Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketches Of The Manners And Customs Of The North-American Indians.
ancl starve to death ; well knowing that they cannot be of any service to the afflicted . On those occasions , therefore , the friends or relations of the sick generally leave them some victuals and water ; ancl , if the situation of the place will afford it , a little , firing . When those articles are provided , the person to be left is acquainted with the road which the others intend to go ; ancl then , after covering " them well up with deer skins , & c . they take their leave , ancl walk
away crying . " Sometimes , persons , thus left , recover ; ancl come up with their friends , or wander about till they meet with other Indians , whom they accompany till they again join their relations . Instances of this kind are seldom known . The poor woman above mentioned , however , came up with us three several times , after having been left in the manner described . At length , poor creature ! she dropt behind ; and no one attempted to go back in search of her . "
FEMALE BEAUTY . " Take them in a bod }* , the women are as destitute of real beauty ; as any nation I ever saw , though there are some few of them , when young , who are tolerable ; but the care of a family , added to their constant hard labour , soon make the most beautiful among thern look old and wrinkled , even before they are thirty ; and several of the
more ordinary ones , at that age , are perfect antidotes to love ancl gallantry . This , however , does not render them less dear ancl valuable to their owners , which is a lucky circumstance for those women , and a certain proof that there is no such thing as any rule or standard for beauty . Ask a Northern Indian , what is beauty ? he will answer , a broad flat face , small eyes , high cheek-bones , three or four broad
black lines a-cross each cheek , a low forehead , a large broad chin , a clumsy hook-nose , a tawney-hide , and breasts hanging down to the belt . Those beauties are greatly heightened , or at least rendered more valuable , when the possessor is capable of dressing all kinds of skins ; converting them into the different parts of their clothing ; and able to cany eiht or ten stone in Slimmeror haul a much greater
g , weight in Winter . These , and other similar accomplishments , are ail that are sought after , or expected , of a Northern Indian woman . " METHOD OF WAR , AMBUSH , & C . On the banks of the Copper River , Mr . -Hearne was witness to a scene of warfareso fraught with cruelty and horrorthat the
po-, , lished European will perhaps hardly credit the relation of it . We extract it , however , as containing a more exact picture of the warlike manners of theJSForthern Indians , than has been given by any former traveller .
" At this time ( it being about noon ) the three men who had been sent as spies met us on their return , and informed my companions that five tents of Esquimaux were on the west side of the river . The situation , they said , was very convenient for surprising them ; and , according to their account , I judged it to be about twelve miles from
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Sketches Of The Manners And Customs Of The North-American Indians.
ancl starve to death ; well knowing that they cannot be of any service to the afflicted . On those occasions , therefore , the friends or relations of the sick generally leave them some victuals and water ; ancl , if the situation of the place will afford it , a little , firing . When those articles are provided , the person to be left is acquainted with the road which the others intend to go ; ancl then , after covering " them well up with deer skins , & c . they take their leave , ancl walk
away crying . " Sometimes , persons , thus left , recover ; ancl come up with their friends , or wander about till they meet with other Indians , whom they accompany till they again join their relations . Instances of this kind are seldom known . The poor woman above mentioned , however , came up with us three several times , after having been left in the manner described . At length , poor creature ! she dropt behind ; and no one attempted to go back in search of her . "
FEMALE BEAUTY . " Take them in a bod }* , the women are as destitute of real beauty ; as any nation I ever saw , though there are some few of them , when young , who are tolerable ; but the care of a family , added to their constant hard labour , soon make the most beautiful among thern look old and wrinkled , even before they are thirty ; and several of the
more ordinary ones , at that age , are perfect antidotes to love ancl gallantry . This , however , does not render them less dear ancl valuable to their owners , which is a lucky circumstance for those women , and a certain proof that there is no such thing as any rule or standard for beauty . Ask a Northern Indian , what is beauty ? he will answer , a broad flat face , small eyes , high cheek-bones , three or four broad
black lines a-cross each cheek , a low forehead , a large broad chin , a clumsy hook-nose , a tawney-hide , and breasts hanging down to the belt . Those beauties are greatly heightened , or at least rendered more valuable , when the possessor is capable of dressing all kinds of skins ; converting them into the different parts of their clothing ; and able to cany eiht or ten stone in Slimmeror haul a much greater
g , weight in Winter . These , and other similar accomplishments , are ail that are sought after , or expected , of a Northern Indian woman . " METHOD OF WAR , AMBUSH , & C . On the banks of the Copper River , Mr . -Hearne was witness to a scene of warfareso fraught with cruelty and horrorthat the
po-, , lished European will perhaps hardly credit the relation of it . We extract it , however , as containing a more exact picture of the warlike manners of theJSForthern Indians , than has been given by any former traveller .
" At this time ( it being about noon ) the three men who had been sent as spies met us on their return , and informed my companions that five tents of Esquimaux were on the west side of the river . The situation , they said , was very convenient for surprising them ; and , according to their account , I judged it to be about twelve miles from