76 
and morning, and squeezing its thighs, hoping by some superstitious notion 
to procure him a pair of long shanks necessary for a hunter, as being greatly 
conducive to his becoming a great runner”. These customs, if formerly 
prevalent among the Satudene, have now entirely disappeared. 
Petitot (1893, page 241; 1876, page 78) has said that the Willow Lake 
Indians (his Kkray-lon-gottine) and the tribes of the vicinity in general 
circumcised male infants with a piece of flint. No information except to 
the contrary could be discovered, however. 
Infanticide was practised by the Satudene, particularly in the case 
of female children. Keith (1890, II, pages 107, 119), Franklin (1828, 
page 64), Simpson (1843, pages 187, 202, 323), Hooper (1853, page 319), 
and Petitot (1893, page 110), all cite female infanticide as an accepted 
practice. Insufficient food was generally given as the cause, and the last 
writer reported that the children were considered happier in the land of 
the souls. Children born out of the marriage relation were probably 
especially liable to destruction. The most recent cases that have occurred 
were of this kind. Infanticide is now comparatively rare; Wentzel, over 
a hundred years ago, commented that it even then was wearing away. 
Beaver (Slave) women are reported by Wentzel (1890, 1, page 86) at that time 
to have often killed their female children, giving as their reason “that it 
is a great deal of trouble to bring up girls, and that women are only an en- 
cumbrance, useless in time of war, and exceedingly voracious in time of want”. 
Although from another Athapaskan culture area, the writer thinks even 
more true is the statement of Hardisty (“Notes on the Tinneh”, page 312) 
that Loucheux women told him they killed their children to save them 
from the miseries and hardships of life and that not to do so would be 
almost an unnatural crime. Several cases of twins among the Satudene 
in recent years have not been considered strange or provocative of infanti- 
cide. 
The Satudene always speak of a married person as the father or 
mother of the eldest child. Unmarried or childless people are called 
by their given names which are supplied shortly after birth by someone 
in the group. At the present time a woman speaks of her husband as 
‘se-dene’, my man. Formerly she said ‘se-ra-weta’, he sits close to me. 
A man speaks of his wife as ‘se-tsekwi’, my woman, or by the abbreviated 
expression ‘se-ere’, from ‘se-tere’, my sister. The band of Hares known 
as the Gens du Large at Good Hope speak of their daughters as ‘se-tsali’, 
my frog. There follows an incomplete list of relationship terms. 
T ta' — my father 
ew e- — my mother 
S€ ta ye — my sister 
son De - — my brother 
S€ tee le‘ — my younger brother 
se’ 6 ’ — my father's (or mother’s) brother 
se not — my father’s (or mother’s) sister 
6 t’se’ — my father’s (or mother’s) father 
€ t’stt — my father’s (or mother’s) mother 
(Great grandparents, the same as grandparents) 
se‘ ya ( ' > — my son 
se‘ twe (,) — my daughter 
se‘ tea’ — my son’s or daughter’s child 
