legs, whose bad success in hunting had reduced him to the necessity
of feeding on moose leather for three weeks, when he was compassionately
relieved by the Warrior. I was an unwilling witness of the
preparation of my dinner by the Indian women. They cut into
pieces a portion of fat meat, using for that purpose a knife and
their teeth. It was boiled in a kettle, and served in a platter made
of birch bark, from which, being dirty, they had peeled the surface.
However, the flavour of good moose meat will survive any process
that it undergoes in their hands, except smoking.
Having provided myself with some drawing materials, I amused
the Indians with a sketch of the interior of the tent and its inhabitants.
An old woman who was relating with great volubility an
account of some quarrel with the traders at Cumberland House,
broke off from her narration when she perceived my design ; supposing,
perhaps, that I was employing some charm against her; for
the Indians have been taught a supernatural dread of particular
pictures. One of the young men drew, with a piece of charcoal, a
figure resembling a frog, on the side of the tent, and by significantly
pointing at me, excited peals of merriment from his companions.
The caricature was comic; but I soon fixed their attention, by producing
my pocket compass, and affecting it with a knife. They have
great curiosity, which might easily be directed to the attainment
of useful knowledge. As the dirt accumulated about these
people was visibly of a communicative nature, I removed at night
into the open air, where the thermometer fell to 15° below zero,
although it was next day 60° above it.
In the morning the Warrior and his companion arrived ; I found
that, instead of hunting, they had passed the whole time in a drunken
fit, at a short distance from the tent. In reply to our angry questions,
the Warrior held out an empty vessel, as if to demand the
payment of a debt, before he entered into any new negotiation. Not
being inclined to starve his family, we set out for another Indian
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