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.
