

THE INDIANS 197 



more often to Fort George or other posts on Hudson Bay. 

 These probably belong to the division mentioned by Low 

 in his large Labrador report as the coastal Indians of Hud- 

 son Bay. Their dialect is not very easy for the other 

 Indians to understand, probably from its jib way affinities. 

 Those who come to Chimo are strong, active people, proud 

 of their large hunts and of the long journeys they make to 

 the coast. They look down a little on the Chimo Indians, 

 many of whom hunt comparatively near by. The eastern 

 Nascaupees, in particular, are not very ambitious either 

 in fur hunting or travel. The caribou supply nearly all their 

 wants, so that not much effort is required to get fur enough 

 to pay for what else they require. Indians do not enter 

 the wide peninsula to the west of Ungava, which is Eskimo 

 ground so far as occupied. From Koksoak River to Hud- 

 son Bay the respective areas covered by the two races are 

 separated approximately by the line of the Nastapoka 

 and Larch rivers, which constitute a route surveyed by 

 Low, and pursued by Mr. and Mrs. Tasker of Philadelphia 

 in 1906. 



The name Nascaupee is a slighting term given to the 

 northern Indians by their more sophisticated neighbours 

 of the south. Originally the word 'seems to have meant 

 ignorant, unlearned, but is now connected usually with 

 pagan or heathen people who have not had religious in- 

 struction. In his very comprehensive report (1885-1886), 

 published by the Bureau of Ethnology,. Washington, 

 Lucius M. Turner gives the name Nascaupee as meaning 

 false, unworthy, and as connecting the people with a failure 

 to join in some movement against the Eskimo in the old 

 days; but this rendering seems etymologically doubtful. 



