HEMAEKS ON THE KEINDEEK. 143 



standing the widely different material of which it is now composed. From the 

 first, however, this word " Rheno " (so rarely occurring in original authorities) 

 seems to have been a crux to commentators. Varro, ' De Lingua Latina,' lib. iv. 

 (I cite the " Delphin " annotators), states it to be a word of Gallic origin (" rheno- 

 nem esse ait vocem Gallicam "), apparently to guard against the misconstructions 

 which, we may infer, had even then arisen. Not to appeal to my own experience, 

 I will quote from Sir Alexander Mackenzie a description of the garment formed 

 of the Reindeer skin, such, though more ample in its proportions, as Caesar 

 probably intended. Speaking of the dress of the Chipewyans, he says : " In the 

 winter it is composed of the skins of Deer* and their fawns, and dressed as fine as 

 chamois leather, in the hair. In the summer their apparel is the same, except 

 that it is prepared without the hair .... The shirt or coat when girded round the 

 waist reaches to the middle of the thigh .... A ruff or tippet surrounds the 

 neck ; and the skin of the head forms a curious kind of cap. A robe made of 

 several deer- or fawn-skins covers the whole. The dress is worn single or 

 double, but always, in the winter, with the hair within and without " f. 



Prom his omission to supply the name, as he was careful to do in his other 

 descriptions, it is evident that Caesar, in describing the particular animal under 

 consideration, was dubious of its identity with that of whose skin he had already 

 spoken. Yet the mere fact of this omission might be argued to prove that he at 

 least suspected that identity. It is to be remembered that he obtained his descrip- 

 tions, under the most favourable assumption, at second hand, and probably through 

 interpreters very inadequate where nice discrimination was required. Hence what- 

 ever inaccuracies he may have been led into ; and of these inaccuracies we have a 

 notable example in the absurd description of the Elk, immediately succeeding. 

 As aptly suggested by Mr. Dawkins in the quotation given at page 55, a rude 

 profile sketch, rather than, as supposed by me, the view of a single antler, may 

 have led to the notion of the Unicorn a fabulous creature whose existence was 

 long firmly believed. Apart from this the description is singularly apt, even to 

 the possession of the antler by both sexes, unlike the other Cervidee. This 

 peculiarity alone might have caused Caesar to hesitate to call the animal a Deer, 



* Mackenzie here refers to the Caribou or Reindeer, whose skin is preferred for the closeness of its 

 texture, its thick coating of hair, and consequent warmth. It is to he borne in mind that the garments 

 described are adapted for a climate whose ordinary winter temperature is from 20 to 40 below the zero of 

 Fahrenheit. They afford perfect protection against the cold. The voyageurs call them " robes de caribou," 

 or briefly "cariboux." 



t Travels of Sir A. Mackenzie, 8vo Edit., Lond. 1802, p. 148. 



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