154 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



meant as an ilhistration of the chant executed by the crowd who 

 kept beating time by clapping their hands one against the other. 

 Besides, on grand occasions Indian tainl)onrines were also used as an 

 accompaniment to the singing. . 



Religious dances weie unknown. The nearest approach thereto 

 was the dance performed on the occasion of an eclipse. The Den^s 

 believed this phenomenon to be due to the presence of gale or scab on 

 the sun or moon. To ])reserve themselves from that dread malady 

 and hasten the luminary's re-ajjpearance (or cure), they would 

 cautiously go out of their habitations, avoiding noise and loud talk, 

 and then, ranging themselves one behind the other, they would start 

 a kind of })ropitiatory Jance to this etiect : bending under an imaginary 

 weight though carrying only an empty bark vessel; they would strike 

 in cadence their right thigh, repeating at the same time in piteous 

 tones '^ Hanintih ; ge ! " "Come back therefrom." 



On such occasions the Chilh^i^otins neither danced nor sang ; but 

 among them men and women having their clothes tucked up as when 

 they travel and leaning on a staff as if heavily laden, they walked in 

 a circle till the end of the eclipse. 



Anotlier observance formei-ly in vogue among the Carriers was the 

 the' tsoelr wees (precipitate exit). This was analogous in character to, if 

 not identical with, a practice of which we read as having existed 

 among certain European and Asiatic nations, the Lycanthropia of the 

 ancients, the Louffjarou of France, the Persian Ghoule the Teutonic 

 Wehr-irolf; all probably the result of a simulated ecstacy of super- 

 stitious origin. In the case in question and on the occasion of a 

 lai'ge gathering of aborigines, a band of men would suddenly run out 

 of a lodge and, simulating madness, would, amidst wild yells and in- 

 coherent songs, make frantic efforts to bite the passei'.s-by or, failing 

 in this, they would seize upon a dog and devour him on the spot. 



Ordinary amusements con.sisted of the nmzaz, or throwing of long 

 pulished sticks on the snow, the distance reached determining the 

 winner; and gambling which is of two kinds: noeta &.nd alte. The 

 first game which greatly resembles the fsi-mei of the Chinese ' is 

 ])layed by a group of natives one of whom concealing in his hands 



1 L' Empire Chinois, par 1' abbe Hue. 



