THE WESTEBN DENES. 117 



are also ,<ratliered in regular villages, ^^nd here I must remark that 

 our tribes have scarcely any national economic policy ; but have 

 generally copied, wholly or in part, from the alien tribes with whom 

 they have been in contact. Until a short time ago, the Chilh;)^otins, 

 like the Shush waps their eastern neighbours, used to pass the cold 

 season in semi-subterranean huts rotund in form. An aperture in 

 the centre of the mud covered roof to which an Indian ladder (a log 

 chopped off every foot or so for steps) led, served the double purpose 

 of a door and chimney. Imitating the Atnas or coast Indians with 

 whom they had commercial relations, the Carriers lived in houses or 

 lodges foi-nied of slender poles, low in height and covered with spruce 

 bark. These had an entrance at both gable ends, the fire place being 

 in the centre to which corresponded an opening in the roof to let the 

 smoke out. Salmon skins sewn together made a good substitute for 

 boards and were used as doorsK Generally, they kept the spoils of 

 theii' heraldic a,nimals, fowl or rodent, nailed to the wall in the 

 inside, whilst in the case of leading members of the tribe, they had 

 their totem carved in wood and exhibited on the outside summit of 

 the galjle. (See tigui-e 1.) The Sekanais were less pi'etentious. 

 E\'en to this clay, they content themselves with circular coniferous 

 branch huts or lodges which they construct and abandon at a mo- 

 ment's notice, whenever their incessant ])eregTinationrf after food and 

 ])e]trie.s call therefor. 



Unlike the Esquimaux^ who sleep in a state of absolute naked- 

 ness, our Denes roll themselves in their blankets, their feet to the 

 tire, with almost all their clothes on. Making due allowance for 

 their p^i'ticular ideas of propriety, they are generally modest in 

 d^po tment and chaste in privacy, despite the fact that several 



1 Compare these with the nomadic Mog'uls' "rolling habitations": "The houses thej' inhabit 

 ■" are placed upon wheels and constructed of a kind of wooden latticed work with an opening 



" at the top that serves for a chimney. . . Before the entrance there is suspended a piece 

 • of fell." — Jitibrick's Narratioe in Abbe line's Christianity in China, Tartanj, etc , Volume i, 



page 178. 



3 In a letter from the Rev. Mr. Morice, dated July 2Sth, lS8f), occur the followinfr words : 

 " Concerninif the passage in my paper which refers to the Esquimaux as sleeping naked, I have 

 not in view the Labrador Esquimaux, who if I mistake not, have been semi-civilized by the 

 Moravian brethern, but the Tchigh't or Esquimaux of the Anderson and Mackenzie Rivers, who 

 are still in their ]irimitive state. Kow, I take the liberty t6 refer you, by ])erraission, to Mr. 

 McFarlane who passed part of his life as an H. B. Go's officer among said aborigines, and who, 

 hut yesterday, assured me that both in winter and summer time, men, women and children of 

 ■either sev, sk-ep stark naked." — Ch. S. Cm. 



