]
_24th_. Mr. Harman, from a long residence in the Indian country, in high
northern latitudes, was qualified by his opportunities of observation,
to speak of the comparative character of the Indian language in that
quarter. He considers them as radically different from those of the
Algonquin stock. The group which may be formed from his remarks, will
embrace the Chippewayans, Beaver Indians, Sicaunies, Tacullies, and
Nateotetains. If we may judge of this family of dialects by Mackenzie's
vocabulary of the Chippewayan, it is very remote from the Chippewa, and
abounds in those consonantal sounds which the latter studiously avoids.
Harman says, "The Sicaunies bury, while the Tacullies burn their dead."
"Instances of suicide, by hanging, frequently occur among the women of
all the tribes, with whom I have been acquainted; but the men are seldom
known to take away their own lives."
These Indians entertain the same opinions respecting the dress of the
dead, with the more southerly tribes. "Nothing," he says, "pleases an
Indian better than to see his deceased relative handsomely attired, for
he believes that they will arrive in the other world in the same dress
with which they are clad, when they are consigned to the grave.
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