t »82 ) 



obliged to eat up every thing ; though they have 

 had a long fail, and perhaps, on this very account, 

 they obferve great ibhriety in eating. He who does 

 the honours, touches nothing, and his whole em- 

 ployment, whilft the reft are at table, is to rehearfe 

 his ancient feats of hunting. The feaft concludes 

 with new invocations of the fpirits of the departed 

 bears. They afterwards fet out on their march be- 

 dawbed with black, and equipped as if for war, 

 amidft the acclamations of the whole village. Thus 

 hunting is no lefs noble amongft thefe nations than 

 war and the alliance of a good hunter is even 

 more courted than that of a famous warriour, as 

 hunting furn^mes the whole family with food and 

 raiment, beyond which the Indians never extend 

 their care. But no one is deemed a great hunter, 

 except he has killed twelve large beafts in one 

 day. 



Thefe people have two great advantages over us 

 in refpecl to this exercife ; for in the firft place, no- 

 thing flops them, neither thickets, nor ditches, nor 

 torrents, nor pools, nor rivers. They go always 

 llrait forwards in the directefl line pofFSble. In the 

 fecond place, there are few or perhaps no animals 

 which they will not overtake by fpeed of foot. 

 Some have been feen, fay they, arriving in the vil- 

 lage driving a parcel of bears with a fwitch, like a 

 flock of fneep ; and the nimblefl deer is not more 

 fo than they. Befides the hunter himfelf reaps very 

 little benefit by his fuccefs he is obliged to make 

 large prefents, and even if they prevent him by tak- 

 ing it at their own hand from him, he mufc fee him- 

 felf robbed without complaining, and remain fatif- 

 fied with the glory of having laboured for the pub- 

 lick. It is, however, allowed him in the diflribu- 

 tion of what he has caught, to begin with his own 

 8 fa- 



