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A General History of the Fur Trade. 



further South. That animal is known to frequent an high- 

 er latitude to the Westward of their country. These peo- 

 ple bring pieces of beautiful variegated marble, which are 

 found on the surface of the earth. It is easily worked, bears 

 a fine polish, and hardens with time ; it indures heat, and 

 is manufactured into pipes or calumets, as they are very 

 fond of smoking tobacco ; a luxury which the Europeans 

 communicated to them. 



Their amusements or recreations are but few. Their 

 music is so inharmonious, and their dancing so aukward, 

 that they might be supposed to be ashamed of both, as they 

 very seldom practise either. They also shoot at marks, and 

 play at the games common among them ; but in fact they pre- 

 fer sleeping to either ; and the greater part of their time is 

 passed in procuring food, and resting from the toil necessa- 

 ry to obtain it. 



They are also of a querulous disposition, and are contin- 

 ually making complaints ; which they express by a constant 

 repetition of the word eduiy, " it is hard," in a whining and 

 plaintive tone of voice. 



They are superstitious in the extreme, and almost every 

 action of their lives, however trivial, is more or less in- 

 fluenced by some whimsical notion. I never observed that 

 they had any particular form of religious worship ; but as 

 they believe in a good and evil spirit, and a state of future re- 

 wards and punishments, they cannot be devoid of religious 

 impressions. At the same time they manifest a decided 

 unwillingness to make any communications on the subject. 



The Chepewyans have been accused of abandoning their 

 aged and infirm people to perish, and of not burying their 

 dead ; but these are melancholy necessities, which proceed 

 from their wandering way of life. They are by no means 

 universal, for it is within my knowledge, that a man, ren- 

 dered helpless by the palsy, was carried about for many years, 

 with the greatest tenderness and attention, till he died a na- 

 tural death. That they should not bury their dead in their 

 own country, cannot be imputed to them as a custom arising 

 from a savage insensibility, as they inhabit such high latitudes 

 that the ground never thaws ; but it is well known, that 

 when they are in the woods, they cover their dead with 

 trees. Besides, they manifest no common respect to the 

 memory of their departed friends, by a long period of 

 mourning, cutting off their hair, and never making use-pf 



