224 EXPEDITION TO THE 



all men, avoiding, however, the appearance of familiarity 

 with any. Her chastity should be inviolate, even at the 

 risk of death ; she ought to be industrious, in order that 

 her husband may be wealthy, and able to extend his hos- 

 pitality widely. When asked what were the qualifications 

 which were most sought after in the selection of a wife, 

 and if beauty had any influence, Wennebea replied, that 

 they cared but little for a handsome wife, their object be- 

 ing to get a good one, who could attend to all their work, 

 and behave herself as became a good woman. " We are not 

 absolutely regardless of beauty," said he, "but we think it 

 a trifling acquirement compared with goodness, and there- 

 fore pay but little attention to it ; some young men are 

 foolish and attend to it, but these are few, and they soon 

 learn to take good wives, without minding their charms." 

 Being asked what constituted female beauty, he laughed and 

 said, a light complexion, large hazel eyes, a well-formed 

 nose, red lips, and a figure rather small and well propor- 

 tioned ; they seem to have a dislike to very fat women. 

 When questioned as to other points of beauty, he seemed 

 not to have made a study of them ; their faces, he said, might 

 be more or less handsome, but in other respects women 

 were all the same. Feeling a little encouraged, he conti- 

 nued in a strain so obscene, as even to put to the blush our 

 old interpreter, Le Sellier ; which, for a Canadian trader, 

 might be supposed not to be an easy thing. 



It was impossible not to observe in the general tenour 

 of Wennebea's conversation that he admitted a superiority 

 on the part of white men over Indians, at least in foresight, 

 judgment, and capacity to acquire information. Wennebea 

 thought that when the Master of Life made the white man, 

 he gave him the power to improve in knowledge and the ai'ts ; 

 he taught him how to manufacture all the articles that h^ 



