During the day family after family came in—a spectral cavalcade: the men, gaunt and wan, marching before skeleton dogs, almost literally skin and bone, with hide drawn tightly and unpadded over “crate and basket, ribs and spine;” dragging painfully along sleighs as attenuated and empty of provisions as themselves. The women and children brought up the rear, who, to the credit of the men, be it recorded, were in far better case, indeed tolerably plump, and contrasting strangely with the fleshless forms of the other sex. Although the Indian squaws and children are kept in subjection, and the work falls principally upon them, it is erroneous to suppose that they are ill-treated, or that the women labour harder or endure greater hardships than the men.
The Indian is constantly engaged in hunting, to supply his family with food; and when that is scarce, he will set out without any provision himself, and often travel from morning to night for days before he finds the game he seeks; then, loaded with meat, he toils home again, and whilst the plenty lasts, considers himself entitled to complete rest after his exertions. This self-denial of the men, and their wonderful endurance of hunger, was illustrated by the case of our Hunter, Keenamontiayoo, who, several years ago, narrowly escaped death by starvation. That winter buffalo did not come up to the woods, and moose and fish were very scarce. After killing his horses one after another when driven to the last extremity, the family found themselves at last without resource. The Hunter, leaving with his wife and Misquapamayoo a scanty remnant of dried horse-flesh, hunted for two days without success, and at last, faint and still fasting, with difficulty dragged himself home. All now made up their minds to die, for the Hunter became unable to move, and his wife and boy too helpless to procure food. After being eight days longer without tasting food, and exposed to the fierce cold of winter, they were fortunately discovered by some of the Company’s voyageurs, and the man tied on a sleigh and carried to Carlton. The woman and boy had not starved completely quite so long, nor gone through so much fatigue. They were not, therefore, in quite such a desperate case, and were left behind with a supply of food, and in two or three days they were strong enough to travel on foot to the Fort. Keenamontiayoo, however, was with difficulty brought round. He refused both food and drink, having lost the desire for it, and his weakened stomach rejected all but the most simple nourishment in minute quantity. His hair fell off, and for weeks he lay helpless. He eventually recovered, owing to the careful attention of Mr. Pruden, who was in charge of Carlton at the time, and who endeared himself to all the Indians by his kindness and humanity.
As this miserable company came, they were invited to sit down by the fire. Their cheerfulness belied their looks, and they smoked and chatted gaily, without appearing to covet the meat which lay around, or making any request for food at once. No time was lost in cooking some meat, and offering a good meal to all, which they ate with quietness and dignity; too well-bred to show any signs of greediness, although they proved equal to the consumption of any quantity that was put before them.
The Hunter was in his glory talking to his guests, most of them old acquaintances, and after giving them food he induced three young fellows, the dandies of the company, highly painted, gay with scarlet leggings and sash, embroidered pouch-straps, and other Indian finery, to commence gambling with him. This is conducted in very simple fashion. Everything that each player intends to stake is collected. The relative values are agreed on, and compared and divided into so many stakes. An Indian will often risk knife, gun, ammunition, and indeed everything he possesses, except the clothes he stands in. The lookers on assist at the performance by beating frying-pans and tin kettles, and singing the eternal “He he, hi hi, hay hay,” the ordinary Indian song.
The players squatted opposite each other, with legs crossed, and capote or blanket spread over their knees. The game consisted in one of the players hiding in his hands two small articles, as a ramrod screw, or brass hair-wire, whilst the others endeavoured to guess what was contained in either hand. The holder did his best to deceive the others, by continually keeping his hands in motion, now under the blanket on his lap, now behind his back, or clasped together. Between each change the hands were held out for the choice of his opponent, who watched eagerly, in great excitement, and generally took a long time to make his guess.
All this time the drumming and singing never ceased, and in time with it the players swayed their bodies, and moved up and down in their seats. As each gained or lost, the result was notched on a stick, each notch representing a stake.
This went on for half the day, with unceasing energy and unfailing interest to the players and spectators, except Cheadle, who was weary of the din and monotony of the amusement. At last the Hunter cleaned out all the rest of everything but guns and knives, and the visitors departed, not in the least depressed by their bad fortune.
One Indian and his squaw still remained. He was a gigantic fellow, of more than six feet high, and the bones of his huge frame stood out conspicuous at the joints and angles, and the muscles showed distinct in his gaunt meagreness. His aspect was positively hideous. His large nose had been driven perfectly flat upon his face, over one eyeless orbit was a black greasy patch, while in his gums two long canine teeth alone remained. He had suffered this in a fight with a grisly bear, a stroke of whose paw had torn out one eye, smashed in his nose, and knocked out his teeth. The man was in what seemed a hopeless state of destitution. He had gambled away literally every single thing he possessed, with the exception of his wife, child, and a miserable dog. A few ragged pieces of blanket were all the protection they had from the cold, when the thermometer stood at 25° below Zero, and the north wind blew fiercely. They possessed not a mouthful of food, nor had the man any gun, ammunition, knife, snow-shoes, or other appliance required by a hunter.
For two days this fellow remained in Cheadle’s camp, eating from morning till night. His toothless gums were never at rest. He consumed not only all they gave him, but quietly “annexed” all the offal which was thawing at the fire for the dogs.
When the party started homewards two days afterwards, they left him seated by the fire with his squaw, perfectly contented, engaged in cooking the buffalo’s head, his only provision. There seemed every probability that he would be starved to death, either by cold or hunger; but, to our surprise, he made his appearance at our hut at the end of the winter, hideous and gaunt as ever, but apparently in his usual health and spirits.