SOURCE OF ST. Peter's river. 97 



riors. This, together with the constant and never ceasing 

 importance, which the children observe, that their parents 

 attribute to luck in all their pursuits, is found to have the 

 desired effect upon the minds of young persons, fired 

 with the ambition of becoming distinguished, at some fu- 

 ture day, by their skill and success. Their fasts are mark- 

 ed by the ceremony of smearing their faces, hands, &c. with 

 charcoal. To effect this, they take a piece of wood of the 

 length of the finger, and suspend it to their necks, they 

 char one end of it, and rub themselves with the coal every 

 morning, keeping it on until after sunset. No person, whose 

 face is blackened, dare eat or drink any thing during that 

 time; whatever may be the cravings of his appetite, he 

 must restrict them until the evening arrives, when he 

 may wash off his black paint, and indulge, moderately, in 

 the use of food. The next morning he repeats the ceremony 

 of blackening his face, and continues it from day to day, until 

 the whole of his piece of wood be cunsumed, which gene- 

 rally takes place in the course of from ten to twelve days. 

 After this term, they either suspend their mortifications, 

 or continue them according as the exigencies of the case 

 seem to require. From the information which was com- 

 municated by the interpreter and others, it does not ap- 

 pear that, in any one instance, have the Indians ever been 

 known to break their fasts, whatever may have been the 

 temptation to which they were exposed ; so powerful, in- 

 deed, is their superstitious dread of that ill luck, which 

 would attach to a transgression of their rules, that even 

 children have been, in vain, tempted to take food when at 

 the houses of traders, and beyond the control of their 

 parents ; in all cases they have declined it ; neither does it 

 appear that, during, those seasons of mortification, they in- 

 dulge after sunset, in any unreasonable gratification of their 

 VoT- I. 1 3 



