584 
WARORE: 
[APRIL 18, 1907 
TWO CONTRASTED WESTERN CANADIAN 
TRIBES. 
R. HILL-TOUT’S volume fully maintains the 
standard established by its companions which 
have already appeared in the ‘* Native Races of the 
British Empire ”’ series, edited by Mr. N. W. Thomas. 
In clearness and lucidity it perhaps surpasses either 
of them, for, instead of numberless — insufficiently 
known groups, such as those of Australia, or an in- 
extricable mass of humanity such as crowds British 
Central Africa, it deals merely with two well-defined 
linguistic stocks, the Salish and the Déné, occupy- 
ing clearly marked areas, and characterised by dis- 
tinct ethnographic features. Over the vast area 
between Hudson Bay and the Pacific Ocean diversity 
of climate has produced diversity of development, 
and the introductory chapter describes the geography, 
flora, and fauna of the region, and gives a 
brief history of the accounts of the early 
explorers before proceeding to the grouping 
of the native races. 
Rarely can two adjacent districts be found 
presenting greater physical contrasts than 
those on the two sides of the coast ranges. 
To the east is the elevated plateau or ‘ dry 
belt ’’ with a temperature ranging from 110° 
in the shade in the summer to considerably 
below zero in the winter, while on the west 
the climate is like that of the south coast of 
Devon. Beyond the Rocky Mountains ex- 
tends as far as Hudson Bay a dreary plain 
of rocks, marshes, lakes, and rivers, in- 
clement and unattractive. This naturally 
results in a marked differentiation in the 
mode of life of the coast Salish from that of 
the interior Salish, whereas the latter in this 
respect more resemble the Déné who live to 
the east of the Rocky Mountains. It is 
interesting to note that among the western 
Déné, the Loucheux, the social divisions 
seem to owe their origin to an economic 
variation. They are divided into three 
exogamic divisions or phratries, called re- 
spectively Fish people, Chit-sangh (=fair); 
the Animal people, Nah-t’singh (=dark); 
and the Bird people, Tain-gees-ah-tsah 
(middle or half-brightish). This seems to be 
a colour grouping. The Chit-sangh are very 
fair, in some instances approaching to white, 
and live largely on fish; the Nak-t’-singh live 
entirely on the flesh of the reindeer, and are 
very dark-skinned compared with the Chit- 
sangh; while the Tain-gees-ah-tsah live on 
salmon trout -and moose-meat, and are 
neither so fair as the Chit-sangh nor so dark 
as the Nah-t’-singh. 
In spite of local diversity, both Salish and Déné 
show the ‘‘ Pan-American ”’ facial features, which 
are common throughout the whole continent, together 
with a secondary type, approximating to the so-called 
Mongoloid type, but no other than facial resemblances 
seem to the author to be common to the whole race. 
Among psychic characters, the most: striking are 
cowardice and honesty. ‘‘In point of valour they 
fall far below the eastern tribes.” ‘The Northern 
Déné are generally pusillanimous, timid and 
cowardly,’’ but they are proverbial for their honesty 
and their hospitality, and were in pre-trading days 
also for their chastity. Their foll-tales and tribal 
traditions 
“show us that their 
1 “ British North America. 
lives were moral and 
1. The Far West : the Home of the Salish 
and Déné.” By C. Hill-Tout. Pp. xiv+263; with 33 full-page illustrations 
andr map. (Londen: Archibald Constable and Cc., Ltd., 1g07-) Price 
6s. net. 
NO. 1955, VOL. 75 | 
Déné Maids in Native C.stume. 
well regulated; ‘that deep shame and disgrace 
followed a lapse from virtue in the married and un- 
married of both sexes. The praise and enjoyment of 
virtue, self-discipline and abstinence in young men 
is no less clearly brought out; whilst respect and 
consideration paid by the young everywhere to their 
elders affords an example that more advanced races 
might with profit copy.’ 
The ethical principles of the Thompson Indians 
exhibit sound practical morality, and 
“People who inculcate such virtues in the minds 
of their children can scarcely be called debased, or 
be said to be greatly in need of instruction from 
ourselves.”’ 
{f they have fallen away from such high standards 
the fault is not theirs, but ours. ‘* We assumed a 
The Far West.’” 
From “ British North America. 1. 
grave responsibility when we undertook to civilise 
these races.”’ 
All the main features of native life are well and 
succinctly described—houses, clothes, food, domestic 
and warlike implements, customs at birth, courtship, 
marriage and death, social organisation, and religious 
beliefs. We wish, however, that the section on 
sociology had been more complete; but the most 
important omission is that of language, concerning 
which no information is given, although the author 
has elsewhere published a good deal on the linguistics 
of the Salish, on which subject he is an authority. 
The volume ends with an interesting summary, de- 
scribing the ordinary life of an average native ‘* From 
the Cradle to the Grave,’’ a brief and valuable 
synthesis of the preceding material. 
“The life of an average Western Indian, as it was 
lived in the earlier days, was not that of a vicious 
