103 



fancy of the finger. Their apologues are numerons and ingenious, 

 abounding with incidents, and are all calculated to convey fome favou- 

 rite ieflbn. Their tales too, generally inculcate fome moral truth, or 

 fome maxim of prudence or policy. I recolleft one where the misfor- 

 tunes of a great chief are fo linked with bis vices, and wind up fo fatally at 

 laft, that a man of worth whom he fought to opprefs, is by his own agency, 

 made the inftrument of his deRruftion, and eftabliflied as his fucceflbr. 

 The private virtues of this fucceffor, particularly his refpeft for the other 

 fex, the want of which was the great vice of his predeceiTor, is made 

 the foundation of his fame, and of the profperity which attended him 

 through life. This is one of the tales of the women. Another is ad- 

 drefled to the youth, teaching them how to avoid or overcome thofe 

 often fatal panics to which unforefeen accidents in the woods expofe 

 young hunters ; this is done by enumerating the terrifying appearances 

 moft likely to occur, and accounting for them in a natural way. In 

 another, the particular duties of women are enforced, by {hewing how 

 certain women who deviated from ordinary rules, were perfecuted by 

 the Manitoo of the woods ; in the progrefs of which, they are made 

 to owe their fafety, in various trials, to fome particular a£i of female 

 difcretion or delicacy, which they had before neglefted. 



The Indians have their Circe* as well as the Greeks, {he is very fe- 

 ducing, and the fate of her votaries very terrible ; the ftrokes of the 

 pencil, by which {he is drawn are maflerly, but the tales refpefting this 

 lady are only calculated for the ears of the men. This people, worthy of 

 a better fate, are gradually degenerating and wafting away ; I have feen 

 an Indian nation already fo degraded, that it cannot produce a fingle 

 orator. Half a century will efface their be{l peculiarities, and fo multi- 

 plied are the caufesf of their decline, perhaps extingui{h them altogether. 



" The 



* Vide port Fabulam Sefl : 5 luci datam, 



t The epidemic fmall-pox mentioned by Mr. Hearne, in his Journal, carried ofF the 

 year the French took poffeflion of the fettlements in Hudfon's Bay, one half of the whole 



Indian 



