82 



A JOURNEY TO THE SHORES 



traders; all these articles, however showy they may be at first, are 

 soon reduced to a very filthy condition by the Indian custom of 

 greasing the face and hair with soft fat or marrow, instead of 

 washing them with water. This practice they say preserves the skin 

 soft, and protects it from cold in the winter, and the moschetoes in 

 summer, but it renders their presence disagreeable to the olfactory 

 organs of an European, particularly when they are seated in a close 

 tent and near a hot fire. 



The only peculiarity which we observed, in their mode of rearing 

 children consists in the use of a sort of cradle, extremely well adapted 

 to their mode of life. The infant is placed in the bag having its 

 lower extremities wrapt up in soft sphagnum or bog-moss, and may 

 be hung up in the tent, or to the branch of a tree, without the least 

 danger of tumbling out; or in a journey suspended on the mother's 

 back, by a band which crosses the forehead, so as to leave her hands 

 perfectly free. It is one of the neatest articles of furniture they 

 possess, being generally ornamented with beads, and bits of scarlet 

 cloth, but it bears a very strong resemblance in its form to a mummy 

 case. 



The sphagnum in which the child is laid, forms a soft elastic bed, 

 which absorbs moisture very readily, and affords such a protection 

 from the cold of a rigorous winter, that its place would be ill sup- 

 plied by cloth. 



The mothers are careful to collect a sufficient quantity in autumn 

 for winter use; but when through accident their stock fails, they 

 have recourse to the soft down of the typha, or reed mace, the dust 

 of rotten wood, or even feathers, although none of these articles 

 are so cleanly, or so easily changed, as the sphagnum. 



The above is a brief sketch of such parts of the manners, cha- 

 racter, and customs of the Crees, as we could collect from personal 

 observation, or from the information of the most intelligent half- 

 breeds we met with ; and we shall merely add a few remarks on 



