322 



NOTES ON THE TINNEH OR CHEPEWYAN INDIANS 



»l^S2 



boiled by means of stones heated red hot and thrown into the kettle. The 

 arrow-heads are of bone for wild fowl, or bone tipped with iron for moose or 

 deer ; the bow is about five feet long, and that of the Hong-Kutchin is furnished 

 with a small piece of wood, three inches long by one and a half broad and 

 nearly one thick, which projects close to the part grasped by the hand. This 

 piece catches the string and prevents it from striking the hand, for the bow is 

 not bent much. There are no individuals whose trade it is to make spears, 

 bows, or arrows. They make knives out of 8-inch or 10-inch files ; these are long 

 and narrow, pointed and double edged; one side has a ridge running from the 

 handle to the point, the other side is slightly hollowed. The blade and handle 

 are made of the same piece of steel, and that part grasped by the hand is covered 

 with dressed 

 deer-skin, 

 and the top 

 of the han- 

 dleis curved. 

 They have 



no means of Kutchin knife. 



spinning. They weave kettles of tamarack roots, shirts of strips of rabbit- 

 skin, and caps of the same material. For dyeing they use berries and a kind 

 of grass growing in swamps. Foxes, martens, wolves, and wolverines are 

 caught in traps; moose 

 deer, lynxes, rabbits, 

 and marmots are taken 

 in snares. The general 

 mode of killing moose 

 is to stalk them. In 

 the spring they some- 

 times run them down 

 ■on snow-shoes, and in 

 the fall, when the 

 moose are rutting, the 

 hunter provides him- 

 self with a shoulder 

 blade of the same ani- 

 mal ; he then ap- 

 jproaches the male as 

 •close as possible, and 

 rubs the bone against 

 the trees. The moose 

 charges at once, mis- 

 taking the sound for 

 that made by another 

 naale rubbing his horns 

 against the trees. 



They sometimes sur- 

 round an island where 

 the moose are known 



to be, and kill them ^ 



Marten trap. 



Note.— The marten trap is adjusted as shown in the figure. It consists of twolon^ sticks 

 •of wood, the end of one held above the otlier by a short upright piece, the lower end of which 

 rests on the end of a short horizontal twig carrying the bait. An enclosure of brush or twifjs 

 is built up behind the bait, so that the only access to it is between the logs. When the bait 

 is touched the horizontal twig is disturbed', tlie upright is thrown down, and the upper stick 

 falls, crushing the animal. The short logs laid over'the stick serve (o se'-ure sufficient weight 

 .to kilLthe marten. 



