TURNER. I THE NENENOT. ^ 271 



stone's throw of Fort Cliimo. An Indian liad his clothing stripped 

 from liini by his enraged wife. She then tore the tent from the poles, 

 leaving him naked. She took their property to the canoe, which she 

 paddled several miles up the stream. He followed along the bank 

 until she relented, whereui^on their former relations were resumed, as 

 though nothing had disturbed the harmony of their life. The man was 

 so severely plagued by his comrades that for many days he scarcely 

 showed his head out of the tent. Rivalry for the favor of a woman or 

 man is occasionally the source of serious aft'rays. An instance was re- 

 lated to me where two men sought the hand of a woman, and to settle 

 which should have her, they determined to go in their canoes to the 

 lake near by and fight with their deer spears. One of the men was 

 killed and the other thereu])on obtained the woman, who is now living. 



The sexes have their special labors. Women perform the drudgery 

 and bring home the food slain by their husbands, fetching wood and 

 water, tanning the skins. :nid making them into clothing. The labor 

 of erecting the tents and iiauling the sleds when on their journey dur- 

 ing the winter falls upon them, and, in fact, they perform the greater 

 part of the manual labor. They are considered inferior to the men, and in 

 their social life they soon show the effects of tiie hardships they un- 

 dergo. 



The females arrive at puberty at the age of 14 or 15, and are taken 

 as wives at even an earlier age. So early are they taken in marriage 

 that before they are 30 years of age they often appear as though they 

 were 50. Some of them are hideously ugly, and are so begrimed with 

 smoke from the resiiious wood used for fuel and with filth that it is 

 purely guesswork to even approximate their age. The women appear 

 to be exempted from the curse of Eve, and deliver their children with 

 as little concern as is exhibited among the brutes. The child is not 

 allowed to receive nourishment until the third day, and no water must 

 touch its body. The infant is swaddled in wrappings of skins and 

 cloths. Sphagnum moss is used next the body and changed every other 

 day. They begin to walk at an early age, and this is, doubtless, the 

 principal cause of the bowing of the legs so often observed. The girls 

 are neglected and the boys given every advantage. The latter soon 

 discover their importance and rarely foil to show their domineering 

 ways to the other sex. 



It is quite rare that twins are born. It is not usual for a mother to 

 have more than four children, although as many as six or eight may be 

 born. As the paternal origin is often obscure, the person having that 

 woman as wife at the time of the child's birth is supposed to be its 

 father. 



The mortuary customs of the Naskopie were but imperfectly learned, 

 for when a death occurred at the trading station the body was buried 

 like a white man's. A shallow grave was dug in a sandy soil, as this 

 offered less trouble in digging, and the body placed in a rudely con- 



