ACCOUNT OF THE INDIANS. 



379 



who could sing at least two hundred, and each 

 song had its peculiar air. Female poets are not 

 common among them. Some of the women, how- 

 ever, are excellent singers. 



No two, of the fifteen tribes of Indians, with 

 whom I have been acquainted, speak precisely 

 the same language ; but the languages of nine of 

 them only, seem to be radically different. There 

 is only a variation of dialect among the Crees, 

 Sauteux and Muscagoes. The same is true of 

 the Chipewyans, Beaver Indians, Sicaunies, Ta- 

 cullies and Nateotetains. The language spoken , 

 by the Sauteux, Crees and Muscagoes is by far 

 the most copious and manly; but that used by 

 the Assiniboins, is the most harmonious and ele- 

 gant. 



Every tribe has its particular tract of coun- 

 try ; and this is divided again, among the several 

 families, which compose the tribe. Rivers, lakes 

 and mountains, serve them as boundaries ; and 

 the limits of the territory which belongs to each 

 family are as w T eli known by the tribe, as the 

 lines which separate farms are, by the farmers, in 

 the civilized world. The Indians who reside in 

 the large plains, make no subdivisions of their ter- 

 ritory ; for the wealth of their country consists of 

 buffaloes and wolves, which exist in plenty, every 



