The condition of the savages is a state of constant alarm and apprehension. Their security from their enemies, and their means of subsistence, are precarious and uncertain, the former requiring the utmost vigilance to prevent its infraction, and the latter being attended with no regular supplies of the necessaries of life. In times of the most profound peace, whether at their villages or on a hunting expedition, they are continually on the alert lest they should be surprised by their enemies. By day scouts are constantly kept patrolling for a considerable distance around them, and by night sentinels are posted to give notice of the approach of strangers.
{254} When they engage in a hunt, they generally abandon their villages, old men, women, and children joining in the enterprize, through fear of being left at home without the strength of their nation to protect them. On their march they endeavour to make as great a display of force as practicable, in order to intimidate any of their enemies that may be lurking to spy out their condition. With this view they are careful to pitch their lodges or tents at the places of their encampment in such a manner, and in such numbers, as to give the impression, at a distance, that they are numerous and formidable. We have witnessed a hunting party on their march, consisting of not more than one hundred persons, including men, women, and children, yet at their encampment more than thirty lodges were pitched, each of which would accommodate at least twelve adult persons.
It is an opinion generally credited, that the Indians are possessed of strong natural appetites for ardent spirits, but there is at least room to doubt of its being well-founded. That the appetites for them are often strong and ungovernable is very certain; but they may be considered as factitious rather than natural, having been created by occasional indulgencies in the use of intoxicating liquors. Instances are not rare in which Indians have refused to accept liquor when offered them. After a long abstinence from food, any thing calculated to allay the cravings of the appetite is eagerly swallowed, and on such occasions nothing perhaps produces such an effect more speedily than spirituous liquors. Indians, while lounging about a trading establishment, are often destitute of food for a considerable time, and can obtain no other kind of refreshment from the trader but liquor, which is bestowed partly in exchange for commodities they may have to dispose of, and partly by way of encouraging them to return to him with the products of their next hunt. A small draught, on such occasions, produces intoxication, and the sudden {255} transition from a state of gnawing hunger to that of unconcerned inebriety cannot fail to make them passionately fond of a beverage that can thus change their condition so much to their immediate satisfaction. In their use of ardent spirits, the Indians appear to be less captivated with their taste than with their exhilarating effects. The quality of liquor is not a subject of discrimination with them; provided it has sufficient strength to inebriate they are satisfied, let its character in other respects be what it may. Having contracted the habit of intoxication, they seldom appear thankful for liquor, unless it has been bestowed in such quantities as are sufficient to produce that effect.
In the indulgence of their appetites they display but few or no traits of epicurism, choosing those kinds of food that are most nutritive, without regarding their taste or flavour. In the preservation of their food, no pains are taken to render it savoury or palatable; their object is solely to reduce it to a state of security against putrefaction. They make no use of spices or other aromatics, either in preserving or cooking their food. Even salt is not considered as an essential, and is seldom used as an appendage in their cookery. This article is only prized by them on account of its usefulness for their horses. In regard to their choice of food, however, and manner of cooking it, the small variety within their reach, and the impracticability of obtaining condiments of different kinds, perhaps renders them less particular in these respects, than they would be under different circumstances. It cannot be supposed that they are entirely insensible to dainties of every description; on the contrary, they appear remarkably fond of sugar and saccharine fruits.
They appear to have a natural propensity for the fumes of tobacco, which they invariably inhale into the lungs, and eject through the nostrils. They make no use of this article except in smoking, which is an {256} indulgence of which they are exceedingly reluctant to be deprived. When they cannot obtain tobacco, they use as a substitute the dried leaves of the sumac, the inner bark of the red willow dried, and the leaves and bark of a few other shrubs, the fumes of which are less stimulating, but equally as palatable as those of tobacco.
The Indians under consideration know not the use or value of the precious metals, except as trinkets or ornaments for their dress. They use wampum, and in some few instances shells of a small size and of a particular character, as a substitute for money. But in general furs, peltries, horses, and various articles of dress at standing or fixed rates of barter, are the immediate objects, both of internal and external trade. They do not hold their property in common, but each individual enjoys the fruit of his own toil and industry. They are accounted more or less wealthy according to the number of horses they are possessed of, and the style in which they are able to dress.
Polygamy is common amongst them, every man being allowed to have as many wives as he can maintain. Marriages are binding upon the parties only as long as they think proper to live together, and are often contracted for a limited term particularly specified. Females, during the periods of their catamenia, are excluded from society, and compelled even to sleep apart from their families, in small tents or lodges constructed for their use.
Dancing is common amongst them, both as a devotional exercise and an amusement. Their gestures on both occasions are similar, except that on the former they are accompanied by solemnity, and on the latter by cheerfulness; and are characterized by extraordinary uncouthness, rather than by gracefulness. No ribaldry, however, or tricks of buffoonery are practised on these occasions; on the contrary, their deportment is uniformly accordant with their {257} ideas of decorum. This exercise is invariably accompanied by singing, or a kind of chanting, in which the women, who are usually excluded from a participation in the former, perform their part. Their music consists in a succession of tones of equal intervals, accompanied by occasional elevations and depressions of the voice. The modulations with which it is variegated are by no means melodious; the voices of all the chanters move in unison, and all appear to utter the same aspirations. The same series of sounds appears to be common to the chanting of all the tribes.
The foregoing are among the most common features in the general character of the western Indians. Although in a region so extensive as that inhabited by them, and amongst so great a variety of tribes and nations, a considerable diversity of character is to be expected and admitted, yet it is believed that the traits above considered are common to the whole, as a race of barbarians. And although the shades of barbarism in which they are enveloped uniformly exclude the light of civilization, yet it is not to be presumed that they are equally dark and malignant in all cases.