When the
flesh will part from the bone, they draw it out of the ashes, strip
off the skin, and it is fit for the table of the most fastidious
epicure.
The deplorable want of chastity that exists among the Indian
women of this tribe seems to have been more the result of their
intercourse with the settlers in the country than from any previous
disposition to this vice. The jealousy of their husbands has often
been exercised in a terrible manner against the offending squaws;
but this has not happened of late years. The men wink at these
derelictions in their wives, and share with them the price of
their shame.
The mixture of European blood adds greatly to the physical beauty
of the half-race, but produces a sad falling-off from the original
integrity of the Indian character. The half-caste is generally a
lying, vicious rogue, possessing the worst qualities of both parents
in an eminent degree. We have many of these half-Indians in the
penitentiary, for crimes of the blackest dye.
The skill of the Indian in procuring his game, either by land or
water, has been too well described by better writers than I could
ever hope to be to need any illustration from my pen, and I will
close this long chapter with a droll anecdote which is told of a
gentleman in this neighbourhood.
