MISSIONARY 27

aborigines in their really native state: clad in wild
beasts’ skins.

At least such was the condition at that time of about
half of the tribe, which was called Stone (or Mountain)
Chilcotins. These were a nomadic people, though
they would occasionally repair to a group of log huts,
in the Chilcotin valley, which had been commenced
but were never completed. Even among the more
advanced followers of the great chief, Anarhém, only
two shawls could be found to help decorate what did
duty for a church. If such minute details may be
allowed, in order graphically to picture conditions as
they were amongst them in Father Morice’s time, and
as they normally are anywhere before the intrusion
of the European races, we may add that there was then
in the whole tribe but one dog which was not an
aboriginal half-wild animal. The others were uni-
formly small, grey, wolf-like dogs, with pointed ears
and all of the same colour.* The exception was
highly prized, in fact, known far and wide under the
name of Nitd-lli, ‘‘the white dog.”

After he had got in touch with his charge, the
young missionary sought practical means of acquiring
their language. He found these in the services of an
old Chilcotin woman who was married to a negro
residing on a piece of land belonging to the Mission
where he was stationed. He would repair to her
shack every afternoon or so, and, through the medium

‘ Has the reader ever noticed that one of the results of domestication
is diversity of skin colouring? The wolves of the same species are all of
the same colour, but not the domestic dog; the grouse and other fowls of
one kind look alike, but not our chickens; all the buffaloes are chocolate
brown, but cattle may be black, white, red or “pinto”; the wild boars

are uniform in colour, but the pigs are not, any more than our cats,
though their wild relatives are.