274 SYSTEMS OF CONSANGUINITY AND AFFINTY 



the American Indian languages. There were, however, some scraping sounds not 

 easily explained, which I have never heard elsewhere. 1 



1 There are some customs of such a strikingly personal character that they may, in a pre-eminent 

 degree, be regarded as customs of the blood. When prevalent over wide areas, and persistently 

 maintained from generation to generation, they seem to possess some significance upon the question 

 of the probable genetic connection of the peoples by whom they are practised. There are three dis- 

 tinct customs or usages of this character, apparently transmitted with the blood, which I have taken 

 some pains to trace, and have found them to be substantially universal in the Ganowanian family. 

 They may possess some value as corroborative evidence of the unity of origin of these nations. These 

 are, first, the custom of saluting by kin ; second, the usage of wearing the breech-cloth ; and third, 

 the usage of sleeping at night in a state of nudity, each person being wrapped in a separate covering. 

 They are referred to in this connection for the purpose of comparison with the corresponding Eskimo 

 usages. The first of these has been definitely traced among all the principal Indian nations repre- 

 sented in the Table, and its universality in the Ganowanian family may be confidently affirmed. 

 Exceptions may yet be found, but if they should it would not disturb the general rule. Among the 

 Eskimo the usage is found under a modified form. They address each other when related by the 

 terra of relationship, and also by the personal name, using the former method rather more than the 

 latter. If the information obtained was correct, the usage, in its strictness, fails among the Eskimo. 

 Secondly, the primitive costume of the Ganowanian family was the breech-cloth on the part of the 

 males, and a skirt on the part of the females. The former was a strip of skin, several inches wide, 

 passed between the legs and thence up and under a string tied around the waist, the ends falling down 

 before and behind ; the latter was a short skirt, either of skin or vegetable materials, secured around 

 the waist and falling nearly to the knees. These two articles formed the costume of the Indian 

 family, and all there was of it, except, possibly, the moccasin. In the colder climates skin leggins and 

 a blanket of skin were added. At the present time the bulk of the family wear the same costume. 

 Where American fabrics are substituted for skins they are made after the primitive pattern. This 

 explains the attachment of the Indians, male and female, for the woollen blanket, which has now 

 become very generally substituted for that of skin. Within the past hundred years a portion of each 

 of the more advanced Indian nations have put on our dress, but the most of them still adhere to the 

 old costume, with the addition of the woollen blanket. Having noticed the general prevalence of the 

 practice of wearing the cloth, it was made a subject of special inquiry, and this resulted in tracing its 

 use among upwards of sixty Indian nations. The simplicity and universality of this costume, and 

 the persistency with which they have adhered to its use in the colder, and even in arctic climates, 

 suggest two inferences which may possibly be drawn from it; first, that its use was primitive, and 

 that it has been transmitted, as a usage, with the blood from their earliest ancestry ; and secondly, 

 that this ancestry belonged to a temperate climate. The Eskimo do not wear it. Thirdly, the 

 third custom relates to their manner of sleeping, which may or may not possess significance. Before 

 retiring they denude themselves, with the exception of the cloth and skirt, and each one wraps up 

 separately in a skin, covering or blanket, which usually envelops both head and feet. Two males 

 never sleep under the same covering in personal contact ; young females, and mothers and their 

 children do. The Eskimo practise this custom in common with the American Indians.* In answer 

 to a letter of inquiry as to the usage, in this last respect, among the Tamil and Telugu people of 

 South India, Rev. E. C. Scudder writes as follows : " All males (unless among the very high and 

 rich ones) sleep in a state of almost entire nudity, wearing nothing but a little strip of cloth which 

 passes between the legs, and is attached at either end to a string which is fastened about the waist. 



* Samuel Heame, in describing a night attack upon some Eskimo at the mouth of the Coppermine River made 

 by the Athapascans, says, " The poor unhappy natives were surprised in the midst of their sleep, and had neither 

 time nor power to make any resistance ; men, women, and children, in all upwards of twenty, ran out stark naked, 

 and endeavored to make thefr escape." 



Hearne's Journey, &c. &c., Lond. ed. 4to., 1795, p. 153. Dr. Kane, in his " Arctic Explorations," confirms this 

 usage. 



