350 ARCTIC VOYAGES. Chap. X. 



of measles, hooping-cough, and dysentery. " It 



appears," says Franklin, " that no article is spared 



by those unhappy men when a near relative dies ; 



their clothes and tents are cut to pieces, their guns 



broken, and every other weapon rendered useless, 



if some person do not remove those articles from 



their sight." As some relief, however, to the 



darker shades of their character, instances of theft 



are stated to be extremely rare among them ; and 



that they possess strong affection for their children. 



A curious example of this was mentioned to the 



party, "and so well authenticated," says Franklin, 



" that I shall venture to give it in the words of 



Dr. Richardson's Journal." 



" A young Chipewyan had separated from the rest of his 

 band for the purpose of trenching beaver, when his wife, 

 who was his sole companion, and in her first pregnancy, was 

 seized with the pains of labour. She died on the third day 

 after she had given birth to a boy. The husband was in- 

 consolable, and vowed in his anguish never to take another 

 woman to wife, but his grief was soon in some degree ab- 

 sorbed in anxiety for the fate of his infant son. To preserve 

 its life he descended to the office of nurse, so degrading in 

 the eyes of a Chipewyan, as partaking of the duties of a 

 woman. He swaddled it in soft moss, fed it with broth made 

 from the flesh of the deer, and to still its cries applied it to 

 his breast, praying earnestly to the great Master of Life to 

 assist his endeavours. The force of the powerful passion 

 by which he was actuated produced the same effect in his 

 case, as it has done in some others which are recorded : a 

 flow of milk actually took place from his breast. He suc- 

 ceeded in rearing his child, taught him to be a hunter, and 



