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ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA, Bee 
pretation of dreams, and in a species of divination by means of the 
shoulder-blades of the deer, a practice common to the Tinneh and 
Tungus with the Lapps and other northern nations of the eastern 
hemisphere, but unknown, so far as I am aware, among other 
American tribes. 
One of the most remarkable resemblances between the customs of 
the two peoples appears in their funeral rites. The Tungus, as 
reported by Santini and Sauer, place their dead m wooden boxes, 
which they leave above ground and sometimes suspend to the 
branches of trees. Mr. Dall, in treating of the Unakhotana and 
Tehanin Kutchin, uses almost the same language as the Asiatic 
travellers in referring to the mode of sepulture of these tribes. 
Abernethy, with Santini and Sauer, inform us that the Tungus bury 
with their dead all their arms and implements, and that their 
mourning, which is at first violent, lasts generally for a whole year. 
Mackenzie, Hearne and Father Petitot bear witness to the similar 
violence and long duration of mourning for the dead among the 
Tinneh, and to the burying of all the personal effects of the deceased. 
The Tungus live in tents made sometimes of skins, at others of 
birch-bark, as do the Tinneh, who have separate words to denote an 
ordinary house of the latter character and a skin-lodge, Both peoples 
are great fishers, hunters and berry-gatherers, while the Algonquins 
and other Indian tribes confine their attention largely to hunting. 
The use of the bow is characteristic of Tungus and Tinneh. More 
remarkable is the presence in the Tinneh area, as attested in 
Washington Irving’s “Astoria,” Pickering’s “ Races of Man,” and 
Dr. Gibbs’ “Report on the Tribes of Western Washington and 
North-western Oregon,” of the corslet of pliable sticks interwoven 
with grass and sinews, which Abernethy found among the Tungus. 
It is supposed to be the only kind of defensive armour known in 
America. The Tungus, in common with other Ural Altaic tribes, 
use the snowshoe; but I am not able to compare its formation with 
that of the Tinneh tribes which Mackenzie and Hearne characterize 
as being of superior workmanship. The birch canoe, generally 
regarded as peculiarly American, is Tungusian in its origin. “ The 
Tongusi,” says an author quoted by Mr. Mackintosh, whose book on 
“The Discovery of America and the Origin of the North American 
Indians” was published at Toronto in 1836, ‘use canoes made of 
birch-bark, distended over ribs of wood and nicely sewed together. 
