The pirates who harass the coasts of Borneo and the Chinese Seas—destined, at some future time to be, like the Kaffres, but too well-known to the English tax-payers—are Malays rather than Orang Binua, or their equivalents; the navigation of the Dyaks being chiefly confined to rivers.

The particular tribes of Sarawak are the following—the Lundu, the Sarambo, the Singe, the Suntah, the Sow, and the Sibnow. It is almost unnecessary to name the great fountain-head for all our recent knowledge of Borneo—Sir James Brooke.

The Dyak type predominates amongst the Orang Binua of Borneo. In the Philippines the Semang complexion re-appears. But the prolongation of the eastward line of migration takes us through the Mariannes and Ladrones to Polynesia; and here the magnitude of the islands decreases; in other words, the influences of the sea-air become greater. The aliment becomes almost wholly vegetable. The separation from the civilizational influences of Asia amounts to absolute isolation. Of the general ethnology of the South Sea Islanders I say nothing. The reasons which took me over China, Arabia, and the Malayan peninsula, sicco pede, spare the necessity of details here.

In the Sandwich Islands there is a constitution. In Tahiti, a school of native Christian Missionaries.

New Zealand exhibits the contrast between the darker and lighter-coloured Oceanic populations in so remarkable a manner as to have engendered the notion that two stocks occupy the island. If it were so, the fact would be remarkable and mysterious. How one population found its way to a locality so distant is by no means an easy question; whilst the assumption of a second family of immigrants just doubles its difficulty.[68]

* * * * *

In Java the proper Malay influences have been so great as to leave but few traces of the Orang Binua; and, earlier even than these, those of India were actively at work.

East of Bali, however, the Orang Binua re-appear, and here the type is that of the Semangs. From Ombay, parts of Ende, and parts of Sumbawa, we have short vocabularies—short, but not too scanty to set aside the hasty, but accredited, assertion of the Australian language, having nothing in common with those of the Indian Archipelago.[69]

I feel as satisfied that Australia was peopled from either Timor or Rotti, as I do about the Gallic origin of the ancient Britons.

I believe this because the geographical positions of the countries suggest it.

I believe it, because the older and more aboriginal populations of Timor and Rotti approach, in physical character, the Australian.

I believe it, because the proportion of words in the vocabularies alluded to is greater than can be attributed to accident; whilst the words themselves are not of that kind which is introduced by intercourse. Besides which, no such intercourse either occurs at the present moment, or can be shown to have ever existed.

Australia agrees with parts of Africa, South America, and Polynesia, in being partially intertropical and wholly south of the equator—no part of continental Asia or Europe coming under these conditions. But it differs from Polynesia in being continental rather than insular in climate; from South America in the absence of great rivers and vast alluvial tracts; and from Africa in being wholly isolated from the Northern Hemisphere. It is with South Africa, however, that its closest analogies exist. Both have but small water-systems; both vast tracts of elevated barren country; and both a distinctive vegetation. The animal kingdoms, however, of the two areas have next to nothing in common. The comparative non-existence of Australian mammalia, higher in rank than the marsupials, is a subject for the zoologist. Ethnology only indicates its bearing upon the sustenance of man. Poor in the vegetable elements of food, and beggarly in respect to the animal, the vast continental expanse of Australia supports the scantiest aboriginal population of the world, and nourishes it worst. The steppes of Asia feed the horse; the tundras, the reindeer; the circumpolar icebergs, the seal; and each of these comparatively inhospitable tracts is more kindly towards its Mongolian, its Samoeid, and its Eskimo occupant, than Australia with its intertropical climate, but wide and isolated deserts.

Except that his hair (which is often either straight, or only crisp or wavy) has not attained its maximum of frizziness, and has seldom or never been called woolly, the Australian is a Semang under a South African climate, on a South African soil, and with more than a South African isolation.

Few Australians count as far as five, and fewer still beyond it. This paucity of numerals is South American as well—the Brazilian and Carib, and other systems of numeration being equally limited.

The sound of s is wanting in the majority of Australian languages. So it is in many of the Polynesian.

The social constitution is of extreme simplicity. Many degrees removed from the industrial, almost as far from the agricultural state, the Australian is hardly even a hunter—except so far as the kangaroo or wombat are beasts of chase. Families—scarcely large enough to be called tribes or clans—wander over wide but allotted areas. Nowhere is the approach to an organized polity so imperfect.

This makes the differences between section and section of the Australian population, both broad and numerous. Nevertheless, the fundamental unity of the whole is not only generally admitted, but—what is better—it has been well illustrated. The researches of Captain Grey, Teichelmann, Schurrmann, and others, have chiefly contributed to this.

The appreciation of certain apparent characteristic peculiarities has been less satisfactory; differences having been over-rated and points of similarity wondered at rather than investigated.

The well-known instrument called the boomerang is Australian, and it is, perhaps, exclusively so.

Circumcision is an Australian practice—a practice common to certain Polynesians and Negroes, besides—to say nothing of the Jews and Mahometans.

The recognition of the maternal rather than the paternal descent is Australian. Children take the name of their mother. What other points it has in common with the Malabar polyandria has yet to be ascertained.

When an Australian dies, those words which are identical with his name, or (in case of compounds) with any part of it, cease to be used; and some synonym is adopted instead; just as if, in England, whenever a Mr. Smith departed this life, the parish to which he belonged should cease to talk of blacksmiths, and say forgemen, forgers, or something equally respectful to the deceased, instead. This custom re-appears in Polynesia, and in South America; Dobrizhoffer's account of the Abiponian custom being as follows:—The "Abiponian language is involved in new difficulties by a ridiculous custom which the savages have of continually abolishing words common to the whole nation, and substituting new ones in their stead. Funeral rites are the origin of this custom. The Abipones do not like that anything should remain to remind them of the dead. Hence appellative words bearing any affinity with the names of the deceased are presently abolished. During the first years that I spent amongst the Abipones, it was usual to say Hegmalkam kahamatek, when will there be a slaughtering of oxen? On account of the death of some Abipon, the word Kahamatek was interdicted, and, in its stead, they were all commanded by the voice of a crier to say, Hegmalkam negerkata? The word nihirenak, a tiger, was exchanged for apanigehak; peu, a crocodile, for Kaeprhak, and Kaama, Spaniards, for Rikil, because these words bore some resemblance to the names of Abipones lately deceased. Hence it is that our vocabularies are so full of blots occasioned by our having such frequent occasions to obliterate interdicted words, and insert new ones."

The following custom is Australian, and it belongs to a class which should always be noticed when found. This is because it appears and re-appears in numerous parts of the world, in different forms, and, apparently, independent of ethnological affinities.

A family selects some natural object as its symbol, badge, or armorial bearing.

All natural objects of the same class then become sacred; i.e., the family which has adopted, respects them also.

The modes of showing this respect are various. If the object be an animal, it is not killed; if a plant, not plucked.

The native term for the object thus chosen is Kobong.

A man cannot marry a woman of the same Kobong.

Until we know the sequence of the cause and effect in the case of the Australian Kobong, we have but little room for speculation as to its origin. Is the plant or animal adopted by a particular family selected because it was previously viewed with a mysterious awe, or is it invested with the attributes of sacro-sanctity because it has been chosen by the family? This has yet to be investigated.

Meanwhile, as Captain Gray truly remarks, the Australian Kobong has elements in common with the Polynesian tabu! Might he not have added that the names are probably the same? The change from t to k, and the difference between a nasal and a vowel termination, are by no means insuperable objections.

He also adds that it has a counterpart with the American system of totem; although the exact degree to which the comparison runs on all fours is undetermined.

But the disuse of certain words on the death of kinsmen, and the Kobong are not the only customs common to the Australian and American.

The admission to the duties and privileges of manhood is preceded by a probation. What this is in the Mandan tribe of the Sioux Americans, and the extent to which it consists in the infliction and endurance of revolting and almost incredible cruelties, may be seen in Mr. Catlin's description—the description of an eye-witness. In Australia it is the Babu that cries for the youths that have arrived at puberty. Suddenly, and at night, a cry is heard in the woods. Upon hearing this, the men of the neighbourhood take the youths to a secluded spot previously fixed upon. The ceremony then takes place. Sham fights, dances, partial mutilations of the body, e.g., the knocking out of a front tooth, are elements of it. And this is as much as is known of it; except that from the time of initiation to the time of marriage, the young men are forbidden to speak to, or even approach a female.

Surely, it is the common conditions of a hunter life which determine these probationary preparations for the hardships which accompany it in populations so remote as the Australian and the American of the prairie. I say of the prairie, because we shall find that in the proportion as the agricultural state replaces the erratic habits of the hunter, ceremonies of the sort in question decrease both in number and peculiarity of character.

A third regulation forbids the use of the more enviable articles of diet, like fish, eggs, the emu, and the choicer sorts of opossum and kangaroo to the Australian youth.

All that is known of the Australian religion is due to the researches of the United States Exploring Expedition. The most specific fact in this respect is the name Wandong as applied to the evil spirit. I believe this to be truly a word belonging to the Oceanic Pantheon in general, and—as stated above—to be the same as Vintana in Malagasi, and as the root anit in many of the Polynesian languages.

The Tasmanians.—A few families, the remains of the aborigines of Van Dieman's Land, occupy Flinder's Island, whither they have been removed.

I can give but little information concerning them.

From the Australians they differ but slightly in mental capacity, and civilizational development. Perhaps their very low level in this respect is the lower of the two.

The language seems to have fallen into not less than four mutually unintelligible forms of speech.

Their hair constituted their chief physical difference. This was curled, frizzy, or mopped.

The a priori view of their origin is that they crossed Torres Straits from Australia. I have, however, stated elsewhere that a case may be made out for either Timor or New Caledonia being their mother countries; in which case the stream of population has gone round Australia rather than across it. Certain peculiarities of the Tasmanian language give us the ground for thus demurring to the prima facie view of their descent. The same help us to account for the differences in texture of the hair.[70]

FOOTNOTES:

[63] Malacca, Wellesley Province, Penang, and Sincapore. For excellent information about the ethnology of these parts see Newbold's "British Settlements," and the "Journal of the Indian Archipelago."

[64] From {amphi} (amfi) roundabout, and {nesos} (naesos) an island.

[65] Logan in "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," vol. i.

[66] Logan and Thompson in "Journal of the Indian Archipelago," vol. i.

[67] Especially Crawfurd's "Indian Archipelago," Sir Stamford Raffles' "History of Java," and Marsden's "Sumatra."

[68] Dr. Dieffenbach's work on New Zealand is the repertory of details here—a valuable and standard book.

[69] The collation of these may be seen in the Appendix to Mr. Jukes' "Voyage of the Fly."

[70] In the Appendix to Jukes' "Voyage of the Fly," and in "Man and his Migrations."



CHAPTER VI.

DEPENDENCIES IN AMERICA.

THE ATHABASKANS OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COUNTRY.—THE ALGONKIN STOCK.—THE IROQUOIS.—THE SIOUX.—ASSINEBOINS.—THE ESKIMO.—THE KOLUCH.—THE NEHANNI.—DIGOTHI.—THE ATSINA.—INDIANS OF BRITISH OREGON, QUADRA'S AND VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.—HAIDAH.—CHIMSHEYAN.— BILLICHULA.—HAILTSA.—NUTKA.—ATNA.—KITUNAHA INDIANS.—PARTICULAR ALGONKIN TRIBES.—THE NASCOPI.—THE BETHUCK.—NUMERALS FROM FITZ-HUGH SOUND.—THE MOSKITO INDIANS.—SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS OF BRITISH GUIANA.—CARIBS.—WAROWS.—WAPISIANAS.—TARUMAS.—CARIBS OF ST. VINCENT.—TRINIDAD.

The Athabaskans.—The best starting-point for the ethnology of the British dependencies in America is the water-system of the largest of the rivers which empty themselves into the Polar Sea, a system which comprises the Rivers Peel, Dahodinni, and the Riviere aux Liards, tributaries to the McKenzie, as well as the Great Bear Lake, the Great Slave Lake, and Lake Athabaska; a vast tract, and one which is almost wholly occupied by a population belonging to one and the same class; a class sometimes known under the name Chepewyan, or Chepeyan, sometimes under that of Athabaskan.

The water-system in question forms the centre of the great Athabaskan area—the centre, but not the whole. Eastward, there are Athabaskan tribes as far as the coasts of Hudson's Bay; westwards as far as the immediate neighbourhood of the Pacific; and southwards as far as the head-waters of the Saskatchewan. Full nineteen-twentieths of the Athabaskan population, in respect to its political relations, is British; all that is not British being either Russian or American. To this we may add, that it is the Hudson's Bay territory rather than Canada to which the British Athabaskans belong.

The divisions and subdivisions of the Athabaskans are as follows:—

1. The Si-isaw-dinni (See-eesaw-dinneh), or rising-sun-men.—These, generally called either Chipewyans, or Northern Indians, are the most eastern members of the family, and extend from the mouth of the Churchill River to Lake Athabaska. I imagine that the Brushwood, Birchrind, and Sheep Indians are particular divisions of this branch.

2. The Beaver Indians.—From the Lake Athabaska to the Rocky Mountain, i.e., the valley of the Peace River.

3. The Daho-dinni.—On the head-waters of the Riviere aux Liards. Called also Mauvais Monde.

4. The Strong-Bows.—Mountaineers of the upper part of the Rocky Mountains.

5. The Kancho.—Called also Hare and Slave Indians. Starved and miserable occupants of the parts along the River McKenzie between the Slave and Great Bear Lakes. Accused of occasional cannibalism, justified by the pressure of famine. Due east of these come—

6. The Dog-ribs, and

7. The Yellow-knives, on the Copper River; these last being also called the Copper Indians.

8, 9. The Slaous-cud-dinni[71] of the McKenzie River is, probably, a division of some of the other groups rather than a separate substantive class.

10. The Takulli.[72]—These fall into eleven minor tribes or clans.

a. The Tau-tin; probably the same as the Naote-tains.

b. The Tshilko-tin.

c. The Nasko-tin.

d. The Thetlio-tin.

e. The Tsatsno-tin.

f. The Nulaau-tin.

g. The Ntsaau-tin.

h. The Natliau-tin.

i. The Nikozliau-tin.

j. The Tatshiau-tin.

k. The Babine Indians.

11. The Susi (Sussees).—On the head-waters of the Saskatchewan.

New Caledonia is the chief area of the Takulli.

Adjacent to them, but to the east of the Rocky Mountains, lie—

12. The Tsikani (Sicunnies).

The Athabaskan is the first class in our list; and, if we look only at the area which its population occupies, it is a great one. All the Athabaskan languages or dialects are mutually intelligible.

The Algonkins.—The second class is the Algonkin. It is greater in every way than the Athabaskan—greater in respect to the number of its divisions and subdivisions, greater in respect to the ground it covers, and greater in respect to the range of difference which it embraces. All the Algonkin languages are not mutually intelligible.

Unlike the Athabaskan the Algonkin stock is nearly equally divided between the United States and Great Britain.

Unlike, too, the Athabaskan, it is divided between the Canadas and our other possessions and the Hudson's Bay territory.

The whole of the Canadas, with one small but important exception, the whole of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and Prince Edward's Isle, is Algonkin. Labrador and Newfoundland are chiefly Algonkin.

To this stock belonged and belong the extinct and extant Indians of New England, part of New York, part of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, part of the Carolinas, and part of even Kentucky and Tennessee; a point of American rather than of British ethnology, but a point necessary to be noted for the sake of duly appreciating the magnitude of this stock.

Amongst others, the Pequods, the Mohicans, the Narragansetts, the Massachuset, the Montaug, the Delaware, the Menomini, the Sauks, the Ottogamis, the Kikkapus, the Potawhotamis, the Illinois, the Miami, the Piankeshaws, the Shawnos, &c. belong to this stock—all within the United States.

The British Algonkins are as follows:—

1. The Crees; of which the Skoffi and Sheshatapush of Labrador are branches.

2. The Ojibways;[73] falling into—

a. The Ojibways Proper, of which the Sauteurs are a section.

b. The Ottawas of the River Ottawa.

c. The original Indians of Lake Nipissing; important because it is believed that the form of speech called Algonkin, a term since extended to the whole class, was their particular dialect. They are now either extinct or amalgamated with other tribes.

d. The Messisaugis, to the north of Lake Ontario.

3. The Micmacs of New Brunswick, Gaspe, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, and part of Newfoundland; closely allied to the—

4. Abnaki of Mayne, and the British frontier; represented at present by the St. John's Indians.

5. The Bethuck—the aborigines of Newfoundland.

6. The Blackfoots, consisting of the—

a. Satsikaa, or Blackfoots Proper.

b. The Kena, or Blood Indians.

c. The Piegan.

To these must be added numerous extinct tribes.

The Iroquois.—The single and important exception to the Algonkin population of the Canadas is made by the existence of certain members of the great Iroquois class on the New York frontier; a class falling into two divisions. The northern Iroquois belong to New York and Pennsylvania, the southern to the Carolinas.

The former of these two falls into two great confederations, and into several unconfederate tribes.

The chief of the unconfederate tribes are the now extinct Mynkasar and Cochnowagoes—extinct, unless either or both be represented by a small remnant mentioned by Schoolcraft, in his great work on the Indian tribes, now in the course of publication, under the sanction of Congress, as the St. Regis Indians.

Of the second confederation the leading members were the Wyandots, or Hurons, of the parts between Lakes Simcoe, Huron, and Erie.

The first was that of the famous and formidable Mohawks. To these add the Senekas, the Onondagos, the Cayugas, and the Oneidas, and you have the Five Nations. Then add, as a later accession, from the southern Iroquois, the Tuskaroras, and the Six Nations are formed.

Between these two there was war even to the knife; the greater portion of the Wyandot league belonging to the Algonkin class.

Nevertheless, a few representatives of the whole seven tribes[74] still remain extant, their present locality—a reserve—being the triangular peninsula which was the original Huron area.

Again, in the present site of Montreal, the earlier occupants were the Hochelaga; an Iroquois tribe also.

The Sioux.—In tracing the Nelson River from its embouchure in Hudson's Bay, towards its source in the Rocky Mountains, we reach Lake Winnepeg, and the Red River Settlement—the Red River rising within the boundary of the United States, flowing from south to north, and receiving, as a feeder, the Assineboin. Now the Valley of the Assineboin is an interesting ethnological locality.

Either the river takes its name from the population, or the population from the river; the division to which it belongs being a new one. Different from the Algonkins on the east, different from the Athabaskans on the north, and (in the present state of our knowledge) different from the Arrapahoes on the west, the Assineboins have all their affinities southwards. In that direction the family to which they belong extends as far as Louisiana. These Indians it is to whom nine-tenths of the Valley of Missouri originally belonged—the Indians of the great Sioux class; Indians whose original hunting-grounds included the vast prairie-country from the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi, and who again appear as an isolated detachment on Lake Michigan. These isolated Sioux are the Winebagoes; the others being the Dahcota, the Yankton, the Teton, the Upsaroka, the Mandan, the Minetari, the Missouri, the Osage, the Konzas, the Ottos, the Omahaws, the Puncas, the Ioways, and the Quappas,—all American, i.e., belonging to the United States.

None of the Sioux tribe come in contact with the sea. None of them belong to the great forest districts of America. Most of them hunt over the country of the buffalo. This makes them warlike, migratory hunters; with fewer approaches to agricultural or industrial civilization than any Indians equally favoured by soil and climate.

Of this class the Assineboins are the British representatives. They are the chief Red River aborigines.

It is the Iroquois, the Sioux, and certain members of the Algonkin stock, upon which the current and popular notions of the American Indian, the Red Man, as he is called—

The Stoic of the woods, the man without a tear, &c.,

have been formed. The Athabaskans, on the other hand, have not contributed much to our notions on this point. In the first place, they are less known; in the next, they are less typical.

But this raises their value in the eyes of the ethnologist; and the very fact of their possessing certain characteristics, in a comparatively slight degree, makes them all the fitter for illustrating the phenomena of transition.

Previous, however, to this, we must get our other extreme. This is to be found in the ethnology of—

The Eskimo.—It is a very easy matter for an artistic ethnologist to make some fine light-and-shade contrasts between two populations, where he has an Iroquois or a Sioux at one end, and an Eskimo of Labrador at the other. An oblique eye, bleared and sore from the glare of the snow, with a crescentic fold overshadowing the caruncula lacrymalis, surmounted by a low forehead and black shaggy locks, with cheek-bones of such inordinate development as to make the face as broad as it is long, are elements of ugliness which catch the imagination, and produce a caricature, where we want a picture. And they are elements of ugliness which can be accumulated. We may add to them, a nose so flat, and cheeks so fleshy, as for a ruler, placed across the latter, to leave the former untouched. We may then notice the state of the teeth, from the mastication of injurious substances; and having thus exhausted nature, we may revert to the deformities of art. We may observe that wherever there is a fleshy portion of the face that can be perforated by a stone knife, or pierced by a whalebone, there will be tattooing and incisions; and that wherever there are incisions, bones, nails, feathers, and such like ornaments will be inserted. All this is the case. What European ladies do with their ears, the Eskimo does with the cartilage of his nose, the lips, the corners of his mouth, and the cheeks. More than this—in the lower lip, parallel to the mouth, and taking the guise of a mouth additional, a slit is made quite through the lip, large enough to allow the escape of spittle and the protrusion of the tongue. The insertion of a shell or bone, cut into the shape of teeth, completes the adornment.

Then comes the question of colour. The Indian has a tinge of red; a tinge which enables us to compare his skin to copper. The Eskimo is simply brown, swarthy, or tawny.

Again, the Eskimo hold periodical fairs. Whales are scarce in the south, and wood in the north of Greenland; and in consequence of this, there are regular meetings for the business of barter. This gives us the elements of commercial industry; elements which must themselves be taken in conjunction with the maritime habits of the people. What stronger contrast can we find to all this than the gloomy isolation of the hunters of the prairie-countries, whether Sioux, Iroquois, or Algonkin?

Again, it is safe, in the way of intellectual capacity, to give the Eskimo credit for ingenuity and imitativeness. The Indian, of the type which we have chosen to judge him by, is pre-eminently indocile and inflexible.

Yet all this, with much more besides, is capable of great qualification—qualification which we find necessary, whether we look to the extent to which the Eskimos approach the Indian, or the Indian the Eskimo—each receding from its own more extreme representative.

The prominence of the nasal bones is certainly common amongst the Red Indian tribes; and rare amongst the Eskimo. Yet it is neither universal in the one, nor non-existent in the other. Oval features, a mixture of red in the complexion, an aquiline nose, have all been observed amongst the more favoured of the Circumpolar men and women.

In respect, too, to stature, the Eskimo is less remarkable for inferiority than is generally supposed. His bulky, baggy dress makes him look square and short. Measurements, however, correct this impression. Men of the height of five feet ten inches have been noticed as particular specimens—better grown individuals than their fellows. And men under five feet have also been noticed for the contrary reasons. Numerous measurements, however, give about five feet as the height of an Eskimo woman, and five feet six inches as that of a man. This is more than so good an authority as Mr. Crawfurd gives to the Malays; whose person is squat, and whose average stature does not exceed five feet three or four inches. It is more, too, than Sir R. Schomburgk gives the Guiana Indians, as may be seen from the following table:—

- - - Aged. ft. in. - - - Wapisianas. 12 4 8-5/10 15 4 6 16 5 1-1/10 - - - Tarumas. 14 4 11-3/10 - - - Mawackas. 15 4 10 16} 4 9-5/10 17} - - - Atorais. 35 5 1-5/10 15 5 1 - - - Macusis. 14} 4 8 15} 14 5 0 - - -

It is more than the average of several other populations.

Neither is the Eskimo skull so wholly different from the American. It is, probably, larger in its dimensions; so that its cavity contains more cubic inches. The measurements, however, which suggest this view, are but few. On the other hand, the relations between the width and the depth of the skull, are considered important and distinctive.

By width is meant the number of inches from side to side, from one parietal bone to the other; in other words, the parietal diameter.

Depth signifies the length of the occipito-frontal diameter, or the number of inches from the forehead to the back of the skull.

Now, in one out of four of the Eskimo crania examined by Dr. Morton, the parietal diameter so nearly approaches the occipito-frontal as for the skull in question to be as much as 5.4 inches in width, and as little as 5.7 in depth; a measurement which makes the Eskimo brain almost as broad as it is long. Valeat quantum. It is an extreme specimen. The remainder are as 5.5 to 7.3; as 5.1 to 7.5; and as 5 to 6.7, proportions by no means exclusively Eskimo, and proportions which occur in very many of the undeniably American stocks.

Likeness there is; and variety there is;—likeness in physical feature, likeness in language, and likeness in the general moral and intellectual characteristics. And then there is variety—variety in all the details of their arts; variety in their bows, their canoes, their dwellings, their fashions in the way of incisions and tattooings, and their fashions in the dressing of their hair.

This is as much as can be said about the Eskimo at present. It is, however, preparatory to the general statement that all the remaining Indians of British North America recede from the Sioux and Iroquois type, and approach that of the family in question. Such, indeed, has been the case, though (perhaps) in a less degree, with one of the classes already considered—the Athabaskan.

The Koluch.—The extreme west of the British possessions beyond the Rocky Mountains, north of latitude 55 deg. is but imperfectly known. Indeed, for scientific, and, perhaps, for political purposes as well, the country is unfortunately divided. The Russians have the long but narrow strip of coast; and, consequently, limit their investigations to its bays and archipelagoes. The British, on the contrary, though they possess the interior, have no great interest in the parts about the Russian boundary. In the way of trade, they are not sufficiently on the sea for the sea-otter, nor near enough the mountains for other fur-bearing animals.

Now, the mouth of the Stikin River is Russian, the head-waters British. Beyond these, we have the water-system of the McKenzie—for that river, although falling into the Arctic Sea, has a western fork, which breaks through the barrier of the Rocky Mountains, and changes in direction from west and south-west to north. Lake Simpson, Lake Dease, and the River Turnagain belong to this branch; the tract in which they lie being a range of highlands, if not of mountains.

This is the country of the Nehannis; conterminous on the south with that of the Takulli, and on the north-east with that of the Dahodinni. How far, however, it extends towards the Russian boundary and in the north-west direction I cannot say.

The Nehannis are, probably, the chief British representatives of the class called Koluch.[75] Assuming this—although from the want of a special Nehanni vocabulary, the philological evidence is wanting—I begin with the notice of the Nehannis, as known to the Hudson's Bay Company, and afterwards superadd a sketch of the Sitkans, as known to the Russians of New Archangel; the two notices together giving us the special description of a family, and the general view of the class to which that family belongs.

That the Nehannis are brave, warlike, and turbulent, is no more than is expected. We are far beyond the latitude of the peaceful Eskimo. That they are ruled by a woman should surprise us. Such, however, is the case. A female rules them—and rules them, too, with a rod of iron. Respect for sex has here attained its height. It had begun to be recognized amongst the Athabaskans.

The Nehannis are strong enough to rob; but they are also civilized enough to barter; buying of the inland tribes, and selling to the Russians—a practice which seems to divert the furs of British territory to the markets of Muscovy. But this is no business of the ethnologist's. They are slavers and slave-owners; ingenious and imitative; fond of music and dancing; fish-eaters; active in body; bold and treacherous in temper; and with the common Koluch physiognomy and habits.

These we must collect from the descriptions of the Russian Koluches—the locality where they have been best studied being Sitka Sound, or New Archangel. We must do it, however, mutatis mutandis, i.e., remembering that the Sitkans are Koluch of an Archipelago, the Nehanni Koluch of a continent.

The Koluch complexion is light; the hair long and lank; the eyes black; and the lip and chin often bearded.

The Konaegi are the natives of the island Kadiak. Now Lisiansky, from whom the chief details of the Sitkan Koluch are taken, especially states that, with few exceptions, their manners and customs are those of these same Konaegi; one of the minor points of difference being the greater liveliness of the Sitkans, and one of the more important ones, their treatment of the dead. They burn the bodies (as do the Takulli Athabaskans) and deposit the ashes in wooden boxes placed upon pillars, painted or carved, more or less elaborately, according to the wealth of the deceased.

On the death of a toyon, or chief, one of his slaves is killed and burned with him. If, however, the deceased be of inferior rank the victim is buried. If the death be in battle, the head, instead of being burned, is kept in a wooden box of its own. But it is not with the shaman as with the warrior. The shaman is merely interred; since he is supposed to be too full of the evil spirit to be consumed by fire. The reason why burning is preferred to burying is because the possession of a piece of flesh is supposed to enable its owner to do what mischief he pleases.

Now the Konaegi are admitted Eskimo.

Notwithstanding the similarity between the Sitkans and Konaegi there is no want of true American customs amongst them. Cruelty to prisoners, indifference to pain when inflicted on themselves, and the habit of scalping are common to the Indians of King George's Archipelago, and those of the water-system of the Mississippi. On the other hand, they share the skill in painting and carving with the Chenuks and the aborigines of the Oregon.

The Digothi.—The Dahodinni are Athabaskan rather than Koluch; the Nehanni Koluch rather than Athabaskan. Now I imagine that the Dahodinni country is partially encircled by Koluch populations, and that a fresh branch of this stock re-appears when we proceed northwards. On the Lower McKenzie, in the valley of the Peel River, and at the termination of the great Rocky Range on the shore of the Polar Sea, we find the Digothi or Loucheux; the only family not belonging to the Eskimo class, which comes in contact with the ocean; and, consequently, the only unequivocally Indian population which interrupts the continuity of the Eskimo from Behring's Straits to the Atlantic. Perhaps the alluvium of a great river like the McKenzie, has determined this displacement. Such an occupancy would be as naturally coveted by an inland population, as undervalued by a maritime one. At any rate, the Loucheux have the appearance of being an encroaching tenantry; indeed, few Indians have had their physical appearance described in terms equally favourable. Black-haired and fair-complexioned, with fine sparkling eyes, and regular teeth, they approach the Nehanni in physiognomy, and surpass them in stature. The same authority which expressly states that the Nehanni are not generally tall, speaks to the athletic proportions and tall stature of the Loucheux; adding that their countenances are handsome and expressive.

Whence came they? From the south-east, from Russian America. Their points of contrast to the Eskimo indicate this. Their points of contrast to the Athabaskans indicate it also. Their points of similarity to the Koluch do more. The Loucheux possessive pronoun is the same as the Kenay. Thus—

ENGLISH. LOUCHEUX. KENAY.

My-son se-jay ssi-ja. My-daughter se-zay ssa-za.

Fuller descriptions, however, of both the Loucheux and Nehanni are required before we can decidedly pronounce them to be Koluch; indeed, so high an authority as Gallatin places the latter amongst the Athabaskans.

The Fall Indians.—In a MS. communicated by Mr. Gallatin to Dr. Prichard, and, by the latter kindly lent to myself, and examined by me some years back, was a vocabulary of the language of the Indians of the Falls of the Saskatchewan. In this their native name was written Ahnenin. Mr. Hale, however, calls them Atsina. Which is correct is difficult to say.

Gros ventres is another of their designations; Minetari of the Prairie another. This last is inconvenient, as well as incorrect, since the true Minetari are a Sioux tribe, different in language, manners, and descent.

Arrapaho is a third synonym; and this is important, since there are other Arrapahoes as far south as the Platte and Arkansas Rivers.

The identity of name is prima facie evidence of two tribes so distant as those of Arkansas and the Saskatchewan being either offsets from one another, or else from some common stock; but it is not more. Nothing can be less conclusive. This has just been shown to be in the case of the term Minetari.

The Ahnenin, or Atsina language is peculiar; though the confederacy to which the Indians who speak it belong, is the Blackfoot.

Of the southern Arrapaho we have no vocabulary; neither do we know whether the name be native or not.

* * * * *

A tract still stands over for notice. As we have no exact northern limits for the Nehanni, no exact western ones for the Dahodinni, and no exact southern ones for the Loucheux, the parts due east of the Russian boundary are undescribed.

I can only contribute to the ethnology here.

The Ugalentses.—Round Mount St. Elias we have a population of Ugalentses or Ugalyakhmutsi. Though said to consist of less than forty families,[76] as their manners are migratory, it is highly probable that some of them are British.

The Tshugatsi.—In contact with the Ugalents, who are transitional between the true Eskimo and the true Koluch, the Tshugatsi are unequivocally Eskimo. The parts about Prince William's Sound are their locality.

The Haidah.—Queen Charlotte's, and the southern extremity of the Prince of Wales' Archipelago, are the parts to which the Indians speaking the Haidah language have been referred. In case, however, any members of their family extend into the British territory, they are mentioned here.

Three Haidah tribes are more particularly named—

a. The Skittegat.

b. The Cumshahas—a name remarkably like that of the Chimsheyan, hereafter to be noticed.

c. The Kygani.

The Tungaas.—This is the name of the language of the most Northern Indians, with which the Hudson's Bay Company comes in contact. It is Koluch; and more Russian than British.

The chief authority is Dr. Scouler. The whole of his valuable remarks upon the North-western Indians, is a commentary upon the assertion already made as to the extent which we have formed our ideas of the Aboriginal American upon the Algonkins and Iroquois exclusively; and his facts are a correction to our inferences. In what way do the moral and intellectual characters of the Western Indians differ from those of the Eastern? I shall give the answer in Dr. Scouler's only terms. They are less inflexible in character. Their range of ideas is greater. They are imitative and docile. They are comparatively humane.[77] No scalping. No excessive torture of prisoners. No probationary inflictions.

Now—whether negative or positive—there is not one of those characteristics wherein the Western American differs from the Eastern, in which he does not, at the same time, approach the Eskimo. In the absence of the scalping-knife, the tomahawk, the council fire, the wampum-belt, the hero chief, and the metaphorical orator, the Eskimo differs from the Ojibway, the Huron, and the Mohawk. True. But the Haidah and the Chimsheyan do the same.

The religion of the Algonkin and Iroquois is Shamanistic; like the Negro of Africa they attribute to some material object mysterious powers. As far as the term has been defined, this is Feticism. But, then, like the Finn, and the Samoeid of Siberia, they either seek for themselves or reverence in others, the excitement of fasting, charms, and dreams. As far as the term has been defined this is Shamanism. Now lest our notions as to the religion of the Indians be rendered unduly favourable through the ideas of pure theism, called up by the missionary term Great Spirit, we must simply remember, in the first place, that the term is ours, not theirs; and that those who, by looking to facts rather than words, have criticised it, have arrived at the conclusion that the creed of the Indians of the St. Lawrence and Mississippi is neither better nor worse than the creed of the Indians of the Columbia. Both are alike, Shamanistic. And so is the Eskimo.

The names in detail of the Indians of British Oregon, over and above those of the Athabaskan family already enumerated, are as follows; Dr. Scouler still being the authority, and, along with him, Mr. Tolmie and Mr. Hale.

1. The Chimsheyan, or Chimmesyan, on the sea-coast and islands about 55 deg. North lat. Their tribes are the Naaskok, the Chimsheyan Proper, the Kitshatlah, and the Kethumish.

2. The Billichula, on the mouth of the Salmon River.

3. The Hailtsa, on the sea-coast, from Hawkesbury Island to Broughton's Archipelago, and (perhaps) the northern part of Quadra's and Vancouver's Island. Their tribes are the Hyshalla, the Hyhysh, the Esleytuk, the Weekenoch, the Nalatsenoch, the Quagheuil, the Ttatla-shequilla, and the Lequeeltoch. The numerals from Fitz-Hugh Sound will be noticed in the sequel.

4. The Nutka Sound Indians occupy the greater part of Quadra's and Vancouver's Island, speak the Wakash language, and fall into the following tribes—

a. The Naspatl.

b. The Nutkans Proper.

c. The Tlaoquatsh.

d. The Nittenat.

5. The Shushwah, or Atna, are bounded on the north by the Takulli, belong to the interior rather than the coast, are members of a large family, called the Tsihaili-Selish, extending far into the United States. According to Mr. Hale, they present the remarkable phenomenon of an aboriginal stock having increased from about four hundred to twelve hundred, instead of diminishing.

6. The Kitunaha, Cutanies, or Flat-bows, hardy, brave and shrewd hunters on the Kitunaha, or Flat-bow River, and conterminous with the Blackfoots, are the Oregon Indians whose habits most closely approach those of the Indians to the east of the Rocky Mountains.

* * * * *

To some of these I now return, since three points of Algonkin ethnology require special notice.

a. The Nascopi or Skoffi.—This is a frontier tribe. Much as we connect the ideas of cold and cheerless sterility with the inclement climate and naked moorlands of Labrador, and much as we connect the Eskimo as a population with a similarly inhospitable country, it is only the coast of that vast region which is thus tenanted. On Hudson's Straits there are Eskimo; on the Straits of Belleisle there are Eskimo; along the intervening coast there are Eskimo, and as far south as Anticosti there are Eskimo, but in the interior there are no Eskimo. Instead of them we find the Skoffi, and the Sheshatapush—subsections (as stated before) of the same section of the great Algonkin stock. In them we have a measure of the effect of external conditions upon different members of the same class. Between the Skoffi of Mosquito Bay and the Pamticos of Cape Hatteras we have more than 25 deg. of latitude combined with a difference of other physical conditions which more than equals the difference between north and south. Yet the contrast between the Algonkin and other inhabitants of Labrador is as evident (though not, perhaps, so great) as that between the Greenlander and the Virginian; so that just as the Norwegian is distinguishable from the Laplander so is the Skoffi from Eskimo.

Dirtier and coarser than any other Algonkins, the Nascopi hunts and fishes for his livelihood exclusively; depending most upon the autumnal migrations of the reindeer; and, next to that, upon his net. This he sets under the ice, during the earlier months of the winter. After December, however, he would set them in vain; the fish being, then, all in the deep water. Woman, generally a drudge in North America, is pre-eminently so with the Nascopis. All that the man does, is the killing of the game. The woman brings it home. The woman also drags the loaded sledges from squatting to squatting, clears the ground, and collects fuel; whilst the man sits idle and smokes. Of such domestic slaves more than one is allowed; so that as far as the Nascopi recognizes marriage at all, he is a polygamist. In this sense the contracting parties are respectively the parents of the couple—the bride and bridegroom being the last parties consulted. When all has been arranged, the youth proceeds to his father-in-law's tent, remains there a year, and then departs as an independent member of the community. Cousins are addressed as brothers or sisters; marriage between near relations is allowed; and so is the marriage of more than one sister successively.

The Paganism of the Nascopi is that of the other Cree tribes; their Christianity still more partial and still more nominal. Sometimes rolling in abundance, sometimes starving, they are attached to the Whites by but few artificial wants; the few fur-bearing animals of their country being highly prized, and, consequently, going a long way as elements of barter. Their dress is almost wholly of reindeer skin; their travelling gear a leathern bag with down in it, and a kettle. In this bag the Nascopi thrusts his legs, draws his knees up to his chin, and defies both wind and snow.

This account has been condensed from M'Lean's "Five and Twenty Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory." I subjoin the remainder in his own words: "The horrid practice still obtains among the Nascopis of destroying their parents and relatives, when old age incapacitates them for further exertion. I must, however, do them the justice to say, that the parent himself expresses a wish to depart, otherwise the unnatural deed would probably never be committed, for they, in general, treat their old people with much care and tenderness. The son, or nearest relative, performs the office of executioner—the self-devoted victim being disposed of by strangulation."

b. The Aborigines of Newfoundland.—Sebastian Cabot brought three Newfoundlanders to England. They were clothed in beasts' skin, and ate raw flesh. This last is an accredited characteristic of the Eskimo; and, thus far, the evidence is in favour of the savages in question belonging to that stock. Yet it is more than neutralized by what follows; since Purchas states that two years after he saw two of them, dressed like Englishmen, "which, at that time, I could not discover from Englishmen, till I learned what they were."

Now as the Bethuck—the aborigines in question—have either been cruelly exterminated, or exist in such small numbers as not to have been seen for many years, it has been a matter of doubt whether they were Eskimo or Micmacs, the present occupants of the island. Reasons against either of these views are supplied by a hitherto unpublished Bethuck vocabulary, with which I have been kindly furnished by my friend Dr. King, of the Ethnological Society. This makes them a separate section of the Algonkins. Such I believe them to have been, and have placed them accordingly.

c. The Fitz-Hugh Sound Numerals.—These are nearly the same as the Hailtsa. On the other hand, they agree with the Blackfoot in ending in -scum.

Now if the resemblance go farther, so as really to connect the Blackfoot with the Hailtsa, it brings the Algonkin class of languages across the whole breadth of the continent, and as far as the shores of the Pacific.

* * * * *

The Moskito Indians are no subjects of England, any more than the Tahitians are of France, or the Sandwich Islanders of America, France, and England conjointly. The Moskito coast is a Protectorate: and the Moskito Indians are the subjects of a native king.

The present reigning monarch was educated under English auspices at Jamaica, and, upon attaining his majority, crowned at Grey Town. I believe that his name is that of the grandfather of our late gracious majesty. King George, then, king of the Moskitos, has a territory extending from the neighbourhood of Truxillo to the lower part of the River San Juan; a territory whereof, inconveniently for Great Britain, the United States, and the commerce of the world at large, the limits and definition are far from being universally recognized. Nicaragua has claims, and the Isthmus canal suffers accordingly.

The king of the Moskito coast, and the emperor of the Brazil, are the only resident sovereigns of the New World.

The subjects of the former are, really, the aborigines of the whole line of coast between Nicaragua and Honduras—there being no Indians remaining in the former republic, and but few in the latter. Of these, too—the Nicaraguans—we have no definite ethnological information. Mr. Squier speaks of them as occupants of the islands of the lakes of the interior. Colonel Galindo also mentions them; but I infer, from his account, that their original language is lost, and that Spanish is their present tongue; just as it is said to be that of the aborigines of St. Salvador and Costa Rica. This makes it difficult to fix them. And the difficulty is increased when we resort to history, tradition, and archaeology. History makes them Mexicans—Asteks from the kingdom of Montezuma, and colonists of the Peninsula, just as the Ph[oe]nicians were of Carthage. Archaeology goes the same way. A detailed description of Mr. Squier's discoveries, is an accession to ethnology which is anxiously expected. At any rate, stone ruins and carved decorations have been found; so that what Mr. Stephenson has written about Yucatan and Guatemala, may be repeated in the case of Nicaragua. Be it so. The difficulty will be but increased; since whatever facts makes Nicaragua Mexican, isolates the Moskitos. They are now in contact with Spaniards and Englishmen—populations whose civilization differs from their own; and populations who are evidently intrusive and of recent origin. Precisely the same would be the case, if the Nicaraguans were made Mexican. The civilization would be of another sort; the population which introduced it would be equally intrusive; and the only difference would be a difference of stage and degree—a little earlier in the way of time, and a little less contrast in the way of skill and industry.

But the evidence in favour of the Mexican origin of the Nicaraguans, is doubtful; and so is the fact of their having wholly lost their native tongue; and until one of these two opinions be proved, it will be well to suspend our judgment as to the isolation of the Moskitos. If, indeed, either of them be true, their ethnological position will be a difficult question. With nothing in Honduras to compare them with—with nothing tangible, or with an apparently incompatible affinity in Nicaragua—with only very general miscellaneous affinities in Guatemala—their ethnological affinities are as peculiar as their political constitution. Nevertheless, isolated as their language is, it has undoubted general affinities with those of America at large; and this is all that it is safe to say at present. But it is safe to say this. We have plenty of data for their tongue, in a grammar of Mr. Henderson's, published at New York, 1846.

The chief fact in the history of the Moskitos, is that they were never subject to the Spaniards. Each continent affords a specimen of this isolated freedom—the independence of some exceptional and impracticable tribes, as compared with the universal empire of some encroaching European power. The Circassians in Caucasus, the Tshuktshi Koriaks in North-eastern Asia, and the Kaffres in Africa, show this. Their relations with the buccaneers were, probably, of an amicable description. So they were with the Negroes—maroon and imported. And this, perhaps, has determined their differentiae. They are intertropical American aborigines, who have become partially European, without becoming Spanish.

Their physical conformation is that of the South rather than the North American; and, here it must be remembered, that we are passing from one moiety of the new hemisphere to the other. With a skin which is olive-coloured rather than red, they have small limbs and undersized frames; whilst their habits are, mutatis mutandis, those of the intertropical African. This means, that the exuberance of soil, and the heat of the climate, makes them agriculturists rather than shepherds, and idlers rather than agriculturists; since the least possible amount of exertion gives them roots and fruits; whilst it is only those wants which are compatible with indolence that they care to satisfy. They presume rather than improve upon the warmth of their suns, and the fertility of the soil. When they get liquor, they get drunk; when they work hardest, they cut mahogany. Canoes and harpoons represent the native industry. Wulasha is the name of their Evil Spirit, and Liwaia that of a water-god.

I cannot but think that there is much intermixture amongst them. At the same time, the data for ascertaining the amount are wanting. Their greatest intercourse has, probably, been with the Negro; their next greatest with the Englishman. Of the population of the interior, we know next to nothing. Here their neighbours are Spaniards.

They are frontagers to the river San Juan. This gives them their value in politics.

They are the only well-known extant Indians between Guatemala and Veragua. This gives them their value in ethnology.

The populations to which they were most immediately allied, have disappeared from history. This isolates them; so that there is no class to which they can be subordinated. At the same time, they are quite as like the nearest known tribes as the American ethnologist is prepared to expect.

What they were in their truly natural state, when, unmodified by either Englishman or Spaniard, Black or Indian, they represented the indigenous civilization (such as it was) of their coast, is uncertain.

* * * * *

That the difference between the North and South American aborigines has been over-rated, is beyond doubt. The tendency, however, to do so, decreases. An observer like Sir R. Schomburgk, who is at once minute in taking notice, and quick at finding parallels, adds his suffrage to that of Cicca de Leon and others, who enlarge upon the extent to which the Indians of the New World in general look "like children of one family." On the other hand, however, there are writers like D'Orbigny. These expatiate upon the difference between members of the same class, so as to separate, not only Caribs from Algonkins, or Peruvians from Athabaskans, but Peruvians from Caribs, and Patagonians from Brazilians.

Now it is no paradox to assert that these two views, instead of contradicting, support each other. A writer exhibits clear and undeniable differences between two American tribes in geographical juxtaposition to one another. But does this prove a difference of origin, stock, or race? Not necessarily. Such differences may be, and often are, partial. More than this—they may be more than neutralized by undeniable marks of affinity. In such a case, all that they prove is the extent to which really allied populations may be contrasted in respect to certain particular characters.

Stature is the chief point in which the North American has the advantage of the Southern, e.g., the Algonkin over the Carib. Such is Sir R. Schomburgk's remark; and such is the general rule. Yet a vast number of the Indians of the Oregon, are shorter than the South American Patagonian and Pampa tribes. The head is large as compared with the trunk, and the trunk with the limbs; the hands small; the foot large; the skin soft, though with larger pores than in Europe.

Indians of British Guiana.—These are distributed amongst four divisions, of very unequal magnitude and importance.—1. The Carib. 2. The Warow. 3. The Wapisiana. 4. The Taruma.

The number of vocabularies collected by Sir R. Schomburgk was eighteen.

1. The great Carib group falls into three divisions:—

a. The Caribs Proper.

b. The Tamanaks.

c. The Arawaks.

Of these, it is only members of the first and last that occupy British Guiana.

The Arawaks.—The Arawaks are our nearest neighbours, and, consequently, the most Europeanized. Sir R. Schomburgk says, that they and the Warows amount to about three thousand, and from Bernau we infer, that this number is nearly equally divided between the two; since he reckons the Arawaks at about fifteen hundred. Each family has its distinctive tattoo, and these families are twenty-seven in number.

The children may marry into their father's family, but not into that of their mother. Now as the caste is derived from their mother, this is an analogue of the North American totem. Polygamy is chiefly the privilege of the chiefs. The Pe-i-man is the Arawak Shaman. He it is who names the children—for a consideration. Failing this, the progeny goes nameless; and to go nameless is to be obnoxious to all sorts of misfortunes.

Imposture is hereditary; and as soon as the son of a conjuror enters his twentieth year, his right ear is pierced, he is required to wear a ring, and he is trusted with the secrets of the craft.

In imitating what they see, and remembering what they hear, the Arawak has, at least, an average capacity. Neither is he destitute of ingenuity. Notation he has none; and the numeration is of the rudest kind.

Aba-da-kabo = once my hand = five. Biama-da-kabo = twice my hand = ten. Aba-olake = one man = twenty.

Perfect nudity is rare amongst the women; and some neatness in the dressing of their hair is perceptible. It is tied up on the crown of the head.

The nearer the coast the darker the skin; the lightest coloured families being as fair as Spaniards. This is on the evidence of Bernau, who adds, that, as children grow in knowledge and receive instruction, the forehead rises, and the physiognomy improves.

The other Guiana Indians, so far as they are Carib at all, are Caribs Proper, rather than Arawaks. Of these, the chief are—

The Accaways,—occupants of the rivers Mazaruni and Putara, with about six hundred fighting men. They are jealous, quarrelsome, and cruel; firm friends and bitter enemies. When resisted, they kill; when unopposed, enslave.

The law of revenge predominates in this tribe; for—like certain Australians—they attribute all deaths to contrivances of an enemy. Workers in poison themselves, they suspect it with others.

Their skin is redder than the Arawaks', but then their nudity is more complete; inasmuch as, instead of clothing, they paint themselves; arnotto being their red, lana their blue pigment. They pierce the septum of the nose, and wear wood in the holes, like the Eskimo, Loucheux, and others. They paint the face in streaks, and the body variously—sometimes blue on one side, and red on the other. They rub their bodies with carapa oil, to keep off insects; and one of the ingredients of their numerous poisons, is a kind of black ant called muneery.

Their forehead is depressed.

They give nicknames to each other and to strangers, irrespective of rank; and the better their authorities take it the greater their influence.

It is the belief of the Accaways that the spirit of the deceased hovers over the dwelling in which death took place, and that it will not tolerate disturbance. Hence they bury the corpse in the hammock, and under the hut in which it became one. This they burn and desert.

The Carabisi.—Twenty years ago the Carabisi (Carabeese, Carabisce) mustered one thousand fighting men. It would now be difficult to raise one hundred. But the diminution of their numbers and importance began earlier still. Beyond the proper Carabisi area, there are numerous Carabisi names of rivers, islands, and other geographical objects. Hence, their area has decreased.

Omnivorous enough to devour greedily tigers, dogs, rats, frogs, insects, and other sorts of food, unpopular elsewhere, they are distinguished by their ornaments as well. The under-lip is the part which they perforate, and wherein they wear their usual pins; besides which they fasten a large lump of arnotto to the hair of the front of the head.

In ordinary cases the hammock in which the death took place, serves as a coffin, the body is buried, and a funeral procession made once or twice round the grave; but the bodies of persons of importance are watched and washed by the nearest female relations, and when nothing but the skeleton remains, the bones are cleaned, painted, packed in a basket and preserved. When, however, there is a change of habitation they are burned; after which the ashes are collected, and kept.

Here we have interment and cremation in one and the same tribe; a circumstance which should guard us against exaggerating their value as characteristic and distinguishing customs.

Again. The Macusi is closely akin to the Carabisi; yet the Macusi buries his dead in a sitting posture without coffins, and with but few ceremonies. Now the sitting posture is common to the Peruvians, the Oregon Indians, and numerous tribes of Brazil; indeed, Morton considers it to be one of the most remarkable characteristics of the Red Man of America in general.

The Arawak custom is peculiar. When a man of note dies his relations plant a field of cassava; just as the Nicobar Islanders plant a cocoa-nut tree. Then they lament loudly. But when twelve moons are over, and the cassava is ripe, they re-assemble, feast, dance, and lash each other cruelly, and severely with whips. The whips are then hung up on the spot where the person died. Six moons later a second meeting takes place—and, this time, the whips are buried.

The Waika are a small tribe of the Accaways; the Zapara of the Macusis. Besides these, the following Guiana Indians are Carib.

The Arecuna; of which the Soerikong are a section.

The Waiyamara.

The Guinau.

The Maiongkong.

The Woyawai.

The Mawakwa, or Frog Indians—a tribe that flattens the head.

The Piano-ghotto; of which the Zaramata and Drio are sections.

The Tiveri-ghotto.

2. The Warow, Waraw, Warau, or Guarauno.—These are the Indians of the Delta of the Orinoco, and the parts between that river and the Pomaroon. Their language is peculiar, but by no means without miscellaneous affinities. They are the fluviatile boatmen of South America. Their habit of taking up their residence in trees when the ground is flooded, has given both early and late writers an opportunity of enlarging upon their semi-arboreal habits.

3. The Wapisianas fall into—

a. The Wapisianas Proper—

b. The Atorai, of which the Taurai, or Dauri (the same word under another form), and the extinct, or nearly extinct, Amaripas are divisions.

c. The Parauana.

4. The Tarumas, on the Upper Essequibo, have their probable affinities with the uninvestigated tribes of Central South America.

The Indians of Trinidad are Carib. So are those of St. Vincents. In no other West Indian islands are there any aborigines extant.

FOOTNOTES:

[71] Dinni, tinni, din, tin, &c.=man in the Athabaskan tongues.

[72] Called also Carriers, Nagail, and Chin Indians; though whether the last two names are correct is uncertain.

[73] By no means to be confounded with the Chepewyans.

[74] The Mohawks, Senekas, Onondagos, Cayugas, Oneidas, Tuskaroras, and Hurons.

[75] See a paper of Mr. Isbester's in the "Transactions of the British Association," 1847, p. 121.

[76] Thirty-eight.

[77] This requires modification. The Sitkan practices have already been noticed.



FINIS.

LONDON: Printed by SAMUEL BENTLEY and CO., Bangor House, Shoe Lane.



WORKS BY DR. R. G. LATHAM.

* * * * *

MAN AND HIS MIGRATIONS. In foolscap 8vo. Price 5s.

A HAND-BOOK OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE; for the Use of Students preparing for the University of London, &c. 1 vol. large 12mo.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, &c. Third Edition. 8vo. 15s.

AN ELEMENTARY ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS. Fifth Edition. 12mo. 4s. 6d. cloth.

AN ENGLISH GRAMMAR, FOR THE USE OF LADIES' SCHOOLS. Foolscap 8vo. cloth, 1s. 6d.

THE HISTORY AND ETYMOLOGY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FOR THE USE OF CLASSICAL SCHOOLS. Foolscap 8vo. cloth, 1s. 6d.

A GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FOR THE USE OF COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS. Foolscap 8vo. cloth, 1s. 6d.

FIRST OUTLINES OF LOGIC, Applied to Grammar and Etymology. 12mo. cloth, 1s. 6d.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE VARIETIES OF MAN. In 1 vol. 8vo. illustrated, price 21s.

"The truly masculine minds of England, of continental Europe, and of Anglo-Saxon America, will prize it as the best book of its time, on the best subject of its time."—Weekly News.

In the Press.

THE GERMANIA OF TACITUS; with Ethnological Notes.



BOOKS PUBLISHED BY MR. VAN VOORST DURING 1850.

* * * * *

THE PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR HARVEY, due to Purchasers of his "Manual of British Marine Algae," may now be had in exchange for the "Notice" prefixed to the volume.

AN INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY; or, Elements of the Natural History of Molluscous Animals. By GEORGE JOHNSTON, M.D., LL.D., Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; Author of "A History of the British Zoophytes." 8vo. 102 Illustrations, 21s.

AN ELEMENTARY COURSE OF GEOLOGY, MINERALOGY, AND PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. By DAVID T. ANSTED, M.A., F.R.S., &c., Professor of Geology at King's College, London; Lecturer on Mineralogy and Geology at the H.E.I.C. Mil. Sem. at Addiscombe; late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Post 8vo. illustrated, price 12s.

GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL: their Friends and their Foes. By A. E. KNOX, M.A., F.L.S. With Illustrations by WOLF. Post 8vo. price 9s.

MR. KNOX'S ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES IN SUSSEX. Second Edition, with Four Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d.

AN ARCTIC VOYAGE TO BAFFIN'S BAY AND LANCASTER SOUND, in search of Friends with Sir John Franklin. By ROBERT A. GOODSIR, late President of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh. Post 8vo., with a Frontispiece and Map, price 5s. 6d.

EVERY-DAY WONDERS; or, Facts in Physiology which all should know. With Woodcuts. 16mo. 2s. 6d. And, by the same Author,

DOMESTIC SCENES IN GREENLAND AND ICELAND. With Woodcuts. Second Edition. 16mo. 2s.

INSTRUMENTA ECCLESIASTICA. Edited by the Ecclesiological, late Cambridge Camden, Society. Second Series. Parts 1 to 3, each 2s. 6d.

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE VARIETIES OF MAN. By ROBERT GORDON LATHAM, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; Vice-President of the Ethnological Society of London; Corresponding Member of the Ethnological Society of New York. 8vo. illustrated, price 21s.

A HISTORY OF BRITISH MOLLUSCA AND THEIR SHELLS. By PROFESSOR EDWARD FORBES, F.R.S., and SYLVANUS HANLEY, B.A., F.L.S. Parts 25 to 34. 8vo. 2s. 6d. plain, or royal 8vo. coloured, 5s. each.

This Work is in continuation of the series of "British Histories," of which the Quadrupeds and Reptiles, by Professor Bell; the Birds and Fishes, by Mr. Yarrell; the Birds' Eggs, by Mr. Hewitson; the Starfishes, by Professor Forbes; the Zoophytes, by Dr. Johnston; the Trees, by Mr. Selby; and the Fossil Mammals and Birds, by Professor Owen, are already published. Each Work is sold separately, and is perfectly distinct and complete in itself.

* * * * *

JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW.



Transcriber's Amendments:

p. 30, fn. 10, 'Fallermayer' amended to Fallmerayer.

p. 31, 'Britany' amended to Brittany.

p. 32, 'Notitiae ...' amended to Notitia Utriusque Imperii.

p. 34, 'Caffres' amended to Kaffres.

p. 35, 'Woloffs' amended to Wolofs; 'Cabyles' amended to Kabyles.

p. 39, 'Avekoom' amended to Avekvom; 'Woloff' amended to Wolof; 'Bambarra' amended to Bambara.

p. 40, 'Woloffs' amended to Wolofs.

p. 65, 'languge' amended to language.

p. 67, 'Yorriba' amended to Yarriba; 'Callabar' amended to Calabar; 'Mosketo' amended to Mosquito.

p. 75, 'Amokosa' amended to Amakosa: 'The Amakosa.—This'.

p. 84, 'Caffraria' amended to Kaffraria.

p. 86, 'Crawford' amended to Crawfurd.

p. 94, 'Trangangetic' amended to Transgangetic.

p. 98, 'Crawford's Embassy' amended to Crawfurd's Embassy.

p. 107, 'Kamti' amended to Khamti.

p. 121, 'ecstacy' amended to ecstasy.

p. 137, 'Pottaing' amended to Potteang.

p. 140, 'Kuttak' amended to Cuttack; 'Penna' amended to Pennu (twice).

p. 141, 'Cicacole' amended to Chicacole.

p. 146, 'jackall' amended to jackal.

p. 148, 'Rajaship' amended to Rajahship.

p. 177, 'Levitican' amended to Levitical.

p. 181, 'Peshawer' amended to Peshawar.

p. 192, 'Maha-Sodon' amended to Maha-Sohon.

p. 193, 'Singalese' amended to Singhalese.

p. 197, 'Binjarri' amended to Brinjarri; 'Telagu' amended to Telugu.

p. 198, 'Taremuki' amended to Tarremuki.

p. 199, 'Bowri' amended to Bhowri.

p. 201, 'Guzerat' amended to Gujerat.

p. 228, 'Skofi' amended to Skoffi.

p. 233, 'tatooing' amended to tattooing.

p. 237, 'tatooings' amended to tattooings.

p. 243, 'Saskachewan' amended to Saskatchewan.

p. 259, 'tatoo' amended to tattoo.

p. 262, 'Caribis' amended to Carabisi.

Further Notes:

p. 113, Brown's Table: Horizontal rows 'Aka' and 'Abor' repositioned to match data; the value for 'Koreng' (row) and 'S. Tangkhul' (column), which originally read '—', has been amended to '11'.

p. 172-175, corrections to extracts taken from A History of the Sikhs, by J. D. Cunningham, 2nd Ed., London, 1853.

THE END