THE WESTERN DENES. 127 



cli'eaming, supernatural communication as to the name they should be 

 known by. This was usually, except in the case of girls, indicative 

 of some peculiarity, the recalling of which Wivs supposed to bring 

 good luck in hunting. When the child's parents were of rank or 

 influence, he was, at the occasion of one of their ceremonial banquets, 

 held up in the midst of the crowd by his or her maternal grandmother 

 and given a name previously borne by a maternal ancestor. 



It is a well known fact, that among the Aborigines of both North 

 and South America, mothers never carry their infants in their arms, 

 but uniformly pack them on their back. Our Denes are no exception 

 to this rule. The Chilh;(Otin mothers manufactui-e as receptacles for 

 their babes, pretty little osier baskets or cradles generally placed in 

 closely fitting deer hide coverings, wherein the infant is tightly laced, 

 much as a little mummy. A birch bark conduit leading to an orifice 

 in the narrow end of the cradle prevents its contents from remaining 

 in an unhealthy condition. In this respect they are decidedly ahead 

 of the Carriers who only use swaddling clothes firmly secured ai'ound 

 the infant. 



Pai-ental authority, eidier maternal or paternal, may be correctly 

 qualified as nil or thereabouts, except among the Carriers and 

 Chilli;^otins, when it is a question of inai-riage. The parents are under 

 any circumstances very averse to inflicting punishments on tljeir oti- 

 spiing when young, and cannot well expect to be able to control them 

 when they become full grown. 



" Fecund-like an Irishwoman," the female Den^ would soon glory 

 in a numerous family were she only to take proper hygienic pre- 

 cautions and wean her child after a reasonable period of suckling. 

 But, even at the present time, unless physically unable to do so, she 

 will nui'se it as long as three and four years, sometimes longer ! 

 However, were it not for periodical visitations of contagious diseases 

 formerly unknown, the native population would soon increase in a 

 fair ratio, as will be seen by the following table of the births and 

 deaths of this plac^ for the last years. The population was exactly 

 140 by the last (31st December 1888) census. 



