*

*

"Only a few relics o the Beothuks have been preserved; they are either in private hands, or on exhibition in the Newfoundland Museum. * In the Pilley island excavation the skull of an adult was found in an excellent state of preservation. It has the characteristics of the skull of a savage, but it is well shaped and pretty well developed in the intellectual region * and proves that the Bethuks' were by no means of Only three bones of the skeleton were found

a low type.

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

along with the skull. * * But the greatest curiosity is the nearly perfect skeleton of a young 'Boethic' nine or ten years of age. The body had been wrapped in birch bark, doubled together, laid on its side and covered with a heap of stones; it has somewhat the appearance of a mummy. The skull is detached from the body, the ver tebræ of the neck having been destroyed or removed. It is well shaped and in a good state of preservation. In addition, there are in the collection specimens of beautifully finished arrow-heads, small models of canoes made of birch bark, bone ornaments, which, according to

*

the Indian custom, had been buried with the dead."

Small objects made by this people, especially bone carvings, have lately come into Mr. Howley's possession which attract attention through their peculiar form and nice finish. He thinks they were used as pendants to their deer-skin dresses, and all have some rude design carved upon either side. Many of them are simple flat pieces, either square or cut obliquely at the lower ends; others have from two to four prong-shaped ends :

Perforated circular pieces of bone and shell accompanied the above carvings, also some red ochre tied up in small packages encased in birch bark, and some neatly made birch bark cups of an oval pattern and redochred. Also a small iron knife and tomahawk with wooden handles. Some of the above articles manufactured of bone apparently represent the human frame.

What Mr. Howley learned on the Bay of Exploits about the peculiarities of Shanandithit was the following: When any of the Micmacs came near her during her stay with Peyton and his family, she exhibited the greatest antipathy toward any of them, especially toward one Noël Boss, whom she greatly dreaded. Mr. Peyton stated that, whenever he or even his dog appeared near the house, Shanandithit would run screeching with terror towards him and cling to him for protection. She called him Mudty Noël ("Wicked Noël"), and stated that he once fired at her across the Exploits river, wounding her in the hips and legs, as she was in the act of cleaning venison. In proof thereof she exhibited several shot wounds at the spots referred to, and W. E. Cormack confirms this statement. The

1890.]

[Gatschet.

enmity between the two tribes must have been at a high pitch to prompt a man to perform such an act against a defenseless woman.

Micmac tradition states, however, that in earlier times a better feeling existed between the two peoples. The Red Indians certainly were on good terms with the "Mountaineers" or Naskápi of Labrador, whose language is of the same family as that of the Micmacs.

The above anecdote fully proves that Shanandithit became acquainted with individuals of the Micmac tribe, and this explains why Cormack has so many Micmac terms mixed with his Beothuk words. He was unable to distinguish the ones from the others. Mudty, "bad," is a Micmac, not

a Beothuk word.

A CAPTURE FOLLOWED BY A Wedding.

The capture of another Beothuk woman is related at length in the following traditionary account, which Rev. Silas Tertius Rand, of Hantsport, Nova Scotia, sent me in August, 1886. The event may have occurred as early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, for Mr. Rand heard it from an aged woman of Hantsport, Mrs. Nancy Jeddore, and she heard it from her father, Joseph Nowlan, who died about A. D. 1870, ninety-five years old. Nowlan had at one time stayed with the family of which that Beothuk woman was the mother and mistress, in Newfoundland, and had also lived long with the Eskimos. His regular home was in Nova Scotia, at St. Margaret's Bay, on the side of the Atlantic ocean.

The history of this woman is rather extraordinary, and with serious people I might incur the peril of being regarded as pitching into the domain of romance. But to avoid all suspicion, I shall transcribe the account with the very words of my correspondent, who made use of the same provincialisms, which have served in delivering the "story" to him. The absence of the Beothuk woman's name is a great deficiency in the tale. Some of the more learned remarks will be readily recognized as additions made by Mr. Rand, whose works prove him to have been a studious expounder of the Micmac grammar and lexicon (died October 4, 1889).

"The Micmacs have been in the habit of crossing over to Newfoundland to hunt time out of mind.' They called it Uktakumcook, mainland ; so they supposed at the time when the name was given that it was not an island. Still it is as good or perhaps better than the silly and untruthful long name Newfoundland. The Micmacs could never scrape acquaintance' with the Indians of the other tribe there. Still, they found them out, also their red custom (their skin was quite white) and their power of magic, by which they became aware of the distant approach of strangers, when they fled on their snowshoes for their lives. But once three young hunters from Micmac-Land,' Meghum-ahghee, came upon three huts belonging to them, which were built up with logs around a cradle hollow,' so as to afford protection from the guns of the foe. These huts had just been deserted, but the three men gave chase, came as near to the

Gutschet.]

[Jan. 3,

fugitives as to hail them and make signs of friendship, which were left unheeded. On and on they pursued--one of the young women of the party snapped the strap of the snowshoes and had to sit down and repair it. Her father came back, assisted her and they fled again; but the mended strap failed a second time. The poor girl shrieked with fright; she was left and overtaken. She could not be induced to go with her pursuers; so they constructed a small wigwam and remained on the spot a day or two. At first, she touched no food for days; then her fear relented in regard to one of the young men, and starting out again with the hunting party, clung to that youth who had first won her confidence. This she showed by keeping him between her and all the others. After staying two years with the Micmac people she acquired their language and was married to that same young man. She often recounted the eventful story of her life, and conversed with Nancy Jeddore's father on the circumstances connected therewith, after she had become the mother of a family."

A correction of a former statement needs to be inserted here. The Hudson Bay Company never had control of Newfoundland, but it was a number of English merchants who retarded settlement in the interior. The immense tracts and forests of the interior were given up to the deer, bears, foxes, wolves, and to a few straggling Micmac hunters, whereas the entire white population was compelled to live along the sea-coast.

Mr. Howley having favored me with more particulars about these firms, I would state first that these merchants were chiefly fish dealers, and that they purchased furs only incidentally. Even now fish is the chief article of trade with them. There are but few of these old firms now in existence, and of these, Newman & Co.'s establishment at Harbor Button, Fortune Bay, and Gaultor's, in Hermitage Bay, south side of the island, are probably the oldest. Slade & Co. once ruled supreme in Notre Dame Bay during the first half of this century, and to their employés is ascribed the cruel treatment of the last Beothuk Indians. But things are now assuming a different aspect, and the present mercantile firms no longer oppose the opening up of the country, for a railway act together with a loan act has lately passed the legislature. The railway is now being constructed, and will be of best service for opening the lands for settlement.

THE JURE VOCABULARY.

While engaged in surveying the Bay of Exploits during the summer months of 1886, Mr. Howley became acquainted with Mrs. Jure, then about seventy-five years old, who once had been the fellow-servant of Shanandithit, or Nancy, at Mr. John Peyton's, whose widow died about the close of the year 1885. Mrs. Jure was, in spite of her age, hale and sound in body and mind, and remembered with accuracy all the little peculiarities of Shanandithit, familiarly called "Nance." Many terms of Beothuk learned from Nance she remembered well, and at times was

1890.]

[Gatschet.

complimented by Nance for the purity of her pronunciation; many other terms were forgotten owing to the great lapse of time since 1829. Mr. Howley produced his vocabularies and made her repeat and pronounce such words in it as she could remember. Thus he succeeded in correcting some of the words recorded by Leigh and Cormack, and also to acquire a few new ones. He satisfied himself that Mrs. Jure's pronunciation must be the correct one, as it came directly from Shanandithit, and that its phonetics are extremely easy, much more so than those of Micmac, having none of the nasal drawl of the latter dialect. She also pronounced several Micmac words exactly as Micmacs pronounce them, and in several instances corrected Mr. Howley as to the mistranslation of some Beothuk words. The twenty-three words which Mr. Howley has obtained from this aged woman embody nine new ones; he repeated all of them to his brother, Rev. Dr. M. F. Howley, P. A., and I received a second copy of the list written by that gentleman, having the words accentuated. This enabled me to add in parentheses their true pronunciation and wording in my scientific alphabet.

THE MONTREAL VOCABULARY.

Although this is a misnomer, I shall designate by it another copy or "recension" of the W. E. Cormack vocabulary which I obtained from Rev. Silas T. Rand, of Hantsport, N. S., on September 1, 1885. It was accompanied by the following remarks :

"Sir William Dawson, my excellent friend,* sent me this list of Beothuk words some years ago, and I had to return his copy to him. There were copyist's mistakes in it, u for a, u forn, etc. I don't remember the name of the man who took the vocabulary, nor that of the woman who gave it to him. But I remember that the woman was said to have married a man of another tribe, and that she was the last of the race and the only one of the race ever tamed (to use the Indian term). She cannot have been Mary March."

This vocabulary contains 228 items, including the numerals and names of months; the words are syllabicated, and begin with capital letters. The copy before me was written by a scribe who evidently did not realize the importance of the document, for even the English significations are, in part, faulty, as anus for arms (memayet), catte for cattle, celp for cup, ticklevee for ticklas (gotheyet), on page 419, and others. The letter u is often put instead of n, 1 for t, o for a, t for k, r for z, e for c, and vice versa, the whole being written in a sloven hand, as all the Beothuk vocabularies are which I have seen. The manuscript has haddabothie body instead of haddabothic, molheryet cream jug for motheryet, adademiuk spoon for adadimiute, jigganisut gooseberry instead of jiggamint; but, in many instances, appears to have a more original form preferable to the one copied by Mr. Howley, which I have utilized, as in giwashuwet bear for gwashuwet, * Principal of McGill College, Montreal.

Gatschet.]

[Jan. 3,

atho-onut twenty for dtho-onut, and in some instances has two words for one English term, as in ankle moosin, and gei-je-bursut; (to) bite boshoodik or boshwādit; boat and vessel adothe, or odeothyke; and what will be found under head, man, moon, stockings, sun, teeth, woman, woodpecker.

This vocabulary is arranged alphabetically after the English terms, which stand before their Beothuk equivalents, and contains many terms new to us, which corroborates the supposition previously advanced by me, that the original Cormack vocabulary must have been more extensive. To insert all the two hundred and twenty-eight terms of this new "recension" of the Cormack collection in bulk into the list to be given below, would have the result of increasing the confusion already existing in the wording of the Beothuk terms. Therefore, I have omitted not only those terms which are written alike to the terms which stand first in my list of 1885, pp. 415-424, but also those which rest upon an evident error of the copyist, as mamiruateek houses for mammateek, berroieh clouds for berroick, moocas elbow for moocus, etc.

It is probable, that W. E. Cormack made several copies of his vocabu lary himself, which differed among each other, or were written in an illegible hand; this would explain many of the "lectiones varia" which now puzzle the Beothuk student, and cause more trouble to him than it does to edit a Roman or Greek author from the mediæval manuscripts with all their errors and mistakes.

THE CLINCH VOCABULARY.

A vocabulary of Beothuk has just come to light, which appears to be, if not more valuable, at least older than the ones investigated by me heretofore. It contains one hundred and twelve terms of the language, many of them new to us. It was obtained, as stated, by the Rev. John Clinch, a minister of the Church of England, and a man of high education, stationed as parish priest at Trinity, in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland. The original is contained in the "Record Book," preserved in the office of Justice Pinsent, D.C.L., of the Supreme Court at Harbor Grace, and it has been printed in the Harbor Grace Standard and Conception Bay Advertiser, of Wednesday, May 2, 1888, some biographic and other notes being added to it in the number of May 12.

Among these the following will give us a clearer insight into the question of authenticity of Clinch's vocabulary. John Clinch was born in Gloucestershire, England, and in early youth studied medicine under a practitioner at Cirencester, where he became a fellow of Dr. Jenner, who discovered the celebrated specific against small-pox. In those times, no law compelled a man to undergo examinations for diplomas; so Clinch migrated to Bonavista, Newfoundland, and established himself there in 1775 as a physician, but in 1783 removed to Trinity. Besides his practice, he conducted services in church, was ordained deacon and priest in London, in 1787, then worked over thirty years at Trinity in his sacred calling,