80 A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



plied, should hand the surplus to his neighbour. When the viands 

 had disappeared, each filled his calumet and began to smoke with 

 great assiduity, and in the course of the evening several songs were 

 sung to the responsive sounds of the drum and seeseequay, their 

 usual accompaniments. 



The Cree drum is double-headed, but possessing very little depth, 

 it strongly resembles a tambourine in shape. Its want of depth is 

 compensated, however, by its diameter, which frequently exceeds 

 three feet. It is covered with moose skin parchment, painted with 

 rude figures of men and beasts, having various fantastic additions, 

 and is beat with a stick. The seeseequay is merely a rattle, formed 

 by enclosing a few grains of shot in a piece of dried hide. These 

 two instruments are used in all their religious ceremonies, except 

 those which take place in a sweating-house. 



A Cree places great reliance on his drum, and I cannot adduce a 

 stronger instance than that of the poor man who is mentioned in a 

 preceding page, as having lost his only child by famine, almost 

 within sight of the fort. Notwithstanding his exhausted state, he 

 travelled with an enormous drum tied to his back. 



Many of the Crees make vows to abstain from particular kinds of 

 food, either for a specific time, or for the remainder of their life, 

 esteeming such abstinence to be a certain means of acquiring some 

 supernatural powers, or at least of entailing upon themselves a 

 succession of good fortune. 



One of the wives of the Carlton hunter, of whom we have already 

 spoken as the worshipper of Kepoochikawn, made a determination 

 not to eat of the flesh of the Wawaskeesh, or American stag; but 

 during our abode at that place, she was induced to feed heartily 

 upon it, through the intentional deceit of her husband, who told her 

 that it was buffalo meat. When she had finished her meal, her hus- 

 band told her of the trick, and seemed to enjoy the terror with which 

 she contemplated the consequences of the involuntary breach of her 



