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fice to carry burdens, to drefs the vi&uals, and 

 to make the provilion of wood. 



It is even cuftomary in fome places for the bride 

 to flock the cabbin, in which fhe is to make her 

 abode after marriage, with wood fufficient to ferve 

 the following winter ; and it may be remarked that in 

 all the circumftances I have been mentioning, there 

 is no manner of difference between the nations, 

 in which the women have all the authority, and 

 thofe in which they have nothing to do with 

 publick bufinefs ; even thofe very women who are 

 in fome fort miftrelfes of the Hate, at leaft in out- 

 ward appearance, and who make the principal 

 body of the nation after arriving at a certain age, 

 and when their children are in a condition to caufe 

 them to be refpected are of no account before this, 

 and in houfhold affairs are no more than the flaves 

 of their hufbands. 



Generally fpeaking there is perhaps no na- 

 tion in the world where the fex is more def- 

 pifed ; to call an Indian a woman is the higheft 

 affront that can be offered him. Notwithstanding 

 what is odd enough, children belong only to the 

 mother, and acknowledge no authority but hers ; 

 the father is always held as a ftranger with refpedt 

 to them, in fuch manner however that if he is not 

 looked upon as the father, he is at leaft always 

 refpedled as the mafter of the cabbin. I do not 

 know however if this is univerfal in every point, 

 among all the nations we know in Canada, 

 any more than what I have found in good me- 

 moirs, that the young wives, befides the right 

 which their hufbands have over them, with refpect 

 to the fervice of the cabbin, are alfo obliged to 

 provide for all the neceffities of their own parents, 



E 3 which 



