232 THE HURON INDIANS. 



As soon as the first beams of day appeared, everybody 

 was on foot ; and after we had concluded our morning 

 meal, wliich resembled the evening repast, the Indians 

 hastened to deposit our kettles and travelling effects in 

 their tobogins. 



The tobogin of the Canadians is a small sledge built up 

 of a few planks as thin as the bark of trees, and shaped 

 in front like a ship's bow. These terrestrial " tenders " are 

 moderately loaded, and, with the assistance of a leather 

 strap passed over the shoulder, the Canadians drag the 

 vehicle and its contents over the hardened snow without 

 any very great exertion. 



These preparations completed, we set out, accompanied 

 by the five Indians and their pack of dogs. The Red- 

 skins who acted as our huntsmen belonged to the Huron 

 tribe, and were a part of its unfortunate remains nowa- 

 days inhabiting the village of Loretto ; the said village 

 consisting of a hundred huts clustering round a wooden 

 church. During the winter, the Hurons live on the pro- 

 ducts of the chase, and the money they receive for the 

 assistance they render to the farmer and the traveller; an 

 assistance for which they make the whites pay dearly, 

 who, unfortunately, are compelled to have recourse to 

 them. In the summer-time, they cultivate their fields, 

 and manufacture clothing and fishing apparatus, as well 

 as those glass-beaded mocassins, bags, and head-dresses 

 which are sold everywhere in the Northern and Southern 

 States. 



To speak the truth, they are degenerate savages, whose 

 race, nowadays, is embruted and servile, and manifests, 

 especially, an irresistible partiality for the most horrible 

 uncleanness imaginable. And besides, little genuine In- 



