The Chepewyans are a sober, timorous, and vagrant people, and of a disposition so selfish as sometimes to have excited suspicions of their integrity. Their complexion is swarthy; their features are coarse, and their hair is lank, but not always of a black colour; nor have they, universally, the piercing eye, which generally animates the Indian countenance. The women have a more agreeable aspect than the men; but, in consequence of their being accustomed, nine months in the year, to travel on snow-shoes, and to drag heavy sledges, their gait is awkward. They are very submissive to their husbands, who sometimes treat them with great cruelty. The men, in general, extract their beards; though some of them are seen to prefer a bushy beard to a smooth chin. They cut their hair in various forms, or leave it in a long, natural flow, according as caprice or fancy suggests. The women always have their hair of great length, and some of them are very attentive to its arrangement. Both sexes have blue or black marks, or from one to four straight lines on their cheeks or forehead, to distinguish the tribe to which they belong. These marks are either tatooed, or are made by drawing a thread, dipped in colour, beneath the skin.
Few people are more attentive to the comforts of dress than these. In winter they wear the skins of deer or fawns, prepared with the hair on, and rendered as fine and soft as chamois leather. In summer their apparel is of similar skins, but prepared without the hair. A ruff or tippet surrounds the neck; and the skin of the head of a deer forms a curious kind of cap.
Plurality of wives is allowed among the Chepewyans; and the ceremony of marriage is very simple. At a very early period, the girls are betrothed to such persons as the parents consider best able to support them. The desires of the women are never considered; and whenever a separation takes place, which sometimes happens, it depends entirely on the will of the husband.
These Indians are not remarkable for activity as hunters: this is owing to the ease with which they snare deer, and spear fish. They are not addicted to the use of spirituous liquors; and are, on the whole, an extremely peaceful tribe. Their weapons and domestic apparatus, in addition to articles procured from Europeans, are spears, bows and arrows, fishing-nets, and lines made of deer-skin thongs. Their amusements are but few. Their music is so inharmonious, and their dancing so awkward, that they might be supposed to be ashamed of both, as they seldom practise either. They shoot at marks, and play at different games; but they prefer sleeping to any of these: and the greatest part of their time is passed in procuring food, and resting after the toil of obtaining it.
The notion which these people entertain of the creation of the world is a very singular one. They believe that the globe was originally one vast ocean, inhabited by no living creature, except an immense bird, whose eyes were of fire, whose glances were lightning, and the clapping of whose wings was thunder. On the descent of this bird to the ocean, and at the instant of touching it, they say that the earth arose, and remained on the surface of the waters. This omnipotent bird then called forth all the variety of animals from the earth, except the Chepewyans, who were produced from a dog; and to this circumstance they attribute their aversion to dog's-flesh. The tradition proceeds to relate, that the great bird, having finished his work, made an arrow, which was to be preserved with great care, and to remain untouched; but that the Chepewyans were so devoid of understanding, as to carry it away; and this sacrilege so enraged the bird, that he has never since appeared. They believe also, that, in ancient times, their ancestors lived till their feet were worn out with walking, and their throats with eating; and they describe a deluge, in which the waters spread over the whole earth, except the highest mountains, on the tops of which the Chepewyans preserved themselves.
They are superstitious in an extreme; and almost every action of their lives, however trivial, is more or less influenced by some superstitious notion. They believe in a good and evil spirit; and in a future state of rewards and punishments. They assert that the souls of persons deceased pass into another world, where they arrive at a large river, on which they embark, in a stone canoe, and that a gentle current bears them on to an extensive lake, in the centre of which is a beautiful island. Within view of this island they receive that judgment for their conduct during life, which terminates their state. If their good actions predominate, they are landed upon the island, where there is to be no end of their happiness. But if their bad actions prevail, the stone canoe sinks, and leaves them up to their chins in the water, to behold and regret the reward which is enjoyed by the good; and eternally to struggle, but with unavailing endeavours, to reach the bliss from which they are for ever excluded.