CHAP. xvn. TA9TE FOR GAMBLING. 233 



in the highest state of glee, looking wilder and more truly 

 savage than at any other time. 



I sometimes thought it strange that neither he nor 

 Michel or Pierre ever seemed to think of gambling 

 during rainy weather when we were compelled to remain 

 in camp. The Ojibways and Crees with whom I have 

 come in contact near Lake Winnipeg seem to embrace every 

 opportunity to indulge in their favourite pastime. But 

 Pierre said that the priest had forbidden it, and none dare 

 to disobey the injunction in this particular, at least when 

 in a mixed company, lest it should come to his ears. The 

 taste for gambling is very determined among Indians 

 generally, and especially among heathen Indians, and 

 even among those who, having become Christians, are yet 

 frequently thrown into the society of heathens. 



Some singular instances of this passion occurred when 

 encamped near the Lake of the Woods during the winter 

 of 1858. There were two Indians belonging to the party 

 named Stony and Ka-jig-a-kanse, or the 'Dawn of the 

 Day.' 



One winter's evening, when the thermometer was at 

 zero, they went away to a camp of Ojibways about three 

 miles off to indulge in their favourite game. They 

 returned just before daylight in the face of a cutting 

 wind, the thermometer a few degrees below zero. Mr. 

 Gaudet was surprised to find the two men apparently 

 sleeping under one blanket on some pine branches laid on 

 the snow. He called them, but received no answer ; he 

 went to them and tried to pull the blanket off them, but 

 they held it fast. After some enquiries and a sudden pull he 

 found that they were both naked, and that they had only 



