MENTAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 121

Loucheux’ treachery. The others, though wounded, were not dispatched until
the Indians had fired a second volley!.

To draw the reader’s attention from these gruesome scenes and give in
a few words the characteristics of the chief Déné tribes, we will say that the
Apaches are the wildest, boldest and most unscrupulous of all; the Hares
and Slaves are the most timid, credulous and generally affectionate. The Dog-
Ribs are indolent, naive and filthy; the Yellow-Knives rather profligate and
slightly over bearing; the Chippewayans, slovenly and religious, but weak
before temptation; the Beavers, simple, careless and great gamblers; the
Sékanais, credulous, honest and moral; the Nahanais, great imitators and not
a little superstitious. The Loucheux are the most manly, cleanly and thrifty;
the Babines are loud-mouthed and conservative of their old customs; the
Carriers, progressive, proud and not altogether destitute of bravery, while the
Chilcotins are more remarkable for their lack of meekness and their attachment
to their aboriginal ideas, though fairly laborious. As to the Navahoes, they
are incontestably the most industrious of all the tribes. Their mental faculties
appear to be better developed, as evidenced by their long myths and elaborate
ritual, though they are as superstitious, and withal as credulous, as their
northern kin. Of the Hupas we may say that they are, as a rule, wide awake,
fairly honest and religious almost to the point of mysticism.

" Cf. “Ten Months among the Tents of the Tuski’, pp. 367—72.