Roughing It In The Bush, By Susanna Moodie











































































































































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They are a highly imaginative people. The practical meaning of their
names, and their intense admiration for the beauties of - Page 358
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They Are A Highly Imaginative People.

The practical meaning of their names, and their intense admiration for the beauties of Nature, are proof of this.

Nothing escapes their observing eyes. There is not a flower that blooms in the wilderness, a bird that cuts the air with its wings, a beast that roams the wood, a fish that stems the water, or the most minute insect that sports in the sunbeams, but it has an Indian name to illustrate its peculiar habits and qualities. Some of their words convey the direct meaning of the thing implied - thus, che-charm, "to sneeze," is the very sound of that act; too-me-duh, "to churn," gives the noise made by the dashing of the cream from side to side; and many others.

They believe in supernatural appearances - in spirits of the earth, the air, the waters. The latter they consider evil, and propitiate before undertaking a long voyage, by throwing small portions of bread, meat, tobacco, and gunpowder into the water.

When an Indian loses one of his children, he must keep a strict fast for three days, abstaining from food of any kind. A hunter, of the name of Young, told me a curious story of their rigid observance of this strange rite.

"They had a chief," he said, "a few years ago, whom they called 'Handsome Jack' - whether in derision, I cannot tell, for he was one of the ugliest Indians I ever saw. The scarlet fever got into the camp - a terrible disease in this country, and doubly terrible to those poor creatures who don't know how to treat it.

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