364 
and rabbits; but they rarely hunted in winter, lacking both snow-shoes 
and toboggans in pre-European times. Canoes and cooking vessels 
were made of birch bark. Some of the natives had, also, wooden 
cooking-boxes that filterefl through in trade from the coast Indians, 
and woven baskets were current among the southern bands that 
traded with the Bella Coola, Chilcotin, and Shuswap.^ 
The dress of the ('arrier resem!)led in the main that of other 
Indian tribes in the interior of British Columbia; it consisted of a 
robe, leggings, and moccasins, all of skin, with a cap and mittens for 
cold weather.- On ceremonial occasions the nobles in the western 
sub-tribes wore beautiful “ Chilkat ” blankets acquired from the 
d^simshian, and their women disfigured their mouths with stone 
labrets from the same source, or with imitations of them made from 
maple. From the coast tribes, too, the Carrier obtained an abundance 
of shell ornaments and copper bracelets. 
Houses, tools, and weapons all conformed closely to those of the 
surrounding tribes. Some of the Carrier who lived in the south passed 
the winter in underground houses similar to those of the Chilcotin 
and Shuswap; the winter lodges of the remainder were rectangular 
structures above ground, roofed with spruce bark and gabled at front 
and back by continuing the roof down to the ground on each side and 
omitting tlie upright walls. Summer dwellings were constructed on 
a similar plan, but had low, plank walls and gabled roofs of planks or 
bark that made them almost identical with the winter dwellings of 
the Tsimshian and Bella Coola. Many noblemen carved their crests 
on the four pillars of their houses, but the carvings were very crude, 
for the Carrier lacked the artistic ability of the coast tribes. Warriors 
used t he same weapons as their enemies, a bow and arrow, lance, club, 
and knife; and they wore “coats of mail” fashioned either from 
slats of wood or from a moosehide coated with fine pebbles like 
asphalt roofing. Some of them, however, carried oval shields and 
tipped their bows with stone points for stabbing at close quarters, 
1 C/. Mackenzie: Op. cif., p. 299. Hannon, D. W. : ‘‘A Joniiial of Voyages and Travels in the 
Interior of Nortli Amerieii,” p. 219 (Amlover, 1820 J. 
2 Men wore no breedi-elolli, aiip'iri'iitly , in iire-Eui'oriean linie.s, but n few ado])fcd the garment 
in tliG early nineteeiilh century. Many even discarded the robe in warm weather and went naked. Women, 
liowcver, always added a .sliort apron tfiat re.aehed to ihe knees. Hannon: Om cit., p, 287. 
3 Morice ("Notes on Hie Western Dene.s," p. 188) states that Ihere was no partition wliatever in 
this house, but Ross Cox says that among the Carrier of the upi>er Fra.ser river " Several families gener- 
ally club together and build a house, the size of whieh. is proportioned to tlie number of inhabitants, 
and is partitioned off into several divisions.” Cox: Oti. eit., vol. ii, p. 347 f. 
