Source.—Sir Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages from Montreal through the Continent of North America to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans in the years 1789 and 1793. London, 1801.

5 July, 1789.... There were five families, consisting of twenty-five or thirty persons, and of two different tribes, the Slave and Dog-rib Indians. We made them smoke, though it was evident they did not know the use of tobacco; we likewise supplied them with grog; but I am disposed to think that they accepted our civilities rather from fear than inclination. We acquired a more effectual influence over them by the distribution of knives, beads, awls, rings, gartering, fire-steels, flints and hatchets; so that they became more familiar even than we expected, for we could not keep them out of our tents; though I did not observe that they attempted to purloin anything.

The information which they gave respecting the river had so much of the fabulous that I shall not detail it: it will be sufficient just to mention their attempts to persuade us that it would require several winters to get to the sea, and that old age would come upon us before the period of our return: we were also to encounter monsters of such horrid shapes and destructive powers as could only exist in their wild imaginations. They added, besides, that there were two impassable falls in the river, the first of which was about thirty days march from us.

Though I placed no faith in these strange relations, they had a very different effect upon our Indians, who were already tired of the voyage. It was their opinion and anxious wish that we should not hesitate to return. They said that, according to the information which they had received, there were very few animals in the country beyond us, and that, as we proceeded, the scarcity would increase, and we should absolutely perish from hunger, if no other accident befell us. It was with no small trouble that they were convinced of the folly of these reasonings; and, by my desire, they induced one of those Indians to accompany us, in consideration of a small kettle, an axe, a knife, and some other articles.

Though it was now three o'clock in the afternoon, the canoe was ordered to be reloaded, and, as we were ready to embark, our new recruit was desired to prepare himself for his departure, which he would have declined; but as none of his friends would take his place, we may be said, after the delay of an hour, to have compelled him to embark. Previous to his departure a ceremony took place, of which I could not learn the meaning; he cut off a lock of his hair, and having divided it into three parts, he fastened one of them to the hair on the upper part of his wife's head, blowing on it three times with the utmost violence in his power, and uttering certain words. The other two he fastened with the same formalities on the heads of his two children.

During our short stay with these people, they amused us with dancing, which they accompanied with their voices; but neither their song or their dance possessed much variety. The men and women formed a promiscuous ring. The former have a bone dagger or piece of stick between the fingers of the right hand, which they keep extended above the head, in continual motion; the left they seldom raise so high, but work it backwards and forwards in an horizontal direction; while they leap about and throw themselves into various antic postures, to the measure of their music, always bringing their heels close to each other at every pause. The men occasionally howl in imitation of some animal, and he who continues this violent exercise for the longest period, appears to be considered as the best performer.