RED INDIANS AND HOUSES. 179 



severe cold. These are strange and apparently inex- 

 plicable facts, but it is within our own personal know- 

 ledge that Indians will very often object to enter a 

 white man's dwelling house, and prefer to accept prof- 

 fered food etc., in the open air outside, because as they 

 say, "going into the houses of the pale-faces gives 

 them colds" and we have so often heard the same story 

 repeated among the trappers and Hudson Bay Go's 

 men. in the west, that we can have no doubt of its 

 practical truth, and that it is not the result of Indian 

 fancy or caprice. The true explanation of the enigma 

 is that it is the going out of close t rooms into the open 

 air, that causes chills and colds. It is moreover an 

 ascertained fact that since the Indians have taken to 

 wearing clothes, have erected huts, and adopted white 

 men's ways, they have become afflicted with lung 

 disease in a way that was totally unknown under the 

 old regime of paint and feathers. Whole tribes have 

 perished by it in Labrador and elsewhere. 



In the New World the close of summer is very 

 often marked by the sequence of the pleasantest 

 weather of the year. Very beautiful is the fall season 

 in the American woods, and indeed in all countries 

 where the winters are severe ; in England we can 

 form no conception of the brilliant autumn colouring 

 of the foliage, assumed by the deciduous trees in 

 these countries at such times. 



Perhaps we shall be pardoned if we venture to 

 quote some verses on the subject from the pen of an 

 American, leaving our readers to judge for themselves 

 whether they are appropriate f jr introduction here or 

 not. As for their accuracy of description, that we 

 find no hesitation in vouching for. 



