i68 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute [vol. x 



exactly in the same way as that of my former charge, the Tsilkotins, 

 Carriers, Babines, S^kanais and Nahanais of northern British Columbia. 



These are, indeed, quite distinctively American features! 



Does the incredulous wish for some more? He is, no doubt, familiar 

 with the role played by the famous calumet of the American plains in 

 deciding war or peace. This he will admit is quite characteristic of our 

 aboriginal population. What will he think when he is told that it was 

 formerly as common, and had the same significance, on the tundras of 

 E .stern Siberia as on the prairies of North America? 



Here is the translation of what Santini has to say in this connection. 

 This time he refers to the Koriacks: 



"When a nation is inclined to make peace, they light the sacred 

 pipe, and it is offered by a chief to the commander of the hostile tribe; 

 if he receives and smokes it, peace is immediately proclaimed, and so 

 sacred do they consider this agreement, that they have been seldom or 

 never violated. The bowl is made of clay, and the tube of a reed three 

 or four feet long, it is decorated with feathers of various colours. They 

 have their different pipes for their different sorts of contracts".^ 



This brings us to the subject of war. According to Abernethy, the 

 Tungus braves prepare themselves therefor just in the same manner 

 as the Blackfeet and others. Here is what he writes: 



"In order to ascertain the courage, patience, and perseverance of 

 their warriors, [they] inflict many injuries and insults on the young 

 people who never faced an enemy. They first reproach them with the 

 names of cowards; they beat them with their clubs, and even throw 

 boiling water on them; and if they show on these occasions the least 

 impatience and sensibility, they are reckoned as dastards who are not 

 worthy of the name of warriors. They carry this practice of trying the 

 young men so far that it would be too tedious to relate them".^ 



Hostilities among the Palseo-Asiatics commenced and were con- 

 ducted in the same way as among the American Indians, especially 

 those of the north. 



"It is generally about day break that they attack their enemies, 

 because about this time they imagine that they are asleep", writes 

 Abernethy. "The chief gives the signal, and they all rush forward, 

 discharging their arrows, and preparing their more deadly weapons, 

 their tomahawks. Slaughter and destruction are now committed with- 



1 Ibid., p. 155. 

 * Ibid., p. 150. 



