THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS 



or folded about the neck. The infant was bound 

 up as all proper Indian papooses are, with a 

 criss-cross of lacings over an abundance of 

 wrappings, the whole forming a bundle that 

 could as easily be handled, and that made as 

 little fuss as a small bag of flour. 



The common posture taken by these Indians 

 was a kneeling one, with the body resting on 

 the heels as shown in several of the photographs, 

 a position very difficult to maintain for any 

 length of time by a white man. This is the 

 same posture commonly assumed by the Jap- 

 anese as shown in the familiar pictures of these 

 people grouped about tea-trays. According to 

 Professor Okakura Yoshisaburo of Tokio, the 

 Japanese and Koreans alone of Asiatic peoples 

 habitually adopt this posture, while the Chinese 

 sit as do the Europeans. 



The wigwams of this people that I saw at 

 various places along the coast were of three 

 sorts: the ordinary cotton wall- tent of the 

 white man, the wigwam made of straight 

 slender poles set in a circle and leaning in to 

 the centre, and the lodge of birch sticks stuck 

 in the ground in a circle or oval, and bent so 

 as to form a low rounded or oval structure, 



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