ACCOUNT OP THE INDIANS. 343 



to make use of any article, which they expect 

 to want the use of afterwards. This custom 

 prevails among all the tribes, with whom I have 

 been acquainted. The first time that the young- 

 women, among the Sauteux, Crees and some 

 other tribes, experience this illness, they run in- 

 to the woods, and remain there for several days. 

 They then return to their tents, and immediately 

 proceed to cut and pile up a cord of wood, as 

 high as their heads ; after which all the women 

 of the camp come and scramble for it, and carry 

 it away, saying, that the person who cut the 

 wood, is now a woman like themselves, and that 

 they hope she will prove to be industrious. 



The men among the Indians, are very sub- 

 ject to be jealous of their wives. In their fits of 

 jealousy, they often cut off all the hair from the 

 heads of their wives, and, not unfrequently, cut off 

 their noses, also ; and should they not in the mo- 

 ment of passion have a knife at hand, they will snap 

 it off at one bite, with' their teeth. But such a 

 circumstance does not ordinarily produce a sep- 

 aration between them. The man is satisfi- 

 ed in thus revenging a supposed injury ; and 

 having destroyed the beauty of his wife, he 

 concludes that he has secured her against all fu- 

 ture solicitations to offend. 



