68 



A General History of the Fur Trade. 



When a young man marries, he immediately goes to live 

 with the father and mother of his wife, who treat him, never- 

 theless, as a perfect stranger, until after the birth of his first 

 child: he then attaches himself more to them than his own 

 parents ; and his wife no longer gives him any other denomi- 

 nation than that of the father of her child. 



The profession of the men is war and hunting, and the 

 more active scene of their duty is the field of battle, and 

 the chase in the woods. They also spear fish, but the man- 

 agement of the nets is left to the women. The females of 

 this nation are in the same subordinate state with those of 

 all other savage tribes; but the severity of their labour is 

 much diminished by their situation on the banks of lakes 

 and rivers, where they employ canoes. In the winter, when 

 the waters are frozen, they make their journies, which are 

 never of any great length, with sledges drawn by dogs. 

 They are, at the same time, subject to every kind of do- 

 mestic drudgery ; they dress the leather, make the clothes 

 and shoes, weave the nets, collect wood, erect the tents, 

 fetch water, and perform every culinary service; so that 

 when the duties of maternal care are added, it will appear 

 that the life of these women is an uninterrupted succession 

 of toil and pain. This, indeed, is the sense they entertain 

 of their own situation ; and, under the influence of that sen- 

 timent, they are sometimes known to destroy their female 

 children, to save them from the miseries which they them- 

 selves have suffered. They also have a ready way, by the 

 use of certain simples, of procuring abortions, which they 

 sometimes practise, from their hatred of the father, or to 

 save themselves the trouble which children occasion ; and, 

 as I have been credibly informed, this unnatural act is re- 

 peated without any injury to the health of the women who 

 perpetrate it. 



The funeral rites begin, like all other solemn ceremonials, 

 with smoking, and are concluded by a feast. The body is 

 dressed in the best habiliments possessed by the deceased, 

 or his relations, and is then deposited in a grave, lined with 

 branches : some domestic utensils are placed on it, and a 

 kind of canopy erected over it. During this ceremony, 

 great lamentations are made, and if the departed person is 

 very much regretted, the near relations cut off their hair, 

 pierce the fleshy part of their thighs and arms with arrows, 

 knives, &c. and blacken their faces with charcoal. If they 

 have distinguished themselves in war, they are sometimes 



