I Was An Unwilling Witness Of The Preparation Of
My Dinner By The Indian Women.
They cut into pieces a portion of fat
meat, using for that purpose a knife and their teeth.
It was boiled in a
kettle and served in a platter made of birch bark from which, being
dirty, they had peeled the surface. However the flavour of good moose
meat will survive any process that it undergoes in their hands except
smoking.
Having provided myself with some drawing materials I amused the Indians
with a sketch of the interior of the tent and its inhabitants. An old
woman who was relating with great volubility an account of some quarrel
with the traders at Cumberland House broke off from her narration when
she perceived my design, supposing perhaps that I was employing some
charm against her; for the Indians have been taught a supernatural dread
of particular pictures. One of the young men drew with a piece of
charcoal a figure resembling a frog on the side of the tent and, by
significantly pointing at me, excited peals of merriment from his
companions. The caricature was comic, but I soon fixed their attention by
producing my pocket compass and affecting it with a knife. They have
great curiosity which might easily be directed to the attainment of
useful knowledge. As the dirt accumulated about these people was visibly
of a communicative nature I removed at night into the open air where the
thermometer fell to 15 degrees below zero although it was the next day 60
degrees above it.
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