166 THE GREAT DENE RACE.

if the former is exceptionally fat, it is denominated ‘tetségé. The fawn is ¢sie,
or the squaller, to the same people, and before it acquires the long hair proper
to its older fellows, it goes by the name of tsiedékfwé, by allusion to a
duckling just hatched.

A male with renascent antlers is known as bedzitco-halleli. A female
without antlers is called either ranakfwi or rayanakfwi, while she assumes
the name of tadeya, little buttons, as soon as these begin to grow again.
If simply pregnant, she becomes edeyan to the natives; if fat and in the same
condition, she is ¢conkota, but if lean and pregnant she is called tcontsethe.
Etinna‘ai is a fawnless female, and beyarettie denotes one with a fawn, while
a female whose neck is stripped of its hair by the rutting male goes under
the name of *kot’ta-etsie, or worn out mantlet.

Here we have, therefore, no less than nineteen words to designate the
same animal. Conclusion: the tribes whose vocabulary is so rich in this par-
ticular can be nothing else than professional hunters.

The Fur-bearing Game of the Dénés.

Game is distinguished into venison and fur-bearing animals. We are
already acquainted with the former; a brief list of the latter must comprise
the following:

The beaver (Castor fiber, Linn.), which, owing to its economic impor-
tance, is known to all the tribes by a monosyllabic root, tsa, as a rule, but
sometimes also tse, tsi or tsu, according to the tribes. Useless to insist on
the industrious habits and quasi-human intelligence of this rodent. Its great
value in the eyes of the natives rests especially on the permanency of its
haunts and the sedentariness of its life, which make it an unfailing asset to
the natives in time of need. Its small congener, the musk-rat (Fiber zibethi-
cus, Linn.), is the beaver of the children, the women and the orphans.

The bear shares with the beaver the honour of being called by a radical
monosyllable denotive of its importance in aboriginal economy, sas, ses or
sa. By these terms they mean the black bear (Ursus Americanus), and a
brownish variety of the same. A variety, I say; for this must not be con-
founded with the genuine cinnamon bear (U. arctos), which is wanting in
the fauna of the north. Both black and brown cubs are liable to be found
in the same litter. The Dénés, who generally prove so cowardly against a
human enemy, are so courageous when matched with almost any wild beast
that among them he would not be considered a man who would be afraid
of a bear. Personal encounters wherein Bruin comes out second best are

‘It is no doubt owing to this circumstance that Dr. R. King had such a poor idea of
the fighting powers of our bears. That traveller goes to the length of writing that even “the
gtisly bear... and the ursus maritimus or polar bear... are likewise inoffensive if not pro-
voked” (“Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Arctic Ocean”, vol. Il, p. 153). But I happen