Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketches Of The Manners And Customs Of The North-American Indians.
SKETCHES OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE NORTH-AMERICAN INDIANS .
[ From " A Journey to the Northern Ocean from Prince of Wales ' s Fort , in Hudson ' s Bay , in the Years 1769 , 1770 , 1771 , and 1772 . " ] ( CONTINUED PROM P . 236 . )
TREATMENT OF WOMEN . IN our last number , we gave a sketch of the respect in which females x are held , among the American Indians . The following instances will prove , that there is no part of the world in which they are treated with so much cruelty . " Having finished suchwood-work as the Indians thought would be
necessary , and having , augmented our stock of dried meat and fat , the ' twenty-first was appointed for moving ; but one of the women having been taken in labour , and it being rather an extraordinaiy case , we were detained more than two days . The instant , however , the poor woman was delivered , which , was not until she had suffered all the pains usually felt on those occasions , for near fiftv-two hours , , the signal made for when the
was moving , poor creature took lier . infant on her back , and set out with the rest of the company ; and though another person had the humanity to haul her sledge for her , ( for one ' day only , ) she was obliged to carry a considerable load beside her little charge , and was frequently obliged to wade knee-deep in water and wet snow . Her very looksexclusive of her moans suf _ j 3 fc
, , were a - - , ^ „ "u « >» umw , VVLIt a OLUiicient proor of the great pain she endured , insomuch that although , she was a person I greatly disliked , her distress at this time so overcame my prejudice , that I never felt more for any of her sex in my life : indeed her si ghs pierced me to' the soul , and rendered me very miserable , as it was not in my power to relieve , her . " One of the Indian ' s wiveswho for some time had been in
, a consumption , had for a few days past become so weak as to be incapable of travelling , which , among those people , is the most deplorable state to which a human being can possibly be brought . Whether she had been given over by the doctors , or that it was for want of friends among them , I cannot tell ; but certain it is , that no expedients were taken for her recovery : so that , without much ceremony , she leftunassisted
was , , to perish above-ground . " Though this was the first instance of the kind I had seen , it is the common , and indeed the constant practice of those Indians : for when a grown person is so ill , especially in the Summer , as not to be able to walk , and too heavy to be carried , they sav , it is better to leave one who is past recovery , than for the whole famil y to sit down by them
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketches Of The Manners And Customs Of The North-American Indians.
SKETCHES OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE NORTH-AMERICAN INDIANS .
[ From " A Journey to the Northern Ocean from Prince of Wales ' s Fort , in Hudson ' s Bay , in the Years 1769 , 1770 , 1771 , and 1772 . " ] ( CONTINUED PROM P . 236 . )
TREATMENT OF WOMEN . IN our last number , we gave a sketch of the respect in which females x are held , among the American Indians . The following instances will prove , that there is no part of the world in which they are treated with so much cruelty . " Having finished suchwood-work as the Indians thought would be
necessary , and having , augmented our stock of dried meat and fat , the ' twenty-first was appointed for moving ; but one of the women having been taken in labour , and it being rather an extraordinaiy case , we were detained more than two days . The instant , however , the poor woman was delivered , which , was not until she had suffered all the pains usually felt on those occasions , for near fiftv-two hours , , the signal made for when the
was moving , poor creature took lier . infant on her back , and set out with the rest of the company ; and though another person had the humanity to haul her sledge for her , ( for one ' day only , ) she was obliged to carry a considerable load beside her little charge , and was frequently obliged to wade knee-deep in water and wet snow . Her very looksexclusive of her moans suf _ j 3 fc
, , were a - - , ^ „ "u « >» umw , VVLIt a OLUiicient proor of the great pain she endured , insomuch that although , she was a person I greatly disliked , her distress at this time so overcame my prejudice , that I never felt more for any of her sex in my life : indeed her si ghs pierced me to' the soul , and rendered me very miserable , as it was not in my power to relieve , her . " One of the Indian ' s wiveswho for some time had been in
, a consumption , had for a few days past become so weak as to be incapable of travelling , which , among those people , is the most deplorable state to which a human being can possibly be brought . Whether she had been given over by the doctors , or that it was for want of friends among them , I cannot tell ; but certain it is , that no expedients were taken for her recovery : so that , without much ceremony , she leftunassisted
was , , to perish above-ground . " Though this was the first instance of the kind I had seen , it is the common , and indeed the constant practice of those Indians : for when a grown person is so ill , especially in the Summer , as not to be able to walk , and too heavy to be carried , they sav , it is better to leave one who is past recovery , than for the whole famil y to sit down by them