or Northern Indians. She lives apart from her husband also for two
months if she has borne a boy, and for three if she has given birth to
a girl.
Many of the Cree hunters are careful to prevent a woman from
partaking of the head of a moose-deer, lest it should spoil their
future hunts ; and for the same reason they avoid bringing it to a
fort, fearing lest the white people should give the bones to the dogs.
The games or sports of the Crees are various. One, termed the
game of the mitten, is played with four balls, three of which are
plain, and one marked. These being hid under as many mittens,
the opposite party is required to fix on that which is marked. He
gives or receives a feather according as he guesses right or wrong.
When the feathers which are ten in number, have all passed into
one hand, a new division is made; but when one of the parties
obtains possession of them thrice, he seizes on the stakes.
The game of Platter is more intricate, and is played with the
claws of a bear, or some other animal, marked with various fines
and characters. These dice, which are eight in number, and cut
flat at the large end, are shook together in a wooden dish, tossed
into the air and caught again. The fines traced in such claws as
happen to fight on the platter in an erect position, indicate what
number of counters the caster is to receive from his opponent.
They have, however, a much more manly amusement termed the
Cross, although they do not engage even in it without depositing
considerable stakes. An extensive meadow is chosen for this sport,
and the articles staked are tied to a post, or deposited in the custody
of two old men. The combatants being stripped and painted, and
each provided with a kind of battledore or racket, in shape resembling
the letter P, with a handle about two feet long, and a
head loosely wrought with net-work, so as to form a shallow bag,
range themselves on different sides. A ball being now tossed up in
the middle, each party endeavours to drive it to their respective
goals, and much dexterity and agility is displayed in the contest.
When a nimble runner gets the ball in his cross, he sets off towards
the goal with the utmost speed, and is followed by the rest, who endeavour
to jostle him and shake it o u t; but, if hard pressed, he discharges
it with a jerk, to be forwarded by his own party, or bandied
back by their opponents, until the victory is decided by its passing
the goal.
Of the religious opinions of the Crees, it is difficult to give a correct
account, not only because they shew a disinclination to enter
upon the subject, but because their ancient traditions are mingled
with the information they have more recently obtained, by their intercourse
with Europeans.
None of them ventured to describe the original formation of the
world, but they all spoke of an universal deluge, caused by an
attempt of the fish to drown Wcesack-ootchacht, a kind of demigod,
with whom they had quarelled. Having constructed a raft, he embarked
with his family and all kinds of birds and beasts. After the
flood had continued for some time, he ordered several water-fowl to
dive to the bottom ; they were all drowned: but a musk-rat having
been despatched on the same errand, was more successful, and
returned with a mouthful of mud, out of which Woesack-ootchaeht,
imitating the mode in which the rats construct their houses, formed
a new earth. First, a small conical hill of mud appeared above the
water ; by-and-by its base gradually spreading out, it became an extensive
bank, which the rays of the sun at length hardened into firm
land. Notwithstanding the power that Wcesack-ootchacht here displayed,
his person is held in very little reverence by the Indians;
and, in return, he seizes every opportunity of tormenting them. His
conduct is far from being moral, and his amours, and the disguises
he assumes in the prosecution of them, are more various and extraordinary
than ,■ those of the Grecian Jupiter himself; but as his
adventures are more remarkable for their eccentricity than their
L