391 
moans of hot stones, but sometimes in vessels of bark, presumably 
spruce bark.^ 
Like all other Athapaskan tribes, the Slave were divided into 
several independent, semi-leaderless bands named generally from 
the territt)ries over which they hunted.” Each band selected an 
experienced man to lead its war-])arties, but disallowed him any 
authority wlien the fighting ended. An informal council of the 
hunters decided all local quarrels not immediately settled by offers 
of compensation. Youths paid for their })rides by hunting for their 
parents-in-law twelve months or longer, and men wrestled occasion- 
ally for each other’s wives. They imposed on the women those 
periodic restrictions customary among all the northern tribes, and 
considered it no crime to destroy female infants at birtli. Yet, 
unlike the Chijiewyan, they treated their wives with great kindness, 
and took iqion themselves all the hardest work, even the j^repara- 
tion of the lodge and the procuring of firewood. Moreover, they 
never abandoned the aged and infirm, but carried them about with 
them, even when it entailed considerable hardship on the family 
and band. 
The fundamental religious concept, as among all the northern 
Indians, was of a guardian spirit, acquired through dreams, that 
aided in times of crises. Like their neighbours, the Slave attributed 
sickness and death to sorcery, and, lacking herbal remedies, had 
recourse to medicine-men who pretended to extract from the patients’ 
bodies, by massage and suction, splinters of bone and other objects 
that jiassed for the sorcerers’ instruments. If death seemed imminent 
the patient confessed all his wrong-doings in the hope of delaying 
the fatal hour, a custom that prevailed perhaps among most of the 
northern tribes, since it has been reported also from the Dogrib 
and Yellowknife.’* Tliere were two methods of disposing of the 
dead. Sometimes the relatives depositerl them on scaffolds; some- 
times they covered them with leaves or snow, placed all their 
property beside them, and erected small huts over the remains to 
protect them from wild animals. Their theory of the afterlife 
1 ,Sf c Maekoiizit" : Op. fit., pp. 35-30, ond the lelli'r.s of Wonlzol and Kfilh in Masson: Op. cit. 
- A hand lliat live'il ahout l!i(' jnncLion of liie l.inict amt .Mafkanzio rivers was falkul Beaver l)y 
the early fur traders, and .^trongtiow by Fninkliu. It sliouM not lie confused witli the Beaver Indians 
of the Peace rBer. 
■t Keiih, in Milsson : Op. cit., ser. ii, 127. Petilot: Moiuy'iapiiie ries D.'ne-Diudjie, p. 75, .\utour du 
Grand lac des Bsclaves, j) 21G. 
S6!)59 -26 
