THE DIVIDING LINE. 35 



top, and covered so well with bark as to he proof against all weather. The 

 fire is made in tiie middle, accordini; to the Hibernian fashion, the smoke 

 wliereof finds no other vent but at the door, and so keeps the whole family- 

 warm, at the expense both of their eyes and complexion. The Indians have 

 no standing furniture in their cabins but hurdles to repose their persons 

 upon, which they cover with mats and deer-skins. We wq^e conducted to 

 the best apartments in the fort, which just before had been made ready for 

 our reception, and adorned with new mats, that were very sweet and clean. 

 The young men had painted themselves in a hideous manner, not so much 

 for ornament as terror. In tliat frightful equipage they entertained us with 

 sundry war dances, wherein they endeavoured to look as formidable as possi- 

 ble. The instrument they danced to was an Indian drum, that is, a large 

 gourd with a skin braced tight over the mouth of it. The dancers all sang to 

 the music, keeping exact time with their feet, while their heads and arms 

 were screwed into a thousand menacing postures. Upon this occasion the 

 ladies had arrayed themselves in all their finery. They were wrapped in 

 their red and blue match coats, thrown so negligently about them, that their 

 mahogany skins appeared in several parts, like the Lacedaemonian damsels of 

 old. Their hair was braided with white and blue peak, and hung gracefully 

 in a large roll upon their shoulders. 



This peak consists of small cylinders cut out of a conch shell, drilled 

 through and strung like beads. It serves them both for money and jewels, 

 the blue being of much greater value than the white, for the same reason 

 that Ethiopian mistresses in France are dearer than French, because they 

 are more scarce. The women wear necklaces and bracelets of these pre- 

 cious materials, when they have a mind to appear lovely. Though their 

 complexions be a little sad-coloured, yet their shapes are very strait and well 

 proportioned. Their faces are seldom handsome, yet they have an air of 

 innocence and bashfulness, that with a little less dirt would not fail to make 

 them desirable. Such charms might have had their full effect upon men who 

 had been so long deprived of female conversation, but that the whole winter's 

 soil was so crusted on the skins of those dark angels, that it required a very 

 strong appetite to approach them. The bear's oil, with which they anoint 

 their persons all over, makes their skins soft, and at the same time protects 

 them from every species of vermin that use to be troublesome to other un- 

 cleanly people. We were unluckily so many, that they could not well make 

 us the compliment of bed-fellows, according to the Indian rules of hospitality, 

 though a grave matron whispered one of the commissioners veiy civilly in 

 the ear, that if her daugliter had been but one year older, she should have 

 been at his devotion. 



It is by no means a loss of reputation among the Indians, for damsels 

 that are single to have intrigues with the men ; on the contrary, they account 

 it an argument of superior merit to be liked by a great number of gallants. 

 However, like the ladies that game, they are a little mercenary in their 

 amours, and seldom bestow their favours out of stark love and kindness. But 

 after these women have once appropriated their charms by marriage, they 

 are from thenceforth faithful to their vows, and will hardly ever be tempted 

 by an agreeable gallant, or be provoked by a brutal or even by a careless 

 husband to go astray. The little work that is done among the Indians is 

 done by the poor women, while the men are quite idle, or at most employed 

 only in the gentlemanly diversions of hunting and fishing. In this, as well 

 as in their wars, they use nothing but fire-arms, which they purchase of the 

 English for skins. Bows and arrows are grown into disuse, except only 

 amongst their boys. Nor is it ill policy, but on the contrary very prudent, 

 thus to furnish the Indians with fire-arms, because it makes them depend 



