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OF THE POLAR SEA. 103 
out eating than touch the meat thus intrusted to 
their charge, even when there exists a prospect 
of replacing it. 
The hospitality of the Crees is unbounded. 
They afford a certain asylum to the half-breed 
children when deserted by their unnatural white 
fathers ; and the infirm, and indeed every indi- 
vidual in an encampment, share the provisions 
of a successful hunter as long as they last. Fond 
too as a Cree is of spirituous liquors, he is not 
happy unless all his neighbours partake with 
him. It is not easy, however, to say what share 
ostentation may have in the apparent munificence 
in the latter article; for when an Indian, by a good 
hunt, is enabled to treat the others with a keg of 
rum, he becomes the chief of a night, assumes no 
little stateliness of manner, and is treated with de- 
ference by those who regale at his expense. 
Prompted also by the desire of gaining a name, 
they lavish away the articles they purchase at the 
trading posts, and are well satisfied if repaid in 
praise. 
Gaming is not uncommon amongst the Crees 
of all the different districts, but it is pursued to 
greater lengths by those bands who frequent the 
plains, and who, from the ease with which they 
obtain food, have abundant leisure. The game 
most in use amongst them, termed puckesann, is 
