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FATHER MORICE

terior of British Columbia. While there he
was appointed missionary to the Chilcotin
Indians, one of the most savage of all the
tribes of the Far West, who, in April, 1864,
had massacred seventeen white men whom
they accused of having taken undue liberties
with their wives. Here truly began Father
Morice’s real missionary work, a work call-
ing for self-sacrifice, tact, zeal, spiritual in-
tuition, and a passionate love of souls. Here,
too, Father Morice began in earnest, and
with a genuine passion, the study of the
Chilcotin language. It was a_ prodigious
undertaking, for the Chilcotin dialect is an
exceedingly difficult Indian tongue to ac-
quire, with its delicate sounds and intricate
word-formation. Our young missionary
was accustomed to live several months at a
time with those Indians.

The Chilcotins belong to the same ethnic
group of aborigines known as the Déné
(men), who in British Columbia are divided
into five tribes, the other four being the Na-
hanais, the Babines, the Sekanais, and the
Carriers. The latter are so called because at
one time the widows used to carry in small
satchels the remnants of the bones of their

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