184 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



This is well borne out by information I have personally obtained 

 from Churchill, a settlement on the West Coast of Hudson's Bay, 

 which the Eskimo often visit for the purposes of trade. 



The few foregoing remarks are advanced as an illustration of a fact 

 which I would wish to explain ; and in the first place, I may instance 

 local natui'al causes ; as playing a part in influencing this eai'ly de- 

 velopment among the Indians of Hudson's Bay. 



In olden times, before the advent of the missionary and his re- 

 straining influence, marriage was, as far as I can learn, a mere form, 

 and ofttinies the possession of a blanket of sufficient amplitude to 

 cover two substituted itself for any rite, — the phrase " married 

 under a blanket " being but another rendering " of taking to wife." 

 And again, it is a common saying throughout the Indian Territory, 

 that a man cannot hunt well until he takes a wife, which verifies itself 

 upon examination ; for does not the wife tend the camp, fish, snare 

 rabbits and partridges, cook, and in short almost wholly pi'ovide for 

 ' her man,' and so enable him the more fuUy to occupy his time in 

 hunting the fur-bearing animals 1 It may be interesting to note here, 

 not only as an evidence of polygamy in these parts, but as an illus- 

 tration of the foregoing, a remark made to me by an old Indian chief, 

 Beardy, in reference to his poor hunt — " I have done nothing since 

 I became a Christian." The resident missionary had made it a sine 

 qua non that he should put SLwajJive of his wives before he could be 

 baptized — a bitter pill indeed to poor chief Beardy, who had but 

 lately realized the one ambition of his life, to be ahead of his late 

 father in the matter of wives — but for conscience' sake he gave way, 

 kept his youngest, prettiest, and most useless wife, and has since but 

 lived to mourn her incapacity and his perversion. 



"When it is understood what a helpful mate the Indian woman 

 usually is to her husband, it can be realized that the doctrine of 

 early marriage is inculcated, and indeed considered necessary to the 

 common weal. Touching upon this I will relate an occurrence that 

 took place here,j some few years since, inasmuch as it bears upon 

 Indian marriage custom, based on ancient tradition : A. young couple 

 were married, and after going around and making a collection, or 

 rather a requisition, started off to the woods for their honey-moon. 

 Whereupon I questioned an old Indian in leference to this, and 

 asked him, if he thought this taking of a holiday after marriage was 

 possibly copied from the white people (though I must say I have never 



