KUCHIN, ki7ifehen. A numerous group of Athapascan tribes, extending across Central Alaska and the adjacent portion of British America from the Eskimo border at the mouth of the Yukon northeastward almost to the mouth of the Mackenzie. The various hands are known as Tukuth-kuchin, 'rat people,' Han kurhin, 'river people,' etc., the dialects differ ing hut little one from another. The eastern hands are also known collectively as Loveheux by the French voyageurs. The Kuehfn are de scribed as superior to their neighbors in intel ligenee and manly qualities. They are great traders, making long voyages up and down the Yukon between the interior tribes and those of the coast, skins being the ordinary merchandise and shell beads the medium of barter. They subsist primarily by hunting and fishing, tak ing large quantities of salmon in nets. fish drives, or from boats. Their ordinary dwellings are low, elliptical wikiups of poles covered with skins, sometimes occupied jointly by several families. Their dress is of deer or rabbit skin, including caps and mittens, both sexes dressing nearly alike excepting that the shirt of the man is pointed in front and behind. The men wear nose-rings and the women formerly tattooed.
They are very fond of dancing.. feasting. and athletic games, such as wrestling, foot-racing, and the 'tug of war,' with a very peculiar amuse ment in which a man stands upon the inter section of two ropes fastened diagonally at some distance above the ground and strives to keep his place or alight upon his feet when the ropes are jerked. There are three clans, which are com mon throughout the tribes, those of the same elan being considered relatives wherever found. The dead are usually exposed on scaffolds or sometimes cremated. The widow watches near the grave for a year, when the bones are burned and the ashes placed ill a box hung from the top of a pole. A funeral feast is then made, ending with games and a distribution of pres ents, after which the widow is free to marry again. They are said to have decreased one half within living memory, partly from new dis eases. but largely from the widespread practice of female infanticide, which the women justify on the ground that they wish to save their daughters from the hardships to which they themselves are subjected.