ACCOUNT OP THE INDIANS. 



339 



ed as above mentioned.* It is a little surprising 

 that the Indians, who are accustomed to them, 

 will walk farther in a day on good snow shoes, 

 than they could do on bare ground. But it is 

 very fatiguing for those to walk on them, who are 

 not accustomed to do it. The Indians are train- 

 ed to this exercise from the age of four years. 

 Even at that early age, they will go five or six 

 miles in a day upon them, through the whole win- 

 ter, as often as the Indians decamp, which, at some- 

 times, is every day, and at other times, once in 

 eight or ten days. Indians, who live upon the 

 chace, in a country where animals are scarce, 

 cannot remain long in a place; and those who 

 hunt the beaver and some other animals, must 

 continually shift their residence. 



Few of the Indians live in a state of celibacy. 

 They generally marry when they are between 

 eighteen and twenty five years of age. Polygamy 

 is allowed among all the tribes ; but only a few 

 persons among them, have more than one wife, 

 each. I knew, however, a chief, among the 

 Beaver Indians, who had eleven wives, and more 

 than forty children. 



Their courtship and marriage are conducted 

 in the following manner. A young man who is 

 desirous of taking a wife, looks around among the 

 young women of his acquaintance, to find one that 



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