122 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



having emigrated 400 miles west of Eed Eiyer, where 

 they have permanently established themselves. All the 

 Ojibways now found west of the Lake of the Woods, 

 and the east coast of Lake Winnipeg are invaders 

 of the country. The real home of the Ojibway is the 

 region about the south, west, and north of Lake Superior ; 

 the habits of life of the emigrants or invaders have been 

 adapted to the character of the country they now occupy, 

 and being no longer dependent upon the forest for food and 

 clothing, many of them, on the banks of the Assinniboine, 

 Eed Eiver, Lake Manitobah, and Dauphin Lake, possess 

 horses, and join the half-breeds in their annual spring and 

 fall hunts. Notwithstanding this intercourse and blending 

 of different nations, most of the superstitions and customs 

 peculiar to each are still maintained and practised. 



Nearly one hundred years ago (1770), Mr. Hutchins, 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company's service, framed an 

 enumeration of the tribes between Lake Winnipeg, and 

 within one hundred miles of James's Bay, speaking the 

 Ojibway tongue. The tribes enumerated have evidently 

 derived their names in conformity with long established 

 usage, from their hunting and fishing stations. 



It is often asked whether the thrilling descriptions of 

 savage hfe in Cooper's delightful romances are imaginary 

 or real ; and if real, whether they exist now among the 

 tribes which have long been familiar with civilized man, 

 such as the Plain Crees, the Sioux, the Swampys, and the 

 Ojibways. It is enough to visit the secluded Ojibway 

 graves on the banks of Eed Eiver, and contemplate Sioux 

 scalps decorated with beads, bits of cloth, coloured rib- 

 bons, and strips of leather, suspended at the extremity of 

 a long slender stick near the head of the grave, to feel 

 satisfied that one barbarous custom still prevails. But to 

 be an eyewitness of a scalp dance, or a skull dance, is 



