great assiduity, and in the course of the evening several songs were
sung to the responsive sounds of the drum, and seeseequay, their
usual accompaniments.
The Cree drum is double-headed, but possessing very little depth,
it strongly resembles a tambourine in shape. Its want of depth is
compensated, however, by its diameter, which frequently exceeds
three feet. It is covered with moose-skin parchment, painted with
rude figures of men and beasts, having various fantastic additions,
and is beat with a stick. The.seeseequay is merely a rattle, formed
by enclosing a few grains of shot in a piece of dried hide. These
two instruments are used in all their religious ceremonies, except
those which take place in a sweating-house.
A Cree places great reliance on his drum, and I cannot adduce
a stronger instance than that of the poor man who is mentioned in a
preceding page, as having lost his only child by famine, almost
within sight of the fort. Notwithstanding his exhausted state, he
travelled with an enormous drum tied to his back.
Many of the Crees make vows to abstain from particular kinds of
food, either for a specific time, or for the remainder of their life,
esteeming such abstinence to be a certain means of acquiring some
supernatural powers, or at least of entailing upon themselves a
succession of good fortune.
One of the wives of the Carlton hunter, of whom we have already
spoken as the worshipper of Kepoochikawn, made a determination not
to eat of the flesh of the Wawaskeesh, or American stag; but during
our abode at that place, she was induced to feed heartily upon it, through
the intentional deceit of her husband, who told her that it was buffalo
meat. When she had finished her meal, her husband told her of the
trick, and seemed to enjoy the terror with which she contemplated
the consequences of the involuntary breach of her vow. Vows of
this nature are often made by a Cree-before he joins a war party,
and they sometimes, like the eastern bonzes, walk for a certain
number of days on all fours, or impose upon themselves some other
penance, equally ridiculous. By such means the Cree warrior
becomes godlike; but unless he kills an enemy before his return,
his newly-acquired powers are estimated to be productive in future
of some direful consequence to himself.
As we did not witness any of the Cree dances ourselves, we shall
merely mention, that like the other North American nations, they
are accustomed to practice that amusement on meeting with strange
tribes, before going to war, and on other solemn occasions.
The habitual intoxication of the Cumberland House Crees has
induced such a disregard of personal appearance, that they are
squalid and dirty in the extreme ; hence a minute description of
their clothing would be by no means interesting. We shall, therefore,
only remark in a general manner, that -the dress of the male
consists of a blanket thrown over the shoulders, a leathern shirt or
jacket, and a piece of cloth tied round the middle. The women have
in addition a long petticoat ; and both sexes wear a kind of wide hose,
which reaching from the ankle to the middle of the thigh, are suspended
by strings to the girdle. These hose, or as they are termed,
Indian stockings, are commonly ornamented with beads or ribands,
and from their convenience, have been universally adopted by the
white residents, as an essential part of their winter clothing. Their
shoes, or rather short boots, for they tie round the ankle, are made
of soft dressed moose-skins, and during the winter they wrap several
pieces of blanket round their feet.
They are fond of European articles of dress, considering it as mean
to be dressed entirely in leather, and the hunters are generally furnished
annually with a capot or great coat, and the women with
shawls, printed calicoes, and other things very unsuitable to their
mode of life, but which they wear in imitation of the wives of the
traders ; all these articles, however showy they may be at first, are