216 LABRADOR 



as straits continue, wear down rapidly under the constant 

 hunting. On the hunter, in the end, hangs the fate of all, 

 and this is to be remembered when in times of plenty the 

 men are found merely spearing the deer as they make the 

 crossing and leaving the hard work of meat and skins to 

 the women. In the evil day that is sure to come, it is most 

 often the women and children who survive, husbanding 

 their strength in the lodges until some hunter brings game. 

 There is no question as to the fate of the hunter who does 

 not return, though the spot where he sank to his lonely 

 end may never be known. 



These recurring vicissitudes of the hunting life, especially 

 in the farther north, must be taken account of before judg- 

 ment is passed upon some of the customs and traits of such 

 races. Until recently the old and feeble among the people 

 were at times put out of the way by their relatives. It 

 must be understood not only that the necessary alternative 

 was usually abandonment and death by freezing or starva- 

 tion, but that the event was brought about by the request 

 of the person concerned. 



It might be difficult to find a people more devoted to 

 their own than these. In his well-known Twenty-five 

 Years of Service John McLean has an interesting chap- 

 ter on their traits, his long relations with them standing 

 in as good stead as the imagination which gives colour to 

 Hind's accounts of them as seen at Seven Islands in later 

 years in his Labrador Peninsula. To quote a passage : 



"In their intercourse with us the Nascaupees evince a 

 very different disposition from the other branches of the 

 Cree family, being selfish and inhospitable in the extreme ; 

 exacting rigid payment for the smallest portion of food. 



