In walking about among the wigwams to-day, I found some women on the
shore, making a canoe. The frame had been put together by the men. The
women were then joining the pieces of birch-bark, with the split
ligaments of the pine-root, which they called _wattup_. Other women were
employed in melting and applying the resinous gum, with which they smear
the seams, and render them impervious to the water. There was much
chattering and laughing meanwhile, and I never saw a merrier set of
gossips.
This canoe, which was about eighteen feet in length, was finished before
night; and the next morning I saw it afloat.
A man was pointed out to me (a Chippewa from Lake Superior), who, about
three years ago, when threatened by starvation during his winter hunt,
had devoured his wife and one or two of his children. You shudder--so
did I; but since famine can prevail over every human feeling or
instinct, till the "pitiful mother hath sodden her own children," and a
woman devoured part of her lover[49], I do not think this wretched
creature must necessarily be a born monster of ferocity. His features
were very mild and sad--he is avoided by the other Chippewas here, and
not considered _respectable_; and this from an opinion they entertain,
that when a man has once tasted human flesh, he can relish no other: but
I must quit this abominable subject.
At sunset this evening, just as the air was beginning to grow cool,
Major Anderson proclaimed a canoe race, the canoes to be paddled by the
women only. The prize consisted of twenty-five pair of silver earrings
and other trinkets. I can give you no idea of the state of commotion
into which the whole camp, men and women and children, were thrown by
this announcement. Thirty canoes started, each containing twelve women,
and a man to steer. They were to go round the little island in the
centre of the bay, and return to the starting point,--the first canoe
which touched the shore to be the winner. They darted off together with
a sudden velocity, like that of an arrow from the bow. The Indians on
the shore ran backwards and forwards on the beach, exciting them to
exertion by loud cries, leaping into the air, whooping and clapping
their hands; and when at length the first canoe dashed up to the landing
place, it was as if all had gone at once distracted and stark mad. The
men, throwing themselves into the water, carried the winners out in
their arms, who were laughing and panting for breath; and then the women
cried "Ny'a! Ny'a!" and the men shouted "Ty'a!" till the pine woods rang
again.
But all was good humour, and even good order, in the midst of this
confusion. There was no ill blood, not a dispute, not an outrage, not
even a _sound_ of unkindness or anger; these are certainly the most
good-natured, orderly savages imaginable! We are twenty white people,
with 3,700 of these wild creatures around us, and I never in my life
felt more security. I find it necessary, indeed, to suspend a blanket
before each of the windows when I am dressing in the morning; for they
have no idea of the possibility of being intrusive; they think "men's
eyes were made to look," and windows to be looked through; but, with
this exception, I never met with people more genuinely polite.
[Footnote 49: See the Voyage of the Blonde.]
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