118 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



coni)Ie.s live together under the same roof and witliout i>artitions ii> 

 the house. 



Should I have to sketch rapidly our Denes' moral features, I tliiuk 

 I could, by ignoring some necessary exceptions, give them credit for 

 relative morality, great honesty, intense fondness of their offspring 

 and a general gentleness of disposition, not excluding, however, 

 occasional freaks of irascibility. But to qualify these lines and give 

 their true portrait, I should immediately add that they are prone to 

 lying, addicted to gambling^ naturally selfish, cowardly, and at times 

 A^ery lazy, especially the stronger sex. 



Besides were I required to particularize in two words the ethic 

 peculiarities of each tribe, I would state that the Chilh;;^otins are the 

 most violent and manly of the whole group ; the Carriers, the 

 proudest and most accessible to progressive ideas ; the Sekanais, the 

 most superstitious and naive. As for the Nah'anes, though S})eaking 

 a language different from, but allied to, that of the Sekanais, they 

 are considered by our Carriers so closely similar to the latter in their 

 physical and moral characteristics, as to receive in common with 

 them the name of Lhtaten (Inhabitants of Beaver dams.) by allusion 

 to their chief occupation, trap[)ing and hunting. 



IV. 



With the view of having the family and tribal organization ob- 

 taining among the Western Denes properly understood, I must 

 refer at once to the clans or gentes into which, like the Iroqticis and 

 mo.st of the American Aborigines, neaily all of them are divided. 

 These to the number of five, form a kind of very strict relationshipr 

 to which, to the present time, they have held very tenaciously. Kach 

 of these clans has one or several particular heraldic emblems or 

 totems, the toad, grouse, crow, beaver, salmon, etc. ; the image of 

 which formeily received special consideration. This organisation 

 outsteps the village limits, and membeis of the same clan are to be 

 found in localities very wide apart. But however remote their 

 respective places, they still claim mutual kinship. 



Now, from time immemorial, a fundamental law in their social 

 constitution has been for individuals of the same clan never to intei'- 



iThis of course, must be understood of those who are still out of the reach of missionary 

 influence. 



