HALF-BREEDS. 43 



o-oes on nearly every night tkronghout the winter, 

 and a wedding, or " noce" as it is called, is celebrated 

 by keeping open house, and relays of fiddlers are busily 

 employed playing for the dancers all through the night, 

 and often far on into the next day. By that time most 

 of the guests are incapacitated from saltatory exercise ; 

 for rum flows freely on these occasions, and when a 

 half-breed drinks he does it, as he says, comme ilfaid — 

 that is, until he obtains the desired happiness of com- 

 plete intoxication. Vanity is another of their besetting 

 sins, and they will leave themselves and their families 

 without the common necessaries of life to become the 

 envied possessors of a handsome suit, a gun, a horse, 

 or a train of dogs, which may happen to attract their 

 fancy. Being intensely superstitious, and firm believers 

 in dreams, omens, and warnings, they are apt disciples 

 of the Romish faith. Completely under the influence 

 of the priests in most respects, and observing the out- 

 ward forms of their religion with great regularity, they 

 are yet grossly immoral, often dishonest, and generally 

 not trustworthy. 



But as hunters, guides, and voyageurs they are un- 

 equalled. Of more powerful build, as a rule, than the 

 pure Indian, they combine his endurance and readiness 

 of resource with the greater muscular strength and 

 perseverance of the white man. Day after day, with 

 plenty of food, or none at all, whether pack on back, 

 trapping in the woods, treading out a path with snow- 

 shoes in the deep snow for the sleigh-dogs, or running 

 after them at a racing pace from morning to night, 

 when there is a Avell-beaten track, they will travel 



