OF BRITISH AND RUSSIAN AMERICA 315 



they could find, they tied the end to a stone somewhat hirger than the orifice, 

 and by this means lowered themselves to the earth. The story goes on to say 

 that the cord was just long enough, but, unfortunately, they found themselves 

 over a lake, and might have been drowned after all had it not happened that an 

 Indian was passing in a canoe at the time, and saved them from their perilous 

 situixtion. 



With reference to the story about caste it is difficult to arrive at a correct so- 

 lution of the matter. The fact, I believe, is that they do not know themfeelves, 

 for they give various accounts of the origin of the three great divisions of man- 

 kind. Some say it was so from the beginning ; others that it originated when 

 all fowls, animals, and fish were people — the fish were the Chitsak, the birds 

 Tain-gecs-ah-tsah, and the animals Nat-singh ; some that it refers to the coun- 

 try occupied by the three great nations who are supposed to have composed the 

 whole family of man ; while the other, and, I think, most correct opinion, is that 

 it refers to color, for the words are applicable. Chitsah refers to anything of a 

 pale color — fair people ; Nat-singli, from ak-zingJi, black, dark — that is, dark 

 people ; Tain-gees-ah-isah, neither fair nor dark, between the two, from tain- 

 gees, the half, middle, and ah-tsah, brightish, from tsa, the sun, bright, glitter- 

 ing, shining, &;c. Another thing, the country of the Na-tsik-koo-chin is called 

 Nah-t'singh to this day, and it is the identical country which the Nat-singh oc 

 cupied. The Na-tsik-koo-chin inhabit the high ridge of land between the You- 

 con and the Arctic sea. They live entirely on the flesh of the reindeer, and are 

 very dark-skinned compared with the Chit-sangh, who live a good deal on fish. 

 All the elderly men fish the salmon and salmon trout during the summer, while 

 the young men hunt the moose, and have regular white-fish fisheries every au- 

 tumn besides. Some of the Chit-sangh are very fair, indeed, in some instances 

 approaching to white. The Tain-gees-ah-tsa live on salmon trout and moose 

 meat, and, taken as a whole, are neither so fair as the Chit-sangh nor so dark 

 as the Nah-t'singh. They are half-and-half between the two. A Chit-sangh 

 cannot, by their rules, marry a Chit-sangh, although the rule is set at naught 

 occasionally ; but when it does take place the persons are ridiculed and laughed 

 at. The man is said to have married his sister, even though she may be from 

 another tribe and there be not the slightest connection by blood between them. 

 The same way with the other two divisions. The children are of the same color 

 as their mother. They receive caste from their mother; if a male Chit-sangh 

 marry a Nah-tsingh woman the children are Nah-tsingh, and if a male Nah-tsingh 

 marry a Chit-sangh woman the children are Chit-sangh, so that the divisions are 

 always changing. As the fathers die out the country inhabited by the Chit- 

 sangh becomes occupied by the Nah-tsingh, and so on vice versa. They are 

 continually changing countries, as it were. Latterly, however, these rules are 

 not so strictly observed or enforced as formerly, so that there is getting to be a 

 complete amalgamation of the three great divisions, such a mixture that the 

 difference of color is scarcely perceptible, and, no doubt, will soon disappear 

 altogether, except what is produced by natural causes. The people who live on 

 the flesh of the reindeer are always darker than those who live on fish, or on 

 part fish and part flesh. One good thing proceeded from the above arrangement — 

 it prevented war between two tribes who were naturally hostile. The ties or 

 obligations of color or caste were stronger than those of blood or nationality. 

 In war it was not tribe against tribe, but division against division, and as the 

 children were never of the same caste as the father, the children would, of course, 

 be against the father and the father against the children, part of one tribe 

 against part of another, and part against itself, so that, as may be supposed, 

 there would have been a pretty general confusion. This, however, was not 

 likely to occur very often, as the worst of parents would have naturally preferred 

 peace to war with his own children. 



As a rule slavery does not exist among the Loucheux, but the orphan and the 



