NORTHERN OCEAN 303 



their morals from being contaminated by obscene conversation. 

 The Southern Indians are still less delicate in conversation, in 

 the presence of their children. 



The women among the Northern Indians are in general 

 more backward than the Southern Indian women ; and though 

 it is well known that neither tribe lose any time, those early 

 connections are seldom productive of children for some years. 



Divorces are pretty common among the Northern Indians ; 

 sometimes for incontinency, but more frequently for want of 

 what they deem necessary accomplishments or for bad be- 

 haviour. This ceremony, in either case, consists of neither 

 more nor less than a good drubbing, and turning the woman 

 out of doors ; telling her to go to her paramour, or relations, 

 according to the nature of her crime. 



Providence is very kind in causing these people to be less 

 prolific than the inhabitants of civilized nations ; it is very 

 uncommon to see one woman have more than five or six 

 children ; and these are always born at such a distance from 

 one another, that the youngest is generally two or [3 1 3] three 

 years old before another is brought into the world. Their 

 easy births, and the ceremonies which take place on those 

 occasions, have already been mentioned ; I shall therefore 

 only observe here, that they make no use of cradles, like the 

 Southern Indians, but only tie a lump of moss between their 

 legs, and always carry their children at their backs, next the 

 skin, till they are able to walk. Though their method of 

 treating young children is in this respect the most uncouth 

 and awkward I ever saw, there are few among them that 

 can be called deformed, and not one in fifty who is not 

 bow-legged. 



There are certain periods at which they never permit the 

 women to abide in the same tent with their husbands. At 

 such times they are obliged to make a small hovel for them- 

 selves at some distance from the other tents. As this is an 

 universal custom among all the tribes, it is also a piece of 



