THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AND THEIE FOLK-LOEE 331 



can maintain, and that, so far from discovering any 

 symptoms of jealousy for the unequal distribution of 

 favors, these females address each other as sisters. In 

 the Montagnais he found concentrated all the vices 

 of the whites and Nascapees, without one of their virt- 

 uous qualities. No matter how viewed, he found 

 them neither Nascapees nor whites, but, "like the 

 mule between the horse and the ass, a spurious breed 

 between both, and a melancholy instance of the influ- 

 ence of European manners upon the morals of the wild 

 inhabitants of the Avoods." Speaking of their newly 

 wedded couples, he declares that much harmony 

 reigns between them till a false step of the bride's 

 alarms her husband's delicate sentiments of honor, 

 and drives him for redress into the arms of another. 

 The ladies, whether married or unmarried, young or 

 old, are, he says, much inclined to gayety, and their con- 

 sciences, in their ideas of chastity, " as elastic as silk 

 stockings. The men, aware of this disposition, and 

 naturally jealous, watch them very closely, particular- 

 ly in drinking frolics. Though fond of rum to an un- 

 common excess, some of them keep sober to guard the 

 movements of their wives and daughters, but, at the 

 same time, they carry on intrigues of their own with 

 those of their neighbors ; for they, no more than their 

 dear ribs, are not very punctual in observing the tenth 

 commandment." In regard to their indifference to 

 personal suffering and even to death, he quaintly re- 

 marks that " they leave this life with as little struggle 

 as they came into it." 



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