{304} CHAP. IX.
A short Description of the Northern Indians, also a farther Account of their Country, Manufactures, Customs, &c.
An account of the persons and tempers of the Northern Indians—They possess a great deal of art and cunning—Are very guilty of fraud when in their power, and generally exact more for their furrs than any other tribe of Indians,—Always dissatisfied, yet have their good qualities—The men in general jealous of their wives—Their marriages—Girls always betrothed when children, and their reasons for it—Great care and confinement of young girls from the age of eight or nine years old—Divorces common among those people—The women are less prolific than in warmer countries—Remarkable piece of superstition observed by the women at particular periods—Their art in making it an excuse for a temporary separation from their husbands on any little quarrel—Reckoned very unclean on those occasions—The Northern Indians frequently, for the want of firing, are obliged to eat their meat raw—Some through necessity obliged to boil it in vessels made of the rind of the birch-tree—A remarkable dish among those people—The young animals always cut out of their dams eaten, and accounted a great delicacy—The parts of generation of all animals eat by the men and boys—Manner of passing their time, and method of killing deer in Summer with bows and arrows—Their tents, dogs, sledges, &c.—Snow-shoes—Their partiality to domestic vermin—Utmost extent of the Northern Indian country—Face of the country—Species of fish—A peculiar kind of moss useful for the support of man—Northern Indian method of catching fish, either with hooks or nets—Ceremony observed when two parties of those people meet—Diversions in common use—A singular disorder which attacks some of those people—Their {305} superstition with respect to the death of their friends—Ceremony observed on those occasions—Their ideas of the first inhabitants of the world—No form of religion among them—Remarks on that circumstance—The extreme misery to which old age is exposed—Their opinion of the Aurora Borealis, &c.—Some Account of Matonabbee, and his services to his country, as well as to the Hudson's Bay Company.
As to the persons of the Northern Indians, they are in general above the middle size; well-proportioned, strong, and robust, but not corpulent. They do not possess that activity of body, and liveliness of disposition, which are so commonly met with among the other tribes of Indians who inhabit the West coast of Hudson's Bay.
Their complexion is somewhat of the copper cast, inclining rather toward a dingy brown; and their hair, like all the other tribes in India, is black, strong, and straight.[BO] Few of the men have any beard; this seldom makes its appearance till they are arrived at middle-age, and then is by no means equal in quantity to what is observed on the faces of the generality of Europeans; the little they have, however, is exceedingly strong and bristly. Some of them take but little pains to eradicate their beards, though it is considered as very unbecoming; and those {306} who do, have no other method than that of pulling it out by the roots between their fingers and the edge of a blunt knife. Neither sex have any hair under their armpits, and very little on any other part of the body, particularly the women; but on the place where Nature plants the hair, I never knew them attempt to eradicate it.
Their features are peculiar, and different from any other tribe in those parts; for they have very low foreheads, small eyes, high cheek-bones, Roman noses, full cheeks, and in general long broad chins. Though few of either sex are exempt from this national set of features, yet Nature seems to be more strict in her observance of it among the females, as they seldom vary so much as the men. Their skins are soft, smooth, and polished; and when they are dressed in clean clothing, they are as free from an offensive smell as any of the human race.
Every tribe of Northern Indians, as well as the Copper and Dog-ribbed Indians, have three or four parallel black strokes marked on each cheek; which is performed by entering an awl or needle under the skin, and, on drawing it out again, immediately rubbing powdered charcoal into the wound.