MENTAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS. 109

This point of their character must now be fairly well established. Yet
I must be excused for still quoting another explorer in confirmation of the
same. The reader will thereby be in a better position to appreciate the extent
to which it is spread and the uniformity with which it has been noticed.
Richardson writes: “It is not, however, merely at such times... that truth
is violated, but on almost every occasion... A story which was at first a
pure invention, or perhaps, a perversion of some simple occurrence, becomes
so changed by the additions it receives in its transmission from individual to
individual, that it deceives the originators, and if it bears on the safety of
the community, may spread consternation among them, and occasion a
hasty flight’.

Their Shrewdness.

They realize themselves that this lack of adherence to the sober truth
is one of their national foibles. They are not ashamed of it, though they hate
to be cailed liars, but they take it as a matter of course. Nay, they even
deem it an evidence of smartness, which impels them to further their own
interests. This is so true that, after you have resided long enough in their
midst to become acquainted with this particular trait of their character, they
will never commence a speech leading to a request for a favour without
cautioning you against confounding them with the rest of their fellows. Theirs
is usually an exact duplicate of the Pharisee’s prayer. “I am not like the
other Indians,” they will say; “I have not two tongues, but only one, which
never tells anything but the truth.” After this exordium, if they perceive that
you take the bait, they hazard the most plausible — or sometimes impossible
— Story with a view to enlist your sympathies and win their point.

For, allied to this propensity for childish exaggeration is a degree of
shrewdness anid strategic ability in the furtherance of their ends which renders
the northern Dénés a match for the most sagacious stranger. The Loucheux
are more manly, but the eastern tribes are ever begging for assistance at the
hands of the white fur traders, whom in their childish simplicity they take
to be so wealthy that no amount of generosity can put them to any in-
convenience. Their conduct towards new heads of trading posts is so gra-
phically described by Hearne that I cannot resist the temptation of quoting
him on this point.

“They take care always to seem attached to a new Governor, and flatter
his pride, by telling him that they look up to him as the father of their tribe,
on whom they can safely place their dependance; and they never fail to
depreciate the generosity of his predecessor, however extensive that might
have been, however humane or disinterested his conduct; and if aspersing
the old, and flattering the new, Governor has not the desired effect in a

* “Arctic Searching Expedition”, vol. Il, p. 19.