CANADIAN HISTORY READERS

slew and pillaged each other, and pursued a
code of vengeance and violence, beyond the
Rockies; both the scale of intelligence and
the scale of morals reaching a lower and
lower level,as the Pacific Coast was being
approached. A fundamental essential for
mission work among the Indians is a know-
ledge of their character supplemented by a
knowledge of their language. Without the
latter, it is needless to say, little progress can
be made.

All the Indian tribes of the Middle West
agreed more or less in their sociology and
religion, dwelling in skin tepees, which were
conical lodges, mounted on poles. They
lived on the meat of the buffalo, fish and a
species of wild rice and berries, according to
the season. In British Columbia the In-
dians lived on fish and game, and in search-
ing for the sustenance of life moved their
habitat more frequently than did the Indians
of the Plains. This made the work of the
missionary more arduous and more subject
to vicissitudes. Among none of the Indian
tribes, either of the Rockies or the Plains,
did purity of morals or honesty prevail:
while polygamy was common to all. The

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