Ch. iv. among the American Indians. 59 



°B 



but they are sometimes reduced to extremities 

 beyond their power to support.* 



It is the general custom among most of the 

 American nations, even those which have made 

 some progress in agriculture, to disperse them- 

 selves in the woods at certain seasons of the year, 

 and to subsist for some months on the produce of 

 the chase, as a principal part of their annual sup- 

 plies.! To remain in their villages exposes them 

 to certain famine ;% and in the woods they are 

 not always sure to escape it. The most able 

 hunters sometimes fail of success, even where 

 there is no deficiency of game ;§ and in their 

 forests, on the failure of this resource, the hunter 

 or the traveller is exposed to the most cruel 

 want. || The Indians, in their hunting excursions, 

 are sometimes reduced to pass three or four days 

 without food ;^f and a missionary relates an ac- 

 count of some Iroquois, who, on one of these oc- 

 casions, having supported themselves as long as 

 they could, by eating the skins which they had 

 with them, their shoes, and the bark of trees, at 

 length, in despair, sacrificed some of the party to 

 support the rest. Out of eleven, five only re- 

 turned alive.** 



* Hist. N. Fr. torn. iii. p. 338. 

 t Lettres Edif. torn. vi. p. 66, 81, 345. ix. 145. 

 } Id. torn. vi. p. 82, 196, 197, 215. ix. 151. 

 § Charlevoix, N. Fr. torn. iii. p. 201. Hennepin, Mceurs des 

 Sauv. p. 78. 



|| Lettres Edif. torn. vi. p. 167, 220. 

 ^[ Id. torn. vi. p. 33. 

 ** Id. torn. vi. p. 71. 



