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dcueffis. This nation is the mod populous we know 

 in Canada. They were fufficiently pacific, and but 

 little addicted to war, before the Hurons and Ou- 

 tawais when they fled from the fury of the Iroquois, 

 took refuge in their country. They laughed at them 

 for their fimplicity, and made them warlike at their 

 pwn expence. The Sioux have a plurality of wives, 

 and fevcrely punifh fuch as are wanting in conjugal 

 fidelity. They cut off the tip of their nofes, and 

 make a circle in the fkin on the top of their heads, 

 and afterwards tear it off. I have feen fome per- 

 fons, who were perfuaded thefe people fpoke with 

 the Chinefe accent ; it would be no difficult mat- 

 ter to determine this fact, or if their language has 

 any affinity with that of China. 



Thofe perfcns who have had intercourfe with the 

 Affiniboils, tell us, that they are tall, well-made, 

 robuft, active, and inured to cojd, and all manner 

 of fatigue ; that they are pricked over all the body, 

 and marked with the figures of ferpents and other 

 animals ; and that they are in ufe to undertake very 

 Jong journeys. There is nothing in all this which 

 diftinguifhes them from the other nations of this 

 continent which we are acquainted with ; but what 

 particularly characterizes them, is, their being ex- 

 tremely phlegmatick, at leaft they appear fo in ref- 

 pect of the Chrihinaux who trade with them, and 

 who are indeed of an extraordinary vivacity, con- 

 tinually dancing and finging, and fpeaking with 

 precipitation and a volubility of tongue, which is 

 not obferved in any other Indian nation. 



The true country of the Affiniboils, is in the 

 neighbourhood of a lake which bears their name, 

 with which we are but little acquainted. A French- 

 man, whom I law at Montreal, affured me he had 



been 



