WIGWAMS. 43 



odd or even number of pebbles, and the hand in 

 which they are held, are to be guessed, is con- 

 stantly resorted to whenever two or three meet 

 together, and it is accompanied by singing and 

 gestures, indicating some kind of divination. 

 They will pass a whole day so occupied, and will 

 stake all that they hold most valuable on the 

 result. 



As the Narrative of Sir John Franklin's First 

 overland Expedition in 1819-21 contains all the 

 particulars of the manners and religious belief of 

 the Crees, or Nethewuk, that I had then collected, 

 I shall not here repeat them ; but shall merely 

 allude in a brief way to such of their habits and 

 usages as have not been noticed among the 'Tinne. 



The ordinary wigwams*, skin tents, or "lodges" 

 as they are called, of the two people are exactly 

 alike as to form, being extended on poles set up in 

 a conical manner; but, as a general rule, the tents of 

 the Crees are more commodious, and more carefully 



Powhattan's subjects were accustomed to address him, had pro- 

 bably reference to his being chief of a society of this kind. (See 

 Virginia by Strachey.) 



* Wigge or Wigivap signifies a dwelling. Most of the Indian 

 words and names of places adopted into the languages of the 

 United States and Canada are of Algic origin. The Mandans 

 and other Dakotas of the Missouri build more substantial huts, 

 with dome-shaped roofs, covered with earth, to which, as to 

 look-out places, the men resort. 



