1891-92. ] AN EPISODE IN THE PONTIAC WAR. 239 
into the lake, at the same time pronouncing a long harangue. We con- 
trived eventually to get safe to land, but whether owing to the tobacco I 
shall not pretend to say. The rain having drenched our clothes and 
blankets, we hung them upon trees till they dried. I may mention that 
the Indians likewise make use of the tobacco plant in thunder storms, by 
throwing a quantity of it into the fire, and while it is burning a squaw 
drums with a piece of iron on the bottom of a kettle, which they pre- 
tend prevents any mischief being done to the family by lightning. By 
the time our corn was grown up about a foot high, it became necessary 
to have it hoed and weeded, which was a severe task to my mother and 
me for six days. I flattered myself that my being adopted into the 
family would have exempted me from this kind of drudgery, but Per- 
wash, having a particular regard for his wife, chose that I should still 
assist her on many occasions, and she being fond of her ease laid the 
most of it on my shoulders. She frequently made me pound or bruise 
corn in a large mortar, till there was scarcely any skin on my hands, and 
when I showed them to her she only laughed, and told me I would soon 
be better used to it, and that in time my hands would soon become hard 
like hers, which in truth were none of the softest. The men think it 
beneath them to do anything more than fish and hunt for the support of 
their families, and in this they take no more trouble than is absolutely 
necessary, for they frequently leave the game where killed, and send their 
squaws to bring it home, directing them where they would find it by 
breaking off branches and marking the trees for miles where they have 
hunted and left their game; this when their squaws have found, she 
brings home the choicest pieces and dresses them for her lord and master 
who generally sleeps till called to eat. When his repast is finished he 
regales himself with his pipe of tobacco, mixed with the leaves of the 
“Shumah shrub” ; in the meantime the rest of the family are busy roasting 
fish or broiling steaks, each one for himself. The steaks are done upon 
the end of a stick, as we toast bread, and in my opinion that is the most 
delicious way of eating roast meat. Sometimes my “mother” roasted a 
large piece for the family, who never wait till it is thoroughly done, but 
as the outside becomes a little brown, everyone with his knife falls upon 
it and slices away as fast as it is roasted, by which means the pleasure of 
eating (their chief gratification) is ~prolonged. When soup is made, or 
rather when they boil their meat or fish, they hang up the kettle out of 
the reach of the dog, and every one drinks out of it when inclined. They 
use no salt and the absence of this at first made me think every thing 
tasteless; but hunger and habit prevailed over prejudice, and I soon 
came to eat as heartily as Perwash himself. About the 8th of June, 
Lieutenant MacDougall, with a Dutch trader escaped into the fort, which 
