49 
stir u]) a j^ale. “ I spent the autumn ami early part of the winter,” 
he said, “ working on beaver houses, it is hard work, and only gives 
meat while we are working; when the snow was well on the ground 
I left off to hunt moose deer, but the winds were weak and unsteady; 
my women had to snare hares, my little boy, with his bow killed a 
few grouse, which kept us aliv-e until the long calm came. I waited 
a little, then in the evening I took my rattle and tambour and sung 
to the Great Spirit and the Manito of the Winds; the next morning 
I did the same, and took out of my medicine bag sweet smelling 
lierbs and laid them on a small fire to the Manito. I smoked and 
sung to him for a wind, but he shut his ears and would not listen to 
me; for three days I did the same; but he kept his ears shut. I 
became afraid that he was angry with me; I left my tent and came 
to you.”^ 
For many other tribes the lean season was the early spring, when 
the melting snow encumbered land travelling, the birds and animals 
had not yet returned, and ice still bound the lakes and rivers. The 
late autumn and early winter would have been equally lean had not 
every family accumulated a reserve of provisions during the summer. 
The agricultural peoples of eastern Canada, indeed, generally har- 
vested enough maize and other produce to last them until the next 
crop ripened, so that they rarely suffered from want of foorl. The 
Indians along the Pacific coast were equally secure, for when fish 
and game failed they could gather unlimited quantities of clams on 
the sandy beaches outside their doors, or within a few miles of their 
homes; moreover, their country contained an unusual abundance of 
wild fruits and edible roots, wh.ich the women gathered in quantity 
and stored away in boxes for winter use. It was on the prairie 
tribes, and on those in the more northern sections of the country 
where the resources were fewer and the climate more severe, that 
the lean seasons pressed most heavily. Many writers have accused 
those tribes of wastefulness and improvidence because when buffalo 
and caribou were plentiful they often took only the tongues and 
hides of the carcasses, leaving the meat for the birds and foxes. 
Certainly they were wasteful at that season, and had no conception 
of the conservation of game;- but then no conservation was neces- 
1 Thompson, D. : Op. cit., p. 124; cj. p. 309. 
- Sincf tlie early fur-trading days the, Indians have earefully conserved the heaver, always leaving 
a pair to propagate on each stream. One of their cliicf grievances at the present time is the neglect 
of tliis precaution bj' transitory white trappers and the consequent extermination of the beaver in 
many districts. 
