v\kuativi; to 



( BAPTER IX. 



Transactions at Leech I^ike. — Notice of the Pillager band. — Tin ir 

 chief, Aish Kibug Ekozh, or the Flat Mouth. — He invites the tgmU 

 and his inttrpretr to breakfast. — His address on concluding it. — \ 

 cination of the Indians. — A deputation from the Rainy Lake band is 

 received, and a flat; presented to their leader, The Hole in the Sky. 

 — Council ttith the Pitttgttr*. — Speech of Aish Kibug Ekozh, in 

 which he makes an allusion to Gen. Pike. — He descants on the Sioiu 

 tear, the Indian trade, and the interdiction of ardent spirits. — Per- 

 sonal notices of this chief. 



The domestic manners and habits of a people, whose position 

 is so adverse to improvement, could hardly be expected to pre- 

 sent any thing strikingly different, from other erratic bam!- "i 

 the northwest. There is indeed a remarkable conformity in 

 the external habits of all our northern Indians. The 1. 

 of changing their camps often, to procure game or 6sh, the want 

 of domesticated animals, the general dependance on wild 

 and the custom of journeying in canoes, has produced a gene- 

 ral uniformity of life. And it is emphatically a life of want 

 and vicissitude. There is a perpetual change between action 

 and inanity, in the mind, which is a striking peculiarity of the ^a\- 

 Btate. And there is such a general want of forecast, that most 

 irtunes and hardships, in war and peace, COQIG UD 



pectedly. None ■>;' the tribes who inhabit this quarter, can 

 said to have, thus fir. derived soy peculiarities from civilized in- 

 struction. The only marked alteration \shich their state of 

 ciety has undergone, appears to be referable to ti, I the 



int.- Fur trade, when th quaint* d 



with, and adopted the use of! iron, gunpowder, and woollens, 

 This implied a c . .. nd of the m 



