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hibited at those times from partaking of the [315] head of any 

 animal, and even from walking in, or crossing the track where 

 the head of a deer, moose, beaver, and many other animals, 

 have lately been carried, either on a sledge or on the back. To 

 be guilty of a violation of this custom is considered as of the 

 greatest importance ; because they firmly believe that it would 

 be a means of preventing the hunter from having an equal 

 success in his future excursions. 



Those poor people live in such an inhospitable part of the 

 globe, that for want of firing, they are frequently obliged to 

 eat their victuals quite raw, particularly in the Summer season, 

 while on the barren ground ; but early custom and frequent 

 necessity make this practice so familiar to them, that so far 

 from finding any inconvenience arise from it, or having the 

 least dislike to it, they frequently do it by choice, and par- 

 ticularly in the article of fish ; for when they do make a 

 pretence of dressing it, they seldom warm it through. I have 

 frequently made one of a party who has sat round a fresh- 

 killed deer, and assisted in picking the bones quite clean, when 

 I thought that the raw brains and many other parts were 

 exceedingly good ; and, however strange it may appear, I 

 must bestow the same epithet on half-raw fish : even to this 

 day I give the preference to trout, salmon, and the brown 

 tittemeg, when they are not warm at the bone. 



[316] The extreme poverty of those Indians in general will 

 not permit one half of them to purchase brass kettles from the 

 Company ; so that they are still under the necessity of con- 

 tinuing their original mode of boiling their victuals in large 

 upright vessels made of birch-rind. As those vessels will not 

 admit of being exposed to the fire, the Indians, to supply the 

 defect, heat stones red-hot and put them into the water, which 

 soon occasions it to boil ; and by having a constant succession 

 of hot stones, they may continue the process as long as it is 

 necessary. This method of cooking, though very expeditious, 

 is attended with one great evil ; the victuals which are thus 



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