhabitants of northeastern Asia. All 

 travellers and ethnologists, Wrangell, Peter Dobell, J. Bush, Latham, 

 Geo. Simpson and others have noticed it. 



This physical resemblance is so striking that, when on the 5th of 

 September, 1741, a certain Lieutenant Waxel, a pioneer among the 

 pioneer explorers of America from Asia, had tried in vain to hold inter- 

 course with the first native Americans he saw, he ordered three of his 

 men to land and make for the strangers. Among the three men was a 

 Koriack who acted as his interpreter. Then the chronicler of his voyage 

 (who wrote just one hundred and fifty years ago) remarks that "it has 

 been observed everywhere that the Tschuktschian and Korjak inter- 

 preters did not understand the language of these people; but they were 

 nevertheless very serviceable as conductors, being bold and looked 

 upon by the America^is as the same with themselves".^ 



The personal ornaments, the labret, nose and ear pendants, of the 

 North Americans were also prevalent among several Asiatic tribes. 



Both divisions of the human family are remarkable for the quasi- 

 absence of facial hairs, and I have described^ the way the Denes used 

 to pluck jut the few that nature would grow on their upper lip and chin. 

 Now, an old author writes of the Koriacks of Siberia: " They are beard- 

 less, like the Laplanders, Sam.ojeds and Ostiaks; for, in the first Place, 

 they have naturally very little Hair about the Mouth, and what little 

 they have they pluck out as do also the Jakuhti, Tungusii and Kal- 

 mucks".^ 



The habitations of the semi-sedentary Denes, such as the Carriers 

 and their neighbours in the west, have likewise their exact counterpart 

 in Siberia. "The Jakutian habitations are of two kinds", writes Wran- 

 gell. "In summer they are Drosses, which are light circular tents 

 formed of poles and covered with birch-bark, which they strip from the 

 trees in large pieces ... At the approach of winter, they occupy their 

 warm Yourtes [compare with the Carrier synonym Ycerh]. These are 

 cottages formed of thin boards".* 



1 S. MuUer, "Voyages from Asia to America", p. XLVI. 



2 "Notes on the Western Denes", p. 138. 



3 S. Muller, op. cit., p. VIII. 



■• "Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea", p. 24. The houses of the Tuskis 

 (Tchuktchis) are called yarang according to Hooper. A little particularity in con- 

 nection with those aborigines is, I believe, all the more worthy of mention as I have 

 otherwise been unable to find the least resemblance between their language and that of 

 my Denes. Hooper writes: "We were much attracted and amused by their expressions 

 of astonishment at any new wonder. Kah — kah — kah — was the universal ejaculation 

 of surprise" ("The Tents of the Tuski", p. 21). Now this is precisely the inter- 

 jection to which the Carriers resort when they want to express surprise. "'Kah 'kah 

 'kah they exclaim, meaning: Now, is not that wonderful!" 



