80 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

If we are to believe S. W. Cozzens — the “if” is not unnecessary —
Apaches in disgrace have a somewhat similar way of showing their affliction.
That author relates having come upon a brave of that tribe lying dead, with
one half of his face painted a bright vermilion, and the other half daubed
with mud, a circumstance which he explains by supposing blame on the part
of the warrior’s fellows for an offence of some sort}.

Among the western Dénés red was the festive colour, a token of good
spirits or a desire to please; black forebode sinister designs, war or murder,
and brown used sparingly and in an offensive manner told of mourning.

Bodily Deformations and Mutilations.
Tattooing and painting have for their object the amelioration of nature’s
handiwork in connection with one’s person. These attempts at improvement
never take the shape of intentional skull deformation such as practised by

Fig. 3. Navaho Skull, flattened at Occiput.

other American aborigines. But, as we have already seen, occipital depression
oftentimes results from the long contact of the infant’s head with the board
on which it rests. Fig. 38, which is an exact copy of a photograph, very aptly
illustrates the result of such contact.

The only intentional meddling with human anatomy with a view to
improving the same which was ever practised by a Déné tribe occurred in the
midst of the Loucheux. They bandaged the child’s feet to render them as
small as possible. As a consequence short, unshapely feet are characteristic
of the group to such an extent that Richardson, who records this custom,

* «The Marvellous Country” p. 68.