WITH THE INDIANS. 259 



was necessary for him to skin the animals and pre- 

 pare the specimens. He told them what he desired to 

 do with the game, and as Brown had mounted several 

 birds here during one of his previous visits, the ex- 

 planations were easily understood, but the red men 

 were unwilling to give in. Their obstinacy was 

 finally overcome, however, and they agreed that 

 Dyche should go with them. Maypuck, the chief, 

 Kakagens (Little Raven) , Machiveness, and Gib, the 

 interpreter, were to make up the party. The chief 

 could speak a few words in English, but the inter- 

 preter was necessary. 



While these arrangements were being made Dyche 

 spent much of his time in visiting the Indian village 

 and studying the home life of the Chippewas. The 

 village was composed of log-cabins and tepees cov- 

 ered with coarse grass and birch bark. The princi- 

 pal occupation of the tribe was fishing, and the main 

 food-supply was fish and a peculiar black rice found 

 growing around the lake. The squaws made nets 

 and prepared the fish and the skins of game while 

 the bucks lay around doing much smoking and 

 no work. The Indian is tireless on the chase, but 

 he thinks his work done when the animal is slain 

 and he leaves the labor at the camp to his squaw. 

 Brown had been here often before, and he said that in 

 the spring the Indians varied their diet of fish and 

 rice with the eggs of aquatic birds, which bred in 

 great numbers in the vicinity. The stage of incuba- 

 tion of the eggs cut no figure at all in the case, the In- 

 dians rather giving preference to those in which 

 the young bird was about to break through the shell. 



