THE NORTHERN ATHABASCANS i6§ 



desirous of obtaining a musk-ox's head, asked a Dog Rib, whom 

 he had heard was a good hunter, if he could kill a caribou. 

 The Indian, not understanding the humor of his question, did 

 not deign to reply. " Do you think you could kill a musk-ox?" 

 Drawing himself up he replied, " You do not seem to know 

 me. I married the daughter of the chief Rebesca." 



The principal Dog Rib leaders at Rae were Jimmie, Rebesca, 

 and Naohmby, while Beniah, Little Crapeau, Dry Geese, and 

 Castor traded at Resolution, to which the Yellow Knives also 

 resorted under the leadership of Zinto, Zyena, Black Head and 

 others. 



Language. When at Rae, I prepared a list of six hundred 

 words of which I wrote, phonetically, the Dog Rib equivalent, 

 as interpreted by Henry Cadien, a metis freeman, who had 

 been at one time the fort interpreter. It is an exceedingly 

 difficult language to express with the Roman characters; nasals 

 and aspirates abound; when separated I could easily indicate 

 the proper sound, but combined, and with a burring R added, 

 I found difficulty in pronouncing and still greater difficulty in 

 writing the sounds. At Providence, Joseph Bouviar, the post 

 interpreter, translated the same list into Slavey. Kenneth 

 Stewart, a Scotch metis at McPherson, acted as interpreter in 

 preparing a Loucheux vocabulary. Owing to so many sources 

 of error in their preparation, notwithstanding the time and 

 care bestowed upon them, I prefer to defer the publication of 

 these vocabularies in the hope that I will have opportunity to 

 again visit the country where the dialects are spoken. 



Calendar. From the missionaries the Dog Ribs now obtain 

 slips of paper on which the days are marked in vertical lines, 

 and every seventh day with a cross. The days are pricked 

 off as they pass, with a needle, on this primitive calendar, which 

 is in the keeping of their leaders. They differ among themselves 

 as to the names applied to the months. 



January, Et-se sa Cold sun. 



February, Nit-se sa Small wind sun. 



March, Nit-se-cha sa Big wind sun. [up sun. 1 



April, Win-di-thi-che-ko sa When the dogs travel with tails 



1 We travel far between sleeps in the spring when the days are long and 

 the dogs go well. 



