CHAP. xi. ODAHWAH CUSTOMS. 177 



change or dry them before retiring to rest. It is to this 

 great caution in avoiding sleeping in wet clothes that I 

 attribute the excellent state of health in which they all 

 were who strictly adhered to the practice of sleeping 

 in dry clothes. 



Formerly the Montagnais were accustomed to anoint 

 their bodies, from head to foot, with seal oil. They be- 

 came by this artifice less sensible to heat and cold, less 

 liable to suffer from the effects of continued exposure to 

 wet and damp, and were not so much exposed to the 

 attacks of mosquitoes, black flies, &c. It will be shown 

 in the sequel, that since most of them have adopted 

 European habits, and ceased to anoint then- bodies with 

 seal oil, they are very liable to colds and influenza, and 

 numbers die every year on the coast. 



In former times many of the Indian tribes adopted 

 excellent customs for ensuring hardihood and bodily 

 endurance, some of which, when carried to too great an 

 extent, no doubt proved very injurious to their consti- 

 tutions. The Odahwah Indians were in the habit of 

 subjecting the young to severe discipline, and one of their 

 regulations was the taking of a bath at daybreak every 

 morning in the spring of the year when the water was 

 cold.* 



* Assikinack, the l Odahwah Warrior,' to whom reference is made in a 

 preceding chapter, describes the mode of bringing up children among the 

 Odahwahs of Lake Huron in the following words : - 



' With regard to the manner of bringing up Indian children, nothing can be 

 more erroneous than to suppose that the young were allowed to grow up 

 without any sort of discipline. So far from this having been the case, in 

 addition to the ordinary way of correcting children, there were many other 

 restraints imposed upon the young. The Indians knew in their primitive 

 state, apparently as well as civilized communities, that children too much 



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