in the same tent with their husbands. At such times they are obliged to
make a small hovel for themselves at some distance from the other tents.
As this is an universal custom among all the tribes, it is also a piece
of policy with the women, upon any difference with their husbands, to
make that an excuse for a temporary separation, when, without any
ceremony, they creep out (as is their usual custom on those occasions)
under the eves of that side of the tent at which they happen to be
sitting; for at those times they are not permitted to go in or out
through the door. This custom is so generally prevalent among the women,
that I have frequently known some of the sulky dames leave their
husbands and tent for four or five days at a time, and repeat the farce
twice or thrice in a month, while the poor men have never suspected the
deceit, or if they {314} have, delicacy on their part has not permitted
them to enquire into the matter. I have known Matonabbee's handsome
wife, who eloped from him in May one thousand seven hundred and
seventy-one, live thun-nardy, as they call it, (that is, alone,) for
several weeks together, under this pretence; but as a proof he had some
suspicion, she was always carefully watched, to prevent her from giving
her company to any other man. The Southern Indians are also very
delicate in this point; for though they do not force their wives to
build a separate tent, they never lie under the same clothes during this
period. It is, however, equally true, that the young girls, when those
symptoms make their first appearance, generally go a little distance
from the other tents for four or five days, and at their return wear a
kind of veil or curtain, made of beads, for some time after, as a mark
of modesty; as they are then considered marriageable, and of course are
called women, though some at those periods are not more than thirteen,
while others at the age of fifteen or sixteen have been reckoned as
children, though apparently arrived at nearly their full growth.
On those occasions a remarkable piece of superstition prevails among
them; women in this situation are never permitted to walk on the ice of
rivers or lakes, or near the part where the men are hunting beaver, or
where a fishing-net is set, for fear of averting their success. They are
also prohibited at those times from partaking of the {315} head of any
animal, and even from walking in, or crossing the track where the head
of a deer, moose, beaver, and many other animals, have lately been
carried, either on a sledge or on the back. To be guilty of a violation
of this custom is considered as of the greatest importance; because they
firmly believe that it would be a means of preventing the hunter from
having an equal success in his future excursions.
Those poor people live in such an inhospitable part of the globe, that
for want of firing, they are frequently obliged to eat their victuals
quite raw, particularly in the Summer season, while on the barren
ground; but early custom and frequent necessity make this practice so
familiar to them, that so far from finding any inconvenience arise from
it, or having the least dislike to it, they frequently do it by choice,
and particularly in the article of fish; for when they do make a
pretence of dressing it, they seldom warm it through. I have frequently
made one of a party who has sat round a fresh-killed deer, and assisted
in picking the bones quite clean, when I thought that the raw brains and
many other parts were exceedingly good; and, however strange it may
appear, I must bestow the same epithet on half-raw fish: even to this
day I give the preference to trout, salmon, and the brown tittemeg, when
they are not warm at the bone.
{316} The extreme poverty of those Indians in general will not permit
one half of them to purchase brass kettles from the Company; so that
they are still under the necessity of continuing their original mode of
boiling their victuals in large upright vessels made of birch-rind. As
those vessels will not admit of being exposed to the fire, the Indians,
to supply the defect, heat stones red-hot and put them into the water,
which soon occasions it to boil; and by having a constant succession of
hot stones, they may continue the process as long as it is necessary.
This method of cooking, though very expeditious, is attended with one
great evil; the victuals which are thus prepared are full of sand: for
the stones thus heated, and then immerged in the water, are not only
liable to shiver to pieces, but many of them being of a coarse gritty
nature, fall to a mass of gravel in the kettle, which cannot be
prevented from mixing with the victuals which are boiled in it. Besides
this, they have several other methods of preparing their food, such as
roasting it by a string, broiling it, &c.; but these need no farther
description.
The most remarkable dish among them, as well as all the other tribes of
Indians in those parts, both Northern and Southern, is blood mixed with
the half-digested food which is found in the deer's stomach or paunch,
and boiled up with a sufficient quantity of water, to make it of the
consistence of pease-pottage. Some fat and scraps {317} of tender flesh
are also shred small and boiled with it. To render this dish more
palatable, they have a method of mixing the blood with the contents of
the stomach in the paunch itself, and hanging it up in the heat and
smoke of the fire for several days; which puts the whole mass into a
state of fermentation, and gives it such an agreeable acid taste, that
were it not for prejudice, it might be eaten by those who have the
nicest palates. It is true, some people with delicate stomachs would not
be easily persuaded to partake of this dish, especially if they saw it
dressed; for most of the fat which is boiled in it is first chewed by
the men and boys, in order to break the globules that contain the fat;
by which means it all boils out, and mixes with the broth: whereas, if
it were permitted to remain as it came from the knife, it would still be
in lumps, like suet. To do justice, however, to their cleanliness in
this particular, I must observe, that they are very careful that neither
old people with bad teeth, nor young children, have any hand in
preparing this dish. At first, I must acknowledge that I was rather shy
in partaking of this mess, but when I was sufficiently convinced of the
truth of the above remark, I no longer made any scruple, but always
thought it exceedingly good.
The stomach of no other large animal beside the deer is eaten by any of
the Indians that border on Hudson's Bay. In Winter, when the deer feed
on fine white moss, the contents of the stomach is so much esteemed by
them, {318} that I have often seen them sit round a deer where it was
killed, and eat it warm out of the paunch. In Summer the deer feed more
coarsely, and therefore this dish, if it deserve that appellation, is
then not so much in favour.
The young calves, fawns, beaver, &c. taken out of the bellies of their
mothers, are reckoned most delicate food; and I am not the only European
who heartily joins in pronouncing them the greatest dainties that can be
eaten. Many gentlemen who have served with me at Churchill, as well as
at York Fort, and the inland settlements, will readily agree with me in
asserting, that no one who ever got the better of prejudice so far as to
taste of those young animals, but has immediately become excessively
fond of them; and the same may be said of young geese, ducks, &c. in the
shell. In fact, it is almost become a proverb in the Northern
settlements, that whoever wishes to know what is good, must live with
the Indians.
The parts of generation belonging to any beast they kill, both male and
female, are always eaten by the men and boys; and though those parts,
particularly in the males, are generally very tough, they are not, on
any account, to be cut with an edge-tool, but torn to pieces with the
teeth; and when any part of them proves too tough to be masticated, it
is thrown into the fire and burnt. For the Indians believe firmly, that
if a dog should eat any part of them, it would have the same effect on
their {319} success in hunting, that a woman crossing their
hunting-track at an improper period would have. The same ill-success is
supposed also to attend them if a woman eat any of those parts.
They are also remarkably fond of the womb of the buffalo, elk, deer, &c.
which they eagerly devour without washing, or any other process but
barely stroking out the contents. This, in some of the larger animals,
and especially when they are some time gone with young, needs no
description to make it sufficiently disgusting; and yet I have known
some in the Company's service remarkably fond of the dish, though I am
not one of the number. The womb of the beaver and deer is well enough,
but that of the moose and buffalo is very rank, and truly
disgusting.[BP]
{320} Our Northern Indians who trade at the Factory, as well as all the
Copper tribe, pass their whole Summer on the barren ground, where they
generally find plenty of deer; and in some of the rivers and lakes, a
great abundance of fine fish.
Their bows and arrows, though their original weapons, are, since the
introduction of fire-arms among them, become of little use, except in
killing deer as they walk or run through a narrow pass prepared for
their reception, where several Indians lie concealed for that purpose.
This method of hunting is only practicable in Summer, and on the barren
ground, where they have an extensive prospect, and can see the herds of
deer at a great distance, as well as discover the nature of the country,
and make every {321} necessary arrangement for driving them through the
narrow defiles. This method of hunting is performed in the following
manner:
When the Indians see a herd of deer, and intend to hunt them with bows
and arrows, they observe which way the wind blows, and always get to
leeward, for fear of being smelled by the deer. The next thing to which
they attend, is to search for a convenient place to conceal those who
are appointed to shoot. This being done, a large bundle of sticks, like
large ramrods, (which they carry with them the whole Summer for the
purpose,) are ranged in two ranks, so as to form the two sides of a very
acute angle, and the sticks placed at the distance of fifteen or twenty
yards from each other. When those necessary arrangements are completed,
the women and boys separate into two parties, and go round on both
sides, till they form a crescent at the back of the deer, which are
drove right forward; and as each of the sticks has a small flag, or more
properly a pendant, fastened to it, which is easily waved to and fro by
the wind, and a lump of moss stuck on each of their tops, the poor
timorous deer, probably taking them for ranks of people, generally run
straight forward between the two ranges of sticks, till they get among
the Indians, who lie concealed in small circular fences, made with loose
stones, moss, &c. When the deer approach very near, the Indians who are
thus concealed start up and shoot; but as the deer generally pass along
at {322} full speed, few Indians have time to shoot more than one or two
arrows, unless the herd be very large.
This method of hunting is not always attended with equal success; for
sometimes after the Indians have been at the trouble of making places
of shelter, and arranging the flag-sticks, &c. the deer will make off
another way, before the women and children can surround them. At other
times I have seen eleven or twelve of them killed with one volley of
arrows; and if any gun-men attend on those occasions, they are always
placed behind the other Indians, in order to pick up the deer that
escape the bow-men. By these means I have seen upwards of twenty fine
deer killed at one broadside, as it may be termed.
Though the Northern Indians may be said to kill a great number of deer
in this manner during the Summer, yet they have so far lost the art of
shooting with bows and arrows, that I never knew any of them who could
take those weapons only, and kill either deer, moose, or buffalo, in the
common, wandering, and promiscuous method of hunting. The Southern
Indians, though they have been much longer used to fire-arms, are far
more expert with the bow and arrow, their original weapons.
The tents made use of by those Indians, both in Summer and Winter, are
generally composed of deer-skins in the hair; and for convenience of
carriage, are always {323} made in small pieces, seldom exceeding five
buck-skins in one piece. These tents, as also their kettles, and some
other lumber, are always carried by dogs, which are trained to that
service, and are very docile and tractable. Those animals are of various
sizes and colours, but all of the fox and wolf breed, with sharp noses,
full brushy tails, and sharp ears standing erect. They are of great
courage when attacked, and bite so sharp, that the smallest cur among
them will keep several of our largest English dogs at bay, if he can get
up in a corner. These dogs are equally willing to haul in a sledge, but
as few of the men will be at the trouble of making sledges for them, the
poor women are obliged to content themselves with lessening the bulk of
their load, more than the weight, by making the dogs carry these
articles only, which are always lashed on their backs, much after the
same manner as packs are, or used formerly to be, on pack-horses.
[Illustration: INDIAN IMPLEMENTS
A Bow
An Arrow
A left foot Snowshoe 4½ foot long
& 13 Inches broad
A Sledge
A kettle made of Burch rinde]
In the fall of the year, and as the Winter advances, those people sew
the skins of the deer's legs together in the shape of long portmanteaus,
which, when hauled on the snow as the hair lies, are as slippery as an
otter, and serve them as temporary sledges while on the barren ground;
but when they arrive at any woods, they then make proper sledges, with
thin boards of the larch-tree, generally known in Hudson's Bay by the
name of Juniper.[122]
{324} Those sledges are of various sizes, according to the strength of
the persons who are to haul them: some I have seen were not less than
twelve or fourteen feet long, and fifteen or sixteen inches wide, but in
general they do not exceed eight or nine feet in length, and twelve or
fourteen inches in breadth.
The boards of which those sledges are composed are not more than a
quarter of an inch thick, and seldom exceed five or six inches in width;
as broader would be very unhandy for the Indians to work, who have no
other tools than an ordinary knife, turned up a little at the point,
from which it acquires the name of Bafe-hoth among the Northern Indians,
but among the Southern tribes it is called Mo-co-toggan. The boards are
sewed together with thongs of parchment deer-skin, and several cross
bars of wood are sewed on the upper side, which serves both to
strengthen the sledge and secure the ground-lashing, to which the load
is always fastened by other smaller thongs, or stripes of leather. The
head or fore-part of the sledge is turned up so as to form a
semi-circle, of at least fifteen or twenty inches diameter. This
prevents the carriage from diving into light snow, and enables it to
slide over the inequalities and hard drifts of snow which are constantly
met with on the open plains and barren grounds. The trace or
draught-line to those sledges is a double string, or slip of leather,
made fast to the head; and the bight is put across the shoulders of the
person who {325} hauls the sledge, so as to rest against the breast.
This contrivance, though so simple, cannot be improved by the most
ingenious collar-maker in the world.
Their snow-shoes differ from all others made use of in those parts; for
though they are of the galley kind, that is, sharp-pointed before, yet
they are always to be worn on one foot, and cannot be shifted from side
to side, like other snow-shoes; for this reason the inner-side of the
frames are almost straight, and the outer-side has a very large sweep.
The frames are generally made of birch-wood, and the netting is composed
of thongs of deer-skin; but their mode of filling that compartment where
the foot rests, is quite different from that used among the Southern
Indians.
Their clothing, which chiefly consists of deer-skins in the hair, makes
them very subject to be lousy; but that is so far from being thought a
disgrace, that the best among them amuse themselves with catching and
eating these vermin; of which they are so fond, that the produce of a
lousy head or garment affords them not only pleasing amusement, but a
delicious repast. My old guide, Matonabbee, was so remarkably fond of
those little vermin, that he frequently set five or six of his strapping
wives to work to louse their hairy deer-skin shifts, the produce of
which being always very considerable, he eagerly received with both
hands, and licked them in as fast, and with as good a grace, as {326}
any European epicure would the mites in a cheese. He often assured me
that such amusement was not only very pleasing, but that the objects of
the search were very good; for which I gave him credit, telling him at
the same time, that though I endeavoured to habituate myself to every
other part of their diet, yet as I was but a sojourner among them, I had
no inclination to accustom myself to such dainties as I could not
procure in that part of the world where I was most inclined to reside.
The Southern Indians and Esquimaux are equally fond of those vermin,
which are so detestable in the eyes of an European; nay, the latter have
many other dainties of a similar kind, for beside making use of
train-oil as a cordial and as sauce to their meat, I have frequently
seen them eat a whole handful of maggots that were produced in meat by
fly-blows. It is their constant custom to eat the filth that comes from
the nose; and when their noses bleed by accident, they always lick the
blood into their mouths, and swallow it.
The tract of land inhabited by the Northern Indians is very extensive,
reaching from the fifty-ninth to the sixty-eighth degree of North
latitude; and from East to West is upward of five hundred miles wide. It
is bounded by Churchill River on the South; the Athapuscow Indians'
Country on the West; the Dog-ribbed and Copper Indians' Country on the
North; and by Hudson's Bay on the East. {327} The land throughout that
whole tract of country is scarcely anything but one solid mass of rocks
and stones, and in most parts very hilly, particularly to the Westward
among the woods. The surface, it is very true, is in most places covered
with a thin sod of moss, intermixed with the roots of the
Wee-sa-ca-pucca, cranberries, and a few other insignificant shrubs and
herbage; but under it there is in general a total want of soil, capable
of producing anything except what is peculiar to the climate. Some of
the marshes, indeed, produce several kinds of grass, the growth of which
is amazingly rapid; but this is dealt out with so sparing a hand as to
be barely sufficient to serve the geese, swans, and other birds of
passage, during their migrations in the Spring and Fall, while they
remain in a moulting state.
The many lakes and rivers with which this part of the country abounds,
though they do not furnish the natives with water-carriage, are yet of
infinite advantage to them; as they afford great numbers of fish, both
in Summer and Winter. The only species caught in those parts are trout,
tittameg, (or tickomeg,) tench, two sorts of barble, (called by the
Southern Indians Na-may-pith,) burbot, pike, and a few perch. The four
former are caught in all parts of this country, as well the woody as the
barren; but the three latter are only caught to the Westward, in such
lakes and rivers as are situated among the woods; and though some of
those rivers lead to the barren ground, yet the {328} three last
mentioned species of fish are seldom caught beyond the edge of the
woods, not even in the Summer season.
There is a black, hard, crumply moss, that grows on the rocks and large
stones in those parts, which is of infinite service to the natives, as
it sometimes furnishes them with a temporary subsistence, when no animal
food can be procured. This moss, when boiled, turns to a gummy
consistence, and is more clammy in the mouth than sago; it may, by
adding either moss or water, be made to almost any consistence. It is so
palatable, that all who taste it generally grow fond of it. It is
remarkably good and pleasing when used to thicken any kind of broth, but
it is generally most esteemed when boiled in fish-liquor.
The only method practised by those people to catch fish either in Winter
or Summer, is by angling and setting nets; both of which methods is
attended with much superstition, ceremony, and unnecessary trouble; but
I will endeavour to describe them in as plain and brief a manner as
possible.
When they make a new fishing-net, which is always composed of small
thongs cut from raw deer-skins, they take a number of birds bills and
feet, and tie them, a little apart from each other, to the head and foot
rope of the net, and at the four corners generally fasten some of the
toes and jaws of the otters and jackashes. The birds feet {329} and
bills made choice of on such occasions are generally those of the
laughing goose, wavey, (or white goose,) gulls, loons, and
black-heads[123]; and unless some or all of these be fastened to the
net, they will not attempt to put it into the water, as they firmly
believe it would not catch a single fish.
A net thus accoutred is fit for setting whenever occasion requires, and
opportunity offers; but the first fish of whatever species caught in it,
are not to be sodden in the water, but broiled whole on the fire, and
the flesh carefully taken from the bones without dislocating one joint;
after which the bones are laid on the fire at full length and burnt. A
strict observance of these rules is supposed to be of the utmost
importance in promoting the future success of the new net; and a neglect
of them would render it not worth a farthing.[BQ]
When they fish in rivers, or narrow channels that join two lakes
together, they could frequently, by tying two, three, or more nets
together, spread over the whole breadth of the channel, and intercept
every sizable fish that passed; but instead of that, they scatter the
nets at a considerable distance from each other, from a {330}
superstitious notion, that were they kept close together, one net would
be jealous of its neighbour, and by that means not one of them would
catch a single fish.
The methods used, and strictly observed, when angling, are equally
absurd as those I have mentioned; for when they bait a hook, a
composition of four, five, or six articles, by way of charm, is
concealed under the bait, which is always sewed round the hook. In fact,
the only bait used by those people is in their opinion a composition of
charms, inclosed within a bit of fish skin, so as in some measure to
resemble a small fish. The things used by way of charm, are bits of
beavers tails and fat, otter's vents and teeth, musk-rat's guts and
tails, loon's vents, squirrel's testicles, the cruddled milk taken out
of the stomach of sucking fawns and calves, human hair, and numberless
other articles equally absurd.
Every master of a family, and indeed almost every other person,
particularly the men, have a small bundle of such trash, which they
always carry with them, both in Summer and Winter; and without some of
those articles to put under their bait, few of them could be prevailed
upon to put a hook into the water, being fully persuaded that they may
as well sit in the tent, as attempt to angle without such assistance.
They have also a notion that fish of the same species inhabiting
different parts of the country, are fond of different things; so that
almost every {331} lake and river they arrive at, obliges them to alter
the composition of the charm. The same rule is observed on broiling the
first fruits of a new hook that is used for a new net; an old hook that
has already been successful in catching large fish is esteemed of more
value, than a handful of new ones which have never been tried.
Deer also, as well as fish, are very numerous in many parts of this
country; particularly to the North of the sixtieth degree of latitude.
Alpine hares are in some parts of the barren ground pretty plentiful,
where also some herds of musk-oxen are to be met with; and to the
Westward, among the woods, there are some rabbits and partridges. With
all those seeming sources of plenty, however, one half of the
inhabitants, and perhaps the other half also, are frequently in danger
of being starved to death, owing partly to their want of oeconomy; and
most of these scenes of distress happen during their journies to and
from Prince of Wales's Fort, the only place at which they trade.
When Northern Indians are at the Factory, they are very liable to steal
any thing they think will be serviceable; particularly iron hoops, small
bolts, spikes, carpenters tools, and, in short, all small pieces of
iron-work which they can turn to advantage, either for their own use, or
for the purpose of trading with such of their countrymen as seldom
visit the Company's Settlement: {332} among themselves, however, the
crime of theft is seldom heard of.
When two parties of those Indians meet, the ceremonies which pass
between them are quite different from those made use of in Europe on
similar occasions; for when they advance within twenty or thirty yards
of each other, they make a full halt, and in general sit or lie down on
the ground, and do not speak for some minutes. At length one of them,
generally an elderly man, if any be in company, breaks silence, by
acquainting the other party with every misfortune that has befallen him
and his companions from the last time they had seen or heard of each
other; and also of all deaths and other calamities that have befallen
any other Indians during the same period, at least as many particulars
as have come to his knowledge.