62 M'JKeevor's Voyage to Hudson's Bay. 



inarh were out of order, owing to the excess of last night, 

 and asked for a. little medicine, which was given to him ; but 

 finding it did him neither good nor harm, he called his wife 

 to him, where he was sitting amongst us at a large fire we 

 had made to warm ourselves. She readily came : he asked 

 her if she had a sharp flint? and upon her replying- that she 

 had not, he broke one, and made a lancet of it, with which he 

 opened a vein in his wife's arm, she assisting him with great 

 good-will. Having drawn about a pint of blood from her in 

 a wooden bowl, to our astonishment he applied it to his 

 mouth quite warm, and drank it off; he then mixed the blood 

 that adhered to the vessel with water, by way of cleansing the 

 bowl, and also drank that offl While I was considering the 

 savageness of this action, one of our men, with indignation, 

 exclaimed to our guide, " I have eaten and smoked with thee ; 

 but henceforward thou and I shall not smoke and eat together. 

 What! drink, warm from the vein, the blood of thy wife !" 

 " Oh, my friend," said the Indian, " have I done wrong ? 

 When I find my stomach out of order, the warm blood of my 

 wife, in good health, refreshes the whole of my body, and 

 puts me to rights : in return, when she is not well, I draw 

 blood from my arm, she drinks it, and it gives her life. AH 

 our nation do the same, and they all know it to be a good me- 

 dicine." 



Mr. Ellis tells us, that for the purpose of curing cholic, 

 and all bowel complaints, they swallow a large quantity of 

 tobacco-smoke, by which they positively affirm they obtain 

 great and speedy relief. I can hardly think they use pure 

 tobacco on those occasions ; it is in all probability mixed with 

 a plant which they are very fond of smoking, called sackas- 

 shiapuk. 



No people indulge in sorrow to such an excess as the North- 

 American Indians. Many of them, when they lose a friend 

 or near relation, think nothing of cutting and mangling them- 

 selves in a most shocking manner. Very frequently some 

 pass a knife through the fleshy part* of the thigh or arm ; 

 others cut off a joint of a finger for each relation they have 

 lost ; others, again, pluck the nail out by the root, and lap 



* That these practices were usual among the heathens so early as the days 

 of Moses, is evident from the injunction which the Lord laid on the children 

 of Israel to avoid them. " You shall not round the comers of your head, 

 neither shall you mar the corners of thy beard. You shall not make any 

 cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you."* And 

 again, " Ye arc the children of the Lord your Uod ; you shall not cut your- 

 selves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dcad."t 



* Leviticus, c. xix. v. 7. t Dcut. c. xiv. v. 1. 



