INGELETES.
The Ingeletes speak a dialect entirely different from that of the Malemutes,—one nearly allied to the Co-yukon. They are a stout, noble-looking race, good-natured, and having considerable intelligence.
Polygamy, though allowed, is not very common, and marriage is a permanent relation, except occasionally, when the wife is barren or has too many daughters. Female children not being prized so highly as sons, in such instances the wife is sometimes dismissed. They live in underground houses, such as have been described, and in mild, wet weather, the passage-way is nothing but a sewer. The entrance being covered with a skin, the mixture of foul smells inside, arising from stale fish and meat, old skins, dogs, dirt and smoke, is sickening and unendurable by any but an Indian. Mr. Whymper testifies to the good temper of the children and the honesty of the people. “At their villages our goods lay unguarded in our absence, and I cannot recall a single case of proved dishonesty among them, although we found them becoming more greedy in their demands for payment.”