248 ON THE ETHNOGRAPHY AND PHILOLOGY OF THE 
purposes, for in that case, the Indians not being able to procure them, would fail in their 
hunts, and the trade thereby suffer. But such articles as tobacco, cloth of gay colors, 
ornaments, beads, &c., bear very high prices in comparison with their actual cost. Thus 
we see in the foregoing bill that a Northwest gun, the prime cost of which in England is 
seldom less than two pounds sterling, sells for fifteen plues, while half a pound of tobacco 
worth sixpence is sold for one plue. 
The Indians themselves keep no accounts either pictorial or otherwise, nor can we learn 
that any devices are used by them in trade, except that they sometimes aid the memory 
by notches on a stick, or the memory is refreshed by the trader when they have the means 
to pay. ‘The Crees sometimes use strokes in successive lines of ten each, until they arrive 
at the required amount, as Ys 
Ts The Ee WIL Thal Cel bbl 10 
Pie ea i 10. 
1D Dae Oe 
i tl ih il . 4 
O 160 A IP YP ID 1a IL ILI 
IJ. BLACKFEET. 
ETHNOGRAPHICAL HISTORY. 
Tr has usually been understood that the history, traditions, and customs of Indians have 
been handed down from generation to generation by the principal men of each tribe with 
a fair degree of certainty by means of oral tales. Tach tribe, it is true, has its traditions, 
which are very numerous, but they are for the most part fabulous; and I have never yet met 
with an Indian nation that could give its history with any degree of accuracy farther back 
than one hundred years. Even then it is so mingled with fable that it becomes quite a 
difficult matter to sift out the truth from so much chaff. It becomes, therefore, a matter 
of great ethnological interest to place on record as much of the present history of these 
wild, changing tribes of the prairie, as can be secured of a reliable character. From the 
different members of the American Fur Company, many of whom are intelligent, well- 
educated men, I have obtained a large mass of information in regard to the Blackfeet, 
which I think is reliable, and in a future publication I hope to present it in full. 
The Indians usually known under the general name of Blackfeet, are the Piegans, Blood 
Indians, Blackfeet, and the Gros Ventres of the prairie, or, as they are sometimes called, 
Fall Indians. Of these, the first three speak the same language, and are sprung from the 
same stock, but the last belong to quite a different group, and use a dialect entirely dis- 
tinct from the others. ‘The Gros Ventres, or, as they call themselves, Atsinas, are a branch 
