It often happens that meat which has been
paid for (if the poisonous draught it procures them can be considered as
payment) is left at their lodges until a convenient opportunity occurs of
carrying it away. They will rather pass several days without eating than
touch the meat thus entrusted to their charge, even when there exists a
prospect of replacing it.
(*Footnote. Since these remarks were written the union of the rival
Companies has enabled the gentlemen who have now the management of the
fur trade to take some decided steps for the religious instruction and
improvement of the natives and half-breed Indians, which have been more
particularly referred to in the introduction.)
The hospitality of the Crees is unbounded. They afford a certain asylum
to the half-breed children when deserted by their unnatural white
fathers; and the infirm, and indeed every individual in an encampment,
share the provisions of a successful hunter as long as they last. Fond
too as a Cree is of spiritous liquors he is not happy unless all his
neighbours partake with him. It is not easy however to say what share
ostentation may have in the apparent munificence in the latter article;
for when an Indian, by a good hunt, is enabled to treat the others with a
keg of rum he becomes the chief of the night, assumes no little
stateliness of manner, and is treated with deference by those who regale
at his expense. Prompted also by the desire of gaining a NAME they lavish
away the articles they purchase at the trading posts and are well
satisfied if repaid in praise.
Gaming is not uncommon amongst the Crees of all the different districts,
but it is pursued to greater lengths by those bands who frequent the
plains and who, from the ease with which they obtain food, have abundant
leisure. The game most in use amongst them, termed puckesann, is played
with the stones of a species of prunus which, from this circumstance,
they term puckesann-meena. The difficulty lies in guessing the number of
stones which are tossed out of a small wooden dish and the hunters will
spend whole nights at the destructive sport, staking their most valuable
articles, powder and shot.
It has been remarked by some writers that the aboriginal inhabitants of
America are deficient in passion for the fair sex. This is by no means
the case with the Crees; on the contrary their practice of seducing each
other's wives proves the most fertile source of their quarrels. When the
guilty pair are detected the woman generally receives a severe beating,
but the husband is for the most part afraid to reproach the male culprit
until they get drunk together at the fort; then the remembrance of the
offence is revived, a struggle ensues and the affair is terminated by the
loss of a few handfuls of hair. Some husbands however feel more deeply
the injury done to their honour and seek revenge even in their sober
moments. In such cases it is not uncommon for the offended party to walk
with great gravity up to the other and, deliberately seizing his gun or
some other article of value, to break it before his face. The adulterer
looks on in silence, afraid to make any attempt to save his property. In
this respect indeed the Indian character seems to differ from the
European that an Indian, instead of letting his anger increase with that
of his antagonist, assumes the utmost coolness lest he should push him to
extremities.
Although adultery is sometimes punished amongst the Crees in the manner
above described yet it is no crime provided the husband receives a
valuable consideration for his wife's prostitution. Neither is chastity
considered as a virtue in a female before marriage, that is before she
becomes the exclusive property of one hunter.
The Cree women are not in general treated harshly by their husbands and
possess considerable influence over them. They often eat and even get
drunk in consort with the men; a considerable portion of the labour
however falls to the lot of the wife. She makes the hut, cooks, dresses
the skins, and for the most part carries the heaviest load: but when she
is unable to perform her task the husband does not consider it beneath
his dignity to assist her. In illustration of this remark I may quote the
case of an Indian who visited the fort in winter. This poor man's wife
had lost her feet by the frost and he was compelled not only to hunt and
do all the menial offices himself but in winter to drag his wife with
their stock of furniture from one encampment to another. In the
performance of this duty as he could not keep pace with the rest of the
tribe in their movements he more than once nearly perished of hunger.
These Indians however, capable as they are of behaving thus kindly,
affect in their discourse to despise the softer sex and on solemn
occasions will not suffer them to eat before them or even come into their
presence. In this they are countenanced by the white residents, most of
whom have Indian or half-breed wives but seem afraid of treating them
with the tenderness or attention due to every female lest they should
themselves be despised by the Indians. At least this is the only reason
they assign for their neglect of those whom they make partners of their
beds and mothers of their children.
Both sexes are fond of and excessively indulgent to their children. The
father never punishes them and if the mother, more hasty in her temper,
sometimes bestows a blow or two on a troublesome child her heart is
instantly softened by the roar which follows and she mingles her tears
with those that streak the smoky face of her darling.
