31 



among the Ahts than slavery. The slave is at the absolute 

 disposal of his master in all things. The high consideration 

 in which rank or actual authority is held, is extraordinary. 

 The principal use made of the accumulation of personal chattels 

 is to distribute them periodically among invited guests. The 

 destruction of certain kinds of property serves the same purpose. 

 The person who gives away the most property receives the 

 greatest praise and in time acquires, almost as a matter of 

 course , but by the voice of the tribe the highest rank obtain- 

 able by such means. This rank, however, is not of the loftiest 

 class; it is only for life and different from the ancient hereditary 

 or tribal rank. The head chief's position is patriarchal, his 

 authority is rather nominal than positive. 



Distribution and division. 



If we comprise the Northern Indians under the chief groups: 

 the Northwestern, the Tinne and the Algonkin, the Eskimo must 

 be said to wholly encompass the Tinne from the seaside, while 

 in the west and the east they abut upon the other two nations. 

 On the west side they issue almost as a continuation from the 

 Northwest Indians having so to say like these half of their 

 subsistence from the land and half from the sea. Where the 

 territory of the Inland Eskimo borders on that of the Tinne 

 tribes, the transition between their respective villages is like- 

 wise almost insensible to the foreign traveller. But by degrees 

 as towards the north and east the Eskimo pass to grow an 

 exclusively maritime and Arctic people, their relation to the 

 Indians takes a decidedly hostile character. Murderous fights 

 between them have been customary on the borders of the Ma- 

 ckenzie R., and further towards the northeast corner of the 

 continent a sort of neutral ground divides them which for fear 

 they generally avoid to pass over. 



When nevertheless we have suggested that the pressure by 



