SOURCE OF ST. PETEr's RIVER. 171 



fleceased brother, yet he ought not to do it until after a year 

 of widowhood. He is likewise considered as obliged to pro- 

 vide for his brother's offspring, but this care not unfrequent- 

 ly devolves upon the grandfather. Cousins german are con- 

 sidered in the same light as brothers and held to be bound by 

 the same rules ; relationship is not felt beyond this degree. 

 Persons are often adopted as relations ; thus when a man 

 has conceived a strong friendship for another, he informs 

 him of the fact ; stating, at the same time, that he consi- 

 ders him as resembling a brother, father, or other relation 

 whom he may have lost, and requesting him to assume that 

 character ; if the proposition be agreeable to the other, it is 

 accepted, and they ever after stand bound to each other in 

 the same manner as if their relationship was one of blood 

 instead of adoption. They are then required to aid, assist, 

 defend, and avenge each other. If the relationship which 

 they have assumed as existing between them be not of a 

 nature that precludes the marrying of the widow, the sur- 

 vivor is obliged to take her for his wife, as well as to pro- 

 vide for the maintenance of her children. The Chippe- 

 was seldom attain to an old age ; the average length of 

 men's lives varies from thirty to forty, that of women from 

 twenty to thirty years. Those who live to an advanced 

 age are found to experience the same impairment of their 

 faculties which attends a protracted life among white men. 

 One of the faculties which they retain longest is that of 

 memory, the excellency of which appears to be one of the 

 distinguishing traits of the Chippewas. 



Suicide is not of common occurrence among them ; 

 some men are impelled to it by disappointments; some- 

 times also by a high sense of shame. An Indian who had 

 been created a chief by the Hudson's Bay Company, and 

 who had received presents from them, subsequently traded 



