228 TRAVELS THROUGH LOWER CANADA 2 
would be deemed handsome men in any coun¬ 
try in the world. 
*/ 
The women, on the contrary, are mostly un¬ 
der the middle size; and have higher cheek 
bones, and rounder faces than the men. They 
have very ungraceful carriages^ walk with 
their toes turned considerably inwards, and 
with a shuffling gait; and as they advance in 
years they grow remarkably fat and coarse. I 
never saw an Indian woman of the age of 
thirty, but what her eyes were sunk, her fore¬ 
head wrinkled, her skirl loose and shrivelled, 
and her whole person, in short, forbidding; yet, 
when young, their faces and persons are really 
pleasing, not to say sometimes very captivating. 
One could hardly imagine, without witnessing 
it, that a few years could possibly make such an 
alteration as it does in their persons. This sud-« 
den change is chiefly owing to the drudgery 
imposed on them by the men after a certain 
age; to their exposing themselves so much to 
the burning rays of the sun ; sitting so conti¬ 
nually in the smoke of wood fires; and, above, 
all, to the general custom of prostituting them¬ 
selves at a very early age. 
Though the Indians are profusely furnished 
with hair on their heads, yet on none of the 
•tbtr parts of the body, usually covered with 
