320 A JOURNEY TO THE 



course of their lives is one continued scene of drudgery, viz. 

 carrying and hauling heavy loads, dressing skins for clothing, 

 curing their provisions, and practising other necessary domestic 

 duties which are required in a family, without enjoying the 

 least diversion of any kind, or relaxation, on any occasion 

 whatever ; and except in the execution of those homely duties, 

 in which they are always instructed from their infancy, their 

 senses seem almost as dull and frigid as the zone they inhabit. 

 There are indeed some exceptions to be met with among them, 

 and I suppose it only requires indulgence and precept to make 

 some of them as lofty and insolent as any women in the world. 

 Though they wear their hair at full length, and never tie it 

 up, like the Southern Indians ; and though not one in fifty of 

 them is ever possessed of a comb, yet by a wonderful dexterity 

 of the fingers, and a good deal of patience, they make shift to 

 stroke it out so as not to leave two hairs entangled ; but when 

 their heads are infested with vermin, from which very few of 

 either sex are free, they mutually assist each other in keeping 

 them under. 



A scorbutic disorder, resembling the worst stage of the itch, 

 consumptions, and fluxes, are their chief disorders. The first 

 of these, though very troublesome, is never known to prove 

 fatal, unless it be accompanied with some inward complaint ; 

 but the two latter, with a few [337] accidents, carries off great 

 numbers of both sexes and all ages : indeed few of them live 

 to any great age, probably owing to the great fatigue they 

 undergo from their youth up, in procuring a subsistence for 

 themselves and their offspring. 



Though the scorbutic disorder above mentioned does appear 

 to be infectious, it is rare to see one have it without the whole 

 tent's crew being more or less affected with it ; but this is by 

 no means a proof of its being contagious ; I rather attribute 

 it to the effects of some bad water, or the unwholesomeness 

 of some fish they may catch in particular places, in the course 

 of their wandering manner of life. Were it otherwise, a single 



