The Blackfoot Indians, the
difficulty of their journey lies in walking along a slender and slippery
tree laid as a bridge across a rapid stream of stinking and muddy water.
The night owl is regarded by the Crees with the same dread that it has
been viewed by other nations. One small species, which is known to them
by its melancholy nocturnal hootings (for as it never appears in the day
few even of the hunters have ever seen it) is particularly ominous. They
call it the cheepai-peethees, or death bird, and never fail to whistle
when they hear its note. If it does not reply to the whistle by its
hootings the speedy death of the inquirer is augured.
When a Cree dies that part of his property which he has not given away
before his death is burned with him, and his relations take care to place
near the grave little heaps of firewood, food, pieces of tobacco, and
such things as he is likely to need in his journey. Similar offerings are
made when they revisit the grave, and as kettles and other articles of
value are sometimes offered they are frequently carried off by
passengers, yet the relations are not displeased provided sufficient
respect has been shown to the dead by putting some other article,
although of inferior value, in the place of that which has been taken
away.
The Crees are wont to celebrate the returns of the seasons by religious
festivals but we are unable to describe the ceremonial in use on these
joyous occasions from personal observation. The following brief notice of
a feast which was given by an old Cree chief according to his annual
custom on the first croaking of the frogs is drawn up from the
information of one of the guests. A large oblong tent or lodge was
prepared for the important occasion by the men of the party, none of the
women being suffered to interfere. It faced the setting sun and great
care was taken that everything about it should be as neat and clean as
possible. Three fireplaces were raised within it at equal distances and
little holes were dug in the corners to contain the ashes of their pipes.
In a recess at its upper end one large image of Kepoochikawn and many
smaller ones were ranged with their faces towards the door. The food was
prepared by the chief's wife and consisted of marrow pemmican, berries
boiled with fat, and various other delicacies that had been preserved for
the occasion.
The preparations being completed and, a slave whom the chief had taken in
war having warned the guests to the feast by the mysterious word
peenasheway, they came, dressed out in their best garments, and ranged
themselves according to their seniority, the elders seating themselves
next the chief at the upper end and the young men near the door.
The chief commenced by addressing his deities in an appropriate speech in
which he told them that he had hastened as soon as summer was indicated
by the croaking of the frogs to solicit their favour for himself and his
young men, and hoped that they would send him a pleasant and plentiful
season. His oration was concluded by an invocation to all the animals in
the land and, a signal being given to the slave at the door, he invited
them severally by their names to come and partake of the feast.
The Cree chief having by this very general invitation displayed his
unbounded hospitality next ordered one of the young men to distribute a
mess to each of the guests. This was done in new dishes of birch bark,
and the utmost diligence was displayed in emptying them, it being
considered extremely improper in a man to leave any part of that which is
placed before him on such occasions. It is not inconsistent with good
manners however but rather considered as a piece of politeness that a
guest who has been too liberally supplied should hand the surplus to his
neighbour. When the viands had disappeared each filled his calumet and
began to smoke with great assiduity, and in the course of the evening
several songs were sung to the responsive sounds of the drum and
seeseequay, their usual accompaniments.
The Cree drum is double-headed but, possessing very little depth, it
strongly resembles a tambourine in shape. Its want of depth is
compensated however by its diameter which frequently exceeds three feet.
It is covered with moose-skin parchment, painted with rude figures of men
and beasts having various fantastic additions, and is beat with a stick.
The seeseequay is merely a rattle formed by enclosing a few grains of
shot in a piece of dried hide. These two instruments are used in all
their religious ceremonies except those which take place in a
sweating-house.
A Cree places great reliance on his drum and I cannot adduce a stronger
instance than that of the poor man who is mentioned in a preceding page
as having lost his only child by famine, almost within sight of the fort.
Notwithstanding his exhausted state he travelled with an enormous drum
tied to his back.
Many of the Crees make vows to abstain from particular kinds of food
either for a specific time or for the remainder of their life, esteeming
such abstinence to be a certain means of acquiring some supernatural
powers, or at least of entailing upon themselves a succession of good
fortune.
One of the wives of the Carlton hunter, of whom we have already spoken as
the worshipper of Kepoochikawn, made a determination not to eat of the
flesh of the Wawaskeesh or American stag; but during our abode at that
place she was induced to feed heartily upon it, through the intentional
deceit of her husband who told her that it was buffalo meat.
