2 CAVE RELICS OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS. 



believe, however, that a certain amount of inter-tribal commerce always existed 

 between them. After the advent of the Russians, hostilities were put a stop to ; 

 the extensive transportation of both Aleiits and Kaniag muts from place to place 

 within the territory previously divided between them, and the effects of civiliza 

 tion on both, have done much to efface early differences, except those of language. 



We are obliged to follow general usage in applying the name Aleut* (pro 

 nounced Aly-oot ) to the tribes inhabiting the region west of the Kaniag muts ; 

 although it is a word foreign to their language, and of uncertain origin. It was 

 applied to them by the early Russian explorers, and is perhaps an opprobrious 

 epithet from some one of the Eastern Siberian dialects. Their own name for 

 themselves appears to be UnungTm, but they often follow the Russians in 

 styling themselves Aleuts, while asserting that it is not their original name. 

 While the comparison of even a limited number of elementary words from their 

 vocabulary shows unmistakable evidences of their Eskimo derivation, yet, in 

 construction, prefixes and suffixes, and in the majority of ordinary words in their 

 language, they differ in a very marked manner from their neighbors and nearest 

 relations, the Kaniag miits. The Aleutian language is much richer, and they 

 count from one to one hundred thousand by the decimal system, while the 

 Kaniag muts reach their limit of numbers at one or two hundred, using five as a 

 basis. 



The evidences of the shell heaps are conclusive as to the identity with the con 

 tinental Eskimo of the early inhabitants of the islands, as far as implements and 

 weapons go ; but their insular habitat, and the changed fauna and climatic con 

 ditions under which they existed, gradually modified their habits, and their 

 manufactures, of every kind. With these changes, it is probable, the language 

 changed. 



Their physiognomy differs somewhat from that of the typical Eskimo, though 

 individuals are often seen who could not be distinguished from ordinary Innuit, 

 in a crowd of the latter. It is probable that the climate, and almost uninter 

 rupted canoe-life, may have much to do with this, and there is no impossibility 

 in the hypothesis that occasional shipwrecked Japanese may have contributed to 

 modify the Aleutian physique ; though leaving no traces of their language or 



* In a volume entitled Mcmoires ct Obs. Geographiques, etc., by Samuel Engel, (Lausanne, 17G5, 4to,) and con 

 taining little else of value, I find some notes, which may perhaps afford a cluo to the dcriviation of this much 

 disputed word &quot; Aleut.&quot; He gives an extract of a letter from St. Petersburg, which appeared in the Gazette de 

 Lcydcn, February 26, 17G5, in which it is stated that the Russian fur traders, east of Asia, had discovered 

 inhabited islands in 64 N. Lat. which they called Aleyut. He calls attention to the statement of Muller, to the 

 effect that the people of the Diomedes Islands were called by the Chukchi &quot;Achjuch-Aliat,&quot; and the adjacent 

 coast of America &quot; Kitchin-Aeliat,&quot; and suggests that Aliat, or Aoliat, and Aleyut are identical terms. The 

 Chukchi word for island is known to be i lQ-fl or co-ltt-S; &quot; kit-chin &quot; meaning great or extensive; hence it would 

 seem as if the Russians, after forcing their way into Kamchatka, subsequently to their hostilities with the 

 Chukchi, brought with them as a proper name tho general Chukchi term for island, and subsequently applied it to 

 the Aleutian Chain and its inhabitants when they were discovered. Much tho same has happened to tho Aleut 

 word for continent, now corrupted into Alaska. 



