27 
tribe; and trading relations, however limited their scope, fostered 
the growth of a restricted bilingualism. Xew arts and new appliances 
easily overrode linguistic boundaries; and even social and religious 
institutions and ideas overflowed them with considerable freedom, 
as shown by the penetration far into the interior of the phratric 
systems of the Pacific coast, ^ and the occurrence of sun-dance and 
medicine-bundle ceremonies in every prairie tribe. Indian traditions 
tell us that in Canada, as in Europe, differences of speech often 
engendered misunderstandings and distrust resulting in quarrels and 
even wars; but warfare itself is a fonii of intertribal contact that 
leads to many cultural exchanges. It would seem, therefore, that 
the multiplicity of languages was neither the principal, nor even an 
important, factor in promoting the inequality of progress among the 
aborigines in different areas, the primitiveness of some groups, and 
the relatively high level of culture attained by others. This inequal- 
ity arose rather from the varying economic conditions, the difficulties 
of travel and transportation, and the self-sustaining character of each 
tribal unit that rendered it virtually independent of its neighbours. 
1 St€ p. 148, note. 
