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.
