ASIATIC TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA. 177 



pretation of dreams, and in a species of divination by means of the 

 shoulder-blades of the deer, a practice common to the Tinneh and 

 Tiingus with the Lapps and other northern nations of the eastern 

 hemisphere, but unknown, so far as I am aware, among other 

 American tribes. 



One of the most remarkable resemblances between the customs of 

 the two peoples appears in their funeral i-ites. The Tungus, as 

 repoi-ted by Santini and Sauer, place their dead in wooden boxes, 

 which they leave above ground and sometimes suspend to the 

 branches of trees. Mr. Dall, in treating of the Unakhotana and 

 Tehanin Kutchin, uses almost the same language as the Asiatic 

 travellers in referring to the mode of sepulture of these tribes. 

 Abernethy, with Santini and Sauer, inform us that the Tungus bury 

 with their dead all their arms and implements, and that their 

 mourning, which is at first violent, lasts generally for a whole year. 

 Mackenzie, Hearne and Father Petitot bear witness to the similar 

 violence and long duration of mourning for the dead among the 

 Tinneh, and to the buiying of all the personal effects of the deceased. 



The Tungus live in tents made sometimes of skins, at others of 

 birch-bark, as do the Tinneh,- who have separate words to denote an 

 ordinary house of the latter character and a skin-lodge, Both peoples 

 are great fishers, hunters and berry-gatherers, while the Algonquins 

 and other Indian tribes confine their attention largely to hunting. 

 The use of the bow is characteristic of Tungus and Tianeh. More 

 remai'kable is the presence in the Tinneh area, as attested in 

 Washington Irving's "Astoria," Pickering's " Races of Man," and 

 Di\ Gibbs' "Report on the Tribes of Western Washington and 

 North- western Oregon," of the corslet of pliable sticks interwoven 

 with grass and sinews, which Abernethy found among the Tungus. 

 It is supposed to be the only kind of defensive armour known in 

 America. The Tungus, in common with other Ural Altaic tribes, 

 use the snowshoe ; but I am not able to compare its formation with 

 that of the Tinneh ti'ibes which Mackenzie and Hearne characterize 

 as being of superior workmanship. The birch canoe, generally 

 regarded as peculiarly American, is Tungusian in its origin. " The 

 Tongusi," says an author quoted by Mr. Mackintosh, whose book on 

 " The Discovery of Amex'ica and the Origin of the North American 

 Indians" was published at Toronto in 1836, "use canoes made of 

 birch-bark, distended over ribs of wood and nicely sewed together. 



