310 NOTES ON THE TINNEH OR CHEPEWYAN INDIANS 



the natives of my foolhardiness in doing so, and wlien they found that I escaped 

 with impunity, they accounted for the circumstance to their own satisfaction by 

 saying that 1 had bribed the " bad Indians to leave me alone." 



The race under consideration must be regarded as far from chaste, as conti- 

 nence in a.\ unmarried female is scarcely considered a virtue, and its want brings 

 no discredit on the individual. The intercourse between the sexes begins very 

 soon. This is easily accounted for by their hearing and seeing so much that 

 they should not at a very early age, which ripens their instincts at an earlier 

 period than either their temperament <jr the climate of the country would warrant. 

 Their dispositions are not amatory, and, in the case of the females, the love of 

 gain is a much stronger incitement to immorality than any natural warmth of 

 constitution. The divine and customary barriers between blood relations are not 

 well observed, for, although it is not considered correct by general opinion, in- 

 stances of men united to their mothers, their sisters, or their daughters, though 

 not common, are far from rare. I have heard among them of two sons keeping 

 their mother as a common wife, of another wedded to his daughter, and of several 

 married to their sisters, while in cases of polygamy having two sisters to wife is 

 very usual.. The married state, easily entered upon and involving few duties 

 and responsibilities, is but a slender guarantee for the mutual faithfulness of the 

 sexes. A Tinneh woman, however obedient she may be to her taskmaster as 

 regards labor, considers herself quite at liberty to dispose of her personal favors 

 as she may wish, which latitude is not at all agreed to by her husband, who, 

 while claiming and exercising quite as much freedom for himself, severely pun- 

 ishes his wife if she forgets in a single instance the allegiance due, in his opinion, 

 to him alone. The custom of robbing one another of their wives, or of fighting 

 for them, the facilities for divorce, and the inferior estimation in which women 

 are held, combine to produce a very lax condition of the marriage ties, and to 

 originate a low state of morality, which will doubtless improve gradually as the 

 operating causes are neutralized or done away with by the exertions of mission- 

 aries and advance of Christianity. 



The instinct of love of offspring, common to the lower animals, exists strongly 

 among these people, but considerably modified by the selfishness which is so • 

 conspicuous a feature in their character. In sickness they appear to sympathize 

 strongly and to take great interest in the sufferer, so far as lamenting and crying 

 goes; but their affection is seldom strong enough to induce them to do anything 

 that would either tax their comforts much or require great exertion. On arriving 

 at mature age the bond between relatives is easily broken, and even in adoles- 

 cence often but scanty deference is paid to parents. The parental instinct, 

 though far more strongly developed in the mother than in the father, would, I 

 am confident, never call forth such traits of self-sacrifice, even to death, as have 

 been exhibited many times among civilized and even barbarous nations. Male 

 children are invariably more cherished and cared for than females. The latter 

 are mere drudges, and obliged on all occasions to concede to their brothers ; and 

 though female infanticide, formerly so prevalent, is now unknown, still in sea- 

 sons of starvation or times of danger, girls invariably fall the first sacrifices to 

 the exigencies of the case. The death of a child is apparently not niuch re- 

 gretted, the mourning is short, and although in after years a mother will lament 

 her offspring bitterly, there is far more of custom than reality in the exhibition, 

 and it larely proceeds from the heart. The relation on the part of the children 

 is still more soulless. Only in early age do they pay much attention to the 

 commands of their parents, and the control of the latter is soon loosened. A 

 curious circumstance is, that children are treated exactly as grown-up people, 

 and talked to as such ; but as the character of all ages is decidedly childish, it 

 is not to be wondered at if such a manner suits all parties equally well. 



As these people are obliged to lead a very wandering life, in order to procure 

 food either by fishing or hunting, there can be, and in fact is, but litlle or no 



