The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies Part 22

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

All natural objects of the same cla.s.s 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-sanct.i.ty 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 p.u.b.erty. 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_ const.i.tuted 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 ?f? (_amfi_) _roundabout_, and ??s?? (_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.--a.s.sINEBOINS.--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 cla.s.s; a cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s.

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_.