NORTHERN OCEAN. 
as they are then confidered marriageable, and of 
courfe are called women, though fome at thofe 
periods are not more than thirteen, while others 
at the age of fifteen or fixteen have been reckon- 
ed as children, though apparently arrived at near- 
ly their fall growth. | 
On thofe occafions a remarkable piece of fuper- 
ftition prevails among them ; women in this fitu- 
ation are never permitted to walk on the ice of 
rivers or lakes, or near the part where the men 
are hunting beaver, or where a fifhing-net is fet, 
for fear of averting their fuccefs. They are alfo 
prohibited at thofe times from partaking of the 
head of any animal, and even from walking in, 
or croffing the track where the head of a deer, 
moofe, beaver, and many other animals, have 
Jately been carried, either on a fledge or on the 
back. ‘To be guilty of a violation of this cuftom 
s confidered as of the greateft importance; be- 
caufe they firmly believe that it would be a means 
ef preventing the hunter from having an equal 
faccefs in his future excurfions. 
Thofe poor people live in fuch an inhofpitable 
part of the globe, that for want of firing they are 
frequently obliged to eat their victuals quite raw, 
particularly in the Summer feafon, while on the 
barren ground; but early cuftom and frequent 
neceflity make this practice fo familiar to them, 
that fo far from finding any inconvenience arife 
from it, or having the leaft diflike to it, they 
frequently do it by choice, and particularly in the 
article 
345 
