JUNE 6, 1884.] 
tion towards I-yan; and this village contained 
the majority of the tribe. The village was 
called Kah-tun’, also Tah-kon* or Tahk-ong 
(tahk seeming to be a root in the language of 
this country: vide Tahk-heesh, Tahk-heen-a, 
Tahk-o, etc.). It was of a semi-permanent 
character ; the huts madeof spruce brush, over 
which there was an occasional piece of cloth 
or canvas, or a caribou or moose skin. ‘These 
brush houses were squalid affairs, and espe- 
cially so com- 
pared with the 
bright, intelligent 
look of the ma- 
kers, and with 
some of their 
other handicraft, 
as their canoes 
and wearing ap- 
parel. One could 
hardly stand up 
in the houses: 
they were gener- 
ally double, fa- 
cing each other, 
with a narrow 
aisle between, 
each one contain- 
ing a single fam- 
ily, and about the 
area of a common 
government A 
remt. Wre.-6 
gives a ground 
plan of a double 
brush house. 
The ‘WS aa 
Kah-tung con- |Z0weeaaah 
tained about Own" 
twenty of these 
houses, huddled 
near the _ river- 
bank, and altogether was the largest Indian vil- 
lage we saw on the whole length of the Yukon 
River. There was a most decided Hebrew or 
Jewish cast of countenance among many of 
the Ayans; greater, in fact, than I have ever 
seen among any savages, and so conspicuous 
as to make it a subject of constant remark. 
Their household implements were of the 
most primitive type,—such as spoons of the 
horn of the mountain sheep, very similar to 
those of the T’linkits, but in no wise so well 
carved ; and a few buckets, pans, and trays of 
birchbark, ingeniously constructed of one piece 
so as not to leak, and neatly sewed with long 
withes of trailing roots. 
Just after landing the raft, the crowd that 
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SCIENCE. 
Fie. 7. —KoN-ITL, CHIEF OF THE AYANS. 
681 
lined the narrow beach commenced singing and 
dancing, —the men on the (their) left, and the 
women on the right. The song was low and 
monotonous, but not unmusical, — characteris- 
tic of savage music. ‘Their hands were placed 
on their hips, and they swayed laterally to the 
rude tune; while the medicine-men went 
through the most hideous gymnastics possible. 
A photograph was attempted of this group ; but 
the weather was so unfavorable, the amateur 
apparatus so in- 
complete, and the 
favorable oppor- 
tunity so hard 
to seize, that it 
was a complete 
failure. After 
tea and tobacco, 
which we could 
spare only in 
small quantities, 
fish-hooks seemed 
to be their favor- 
ite demand; and 
the very few arti- 
cles they had to 
spare, mostly 
spoons and birch 
cups and buck- 
ets, were eagerly 
exchanged. <An- 
other article free- 
ly brought us was 
the pair of small 
bone gambling - 
tools, so charac- 
teristic of the 
whole north-west 
country. Fig. 8 
is from a_ pair 
in my possession, 
and about true 
size. ‘They are always used in pairs in gam- 
bling, one being distinguished from the other by 
one or two bands of black engraved around it. 
The game has been so often described that I will 
not repeat it. Their present village was evi- 
dently but a semi-permanent one, used only in 
summer during the time that salmon were run- 
ning by; the pink sides of this fish, as they 
were hanging around, split open, forming a not 
unartistic contrast with the dark-green spruce 
boughs of the houses, especially if the nose 
was held between the two fingers. The wo- 
men, instead of carrying the babes on their 
backs with their face to the front, turn them 
around so as to be back to back, and carry 
them so low that they fit somewhat in the 
ue 
