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broider deer-fkins, and they knit belts and garters 

 with the wool of the buffalo. 



As for the men they glory in their idlenefs, and 

 actually fpend more than half their lives in doing 

 nothing, from a perfuafion that daily labour de- 

 grades a man, and that it is only proper for wo- 

 men. The proper function of a man, fay they, is 

 to fifh, hunt, and go to war. It is they, however, 

 who are to make every thing necefTary for thefe 

 three exercifes : thus the making of arms, nets, 

 and all their hunting and fifhing equipage as well 

 as their canoes with their rigging, their racquets, or 

 fnow fhoes, the building and repairing of their cab- 

 bins, are the office of the men* who notwithstanding 

 on thefe occafions often make ufe of the afliftance 

 of the women. The Chriftians are a little more 

 induftrious, but never work except by way of pe- 

 nance. 



Thefe people, before we provided them with 

 hatchets and other inftruments, were very much at 

 a lofs in feiling their trees, and making them fit for 

 the ufes they intended them for. They burned 

 them near the root, and in order to fplit and cut 

 them into proper lengths, they made ufe of hat- 

 chets made of flint which never broke, but which 

 required a prodigious time to fharpen. In order 

 to fix them in a fhaft, they cut off the top of a 

 young tree, making a flit in it, as if they were go- 

 ing to graft it, into which flit they inferted the 

 head of the axe. The tree growing together again 

 in length of time, held the head of the hatchet fo 

 firm, that it was impoflible for it to get loofe : 

 they then cut the tree at the length they judged 

 ill flic ient for the handle. 



Thdr 



