INDIANS (AMERICAN). 



even the young and stron men is not prominent or 

 well developed. Tin- necks of the men are small 

 and shrivelled; those of the women are well propor- 

 Distended abdomen is universal among 

 but corpulence is not common. Both sexes 

 dros alike. 1 lu-u- dress consists of a jacket, with a 

 hood, a pair of breeches which reach below the 

 knee, and an enormous pair of boots, all of seal skin. 

 The jacket has one flap before and another behind, 

 both of which hang nearly to the ground. These 

 liabiliments, doubled, or even trebled, ore their pro- 

 tection in winter and summer. Sometimes these 

 garments are made of other materials. The clothing 

 of the children does not differ from that of adults. 

 Their principal articles of food are train oil and the 

 flesh of seals and walruses. These animals are 

 watched for hours on the ice, and finally despatched 

 with spears. In summer, the Esquimaux kill a few 

 reindeer, and, in districts where they are found, musk 

 oxen. They also attack and destroy the polar bear. 

 Their only arms are spears, and bows and arrows, all 

 or most of which weapons are rudely constructed of 

 pieces of bone and fragments of wood, fastened 

 together and tipped with ivory. As their country 

 produces no wood, they are compelled to resort to 

 such means. In winter, they reside in huts made of 

 snow, which are lighted and warmed by lamps. 

 Their summer habitations are tents of skins, which 

 are supported by the bones of marine animals and 

 reindeer's horns. When they travel in winter, they 

 transport their effects on sledges made of bone, and 

 drawn by dogs. Procuring food is the sole duty of 

 the men, but all other labours devolve on the women. 

 Both sexes are equally expert in the management of 

 canoes, which are made of seal skins, stretched on a 

 frame of wood or bones. One tribe of Esquimaux, 

 discovered by captain Ross in the north-eastern part 

 of Baffin's bay, have no canoes, or any means of 

 floating excepting on pieces of ice. The Esquimaux 

 have the same rambling propensity which distin- 

 guishes other Indians, with this difference; they pre- 

 fer the most desolate and inhospitable regions. They 

 have no settlements or fixed places of habitation, 

 but there are several mustering points, at which they 

 assemble at certain stated times : Igloolik, the mouth 

 of the Coppermine, and the mouth of the Mackenzie, 

 are some of them. There is no marriage ceremony 

 among the Esquimaux. Children are betrothed in 

 infancy. Bigamy is common, but a man seldom has 

 more than one wife at a time. Sometimes they 

 select wives for themselves. Divorces depend on 

 the pleasure of the parties, and are very common. 

 Children are also adopted, and the connexion binds 

 the parties as firmly as the ties of blood. Like other 

 Indians, they are very fond of their children, whom 

 they never chastise or correct. This kindness is not 

 reciprocated by the children, who abandon their 

 parents whenever they become burdensome. The 

 Esquimaux are superstitious, and have priests who 

 pretend to hold intercourse with the invisible world. 

 The gods of their worship are many. Where they 

 have had little or no intercourse with the whites, the 

 Esquimaux are scrupulously honest. They never 

 touch each other's property without permission. 

 Vet they are envious to a degree scarcely credible. 

 The possession of" any article draws on a man the ill 

 will of all his neighbours. Gratitude is absolutely 

 unknown to tin-in. In sickness or danger, the hus- 

 band cares not for the wife, nor the wife for the hus- 

 band. Parents receive no attention in their old age, 

 and parents deny their children the rli.es of sepulture. 

 Selfisluiess is the ruling principle of the Esquimaux. 

 Their hospitality, like that of other savages, Is uni- 

 versal. Strangers are received in the kindest man- 



supplied. This good quality is balanced by a prone- 

 ness to falsehood. Their lies are chiefly confined to 

 calumnies against each other, and false accusations. 

 This mostly prevails among the women. They are 

 not quarrelsome nor ferocious, nor are they cowardly. 

 In pain, cold, starvation, disappointment, or when ill 

 treated, their equanimity is admirable. They sel- 

 dom dispute or quarrel, and revenge is scarcely 

 known among them. Yet they venture to sea on 

 loose cakes of ice, and attack the polar bear without 

 the least hesitation. 



The Indians in the northern parts of North America 

 are divided into several great families. The Algon- 

 quin or Chippeway race is one of the two most nume- 

 rous now in existence. All the tribes of New 

 England were Algonquins, if we may take identity of 

 language, manners, and customs, as a proof of the 

 fact. The vocabulary of the Narraganset tongue, 

 recorded by Roger Williams, proves them to have 

 been a branch of the Algonquin stock. The Mohe- 

 gans, considered the progenitors of the other tribes 

 in New England, spoke the same tongue. The tribes 

 in Maine claimed the same origin. The Delaware, 

 or Lenni Lenape, were of the same family, and their 

 language has been pronounced, by competent judges, 

 the most perfect existing. The Iroquois, or Six 

 Nations, once dreaded from the Atlantic to the 

 Mississippi, are Algonquins. This tribe did and 

 still does extend from the mouth of the St Lawrence 

 to the Mississippi, and thence northward to Great 

 Slave lake; for so far do the Nayheeowawk or Knis- 

 teneaux extend their rambles. On the western side 

 of the Mississippi is another great Indian family, 

 viz., the Sioux or Dahcotah. The Dahcotah proper 

 inhabit the country on the west side of the 

 Mississippi, north of the Wisconsin, to the sources 

 of the Mississippi. Their territory extends west 

 ward to the Missouri. This tribe speak a language 

 radically distinct from that of the Algonquin race. 

 Their origin is unknown, and their own traditions 

 are at variance on this point one with another. One 

 account, and the most probable, represents them as 

 having been driven from the confines of Mexico by 

 the Spaniards. The branches of this tribe are the 

 Winnebagoes, the Otoes, the loways, the Missourios, 

 the Assinniboins, the Omahaws, the Kansas and the 

 Osages. All these tribes speak dialects of the Dah- 

 cotah tongue. The Assinniboins are known also by 

 the names of Ossinneboins, Ossinnepoilles, Stone 

 Indians, and Hohays. This last is the name they give 

 themselves. Their secession from the Dahcotah 

 stock is recent, and its cause is as follows : One Dah- 

 cotah had eloped with the wife of another, and taken 

 refuge in the tents of his kindred. The husband, 

 going to reclaim his spouse, was slain by the adulterer. 

 His father and uncles, demanding blood for blood, 

 according to the laws of the tribe, were slain also. 

 The quarrel of the dead was taken up by their rela- 

 tives, and the kindred of the guilty persons were de- 

 feated with loss. A series of bloody encounters 

 ensued, till at last the party of the original aggressor 

 were worsted and separated from the tribe. They 

 were called Hohays, and have been at war with the 

 Dahcotahs till within a few years. They now roam 

 over the plains, from the Saskashawin to the Mis- 

 souri, where they live by hunting the buffalo. Their 

 principal resort is about Devil lake. As well as the 

 Indians farther north-west, they have few guns or 

 other articles, the manufacture of the whites. Their 

 number cannot be ascertained, but it is certain they 

 exceed a thousand fighting men. A tradition of the 

 Winnebagoes says they were driven from the frontier 

 of Mexico by the Spaniards, towards whom they en- 

 tertain a hereditary hatred to this day. Within two 



every want is removed, every accommodation | centuries, they were united with the Otoes, Toways, 



