OCR Text |
Show 386 TPAVELS THROUGH UPPER CANADA: at work; th f.ttber of the family gives himfelf no trouble but in fleer-· i11g the vcild. The Indians that arc conncClcd with the traders have now, very generally, laid :1fi ic bows aml arrows, and felJom take them into their hands, c. ccpt it be to amuf~ thcmfdvcs for a few hours, when they have expended their pow(.h:r and Dwt : thc..:ir boys, however, fiill ~1fc them uniVLrf111y, anl fomc of then £hoot with wonderful dexterity. I f.tw a young S 1,1\YI de chief, apparently not more than ten years old, fix thrc.c arrows running in the body of a finall black lt}uirr 1, on the top of a wry taU tree, :1nd during an hour or two that I follow d him throu nh the woods, be fcarccly mified his mark half a dozen times. lt is afl:onifhinr~ to fee with what accuracy, and at the f:une time with wh,tt rcadinefs, they mark the fpot where their arrows fall. They will ihoot away a dozen arrows or mor , fecmingly quite carelefs abollt what becomes of them, and as inattentive to the Cpot where they fall as if they nev r expeCted to find them again, yet afterwards they will run and pick them every one up without he£itat10n. .The fouthcrn Indians arc tTIUCh m re expert at the ufc.: of the bow than thofe near the lakes, as they make much greater ufe of it. With the gun, it ieem, to be generally allowed, that the Indians are by no means fo good ma.rkfmen as the white people. I have often taken them out {booting with m , and I alway found them very Dow in taking aim; anLl though they generally hit an objeCt: that was il:ill, yet they Ccarcdy ever touched a bird on the wing, or a fquirrcl that was leaping about from tree to tree. Tht.: e~:pcrtnefs of the Indians in throwing the tomahawk is well l·nown. At th ditlance of ten yard they will fix the fl1arp edge of it in .1n objett nearly to a certainty. I have been told, however, that they are not fond ,of lettii>g it out of their hands in aCtion, and that they never 'attempt to throw it but when they are on the point of overtaking a flying foe, or are certain of recovering it. Some of them will fafl:en a firing of the length of a few feet to the handle of the toma-. hawk, and will launch it forth, and draw it back again into their hand with C US T 0 M S 0 F THE INDIANS. with great dexterity; they will alfo parry the thrui1 or cuts of a fword with the tomahawk very dcxtcroufly. The common tomahawk is nothing more than a light hatthd, Lut the mofl: approved fort has on the back part of the h<ttchct, and connetted with it in one piece, the bowl of a pipe, fo that when thl: handle is pcdi rated, the tomahawk anfwers every purpofc of a pipe : the Indians, indeed, are fonder of ftnoking out of a tomahawk than out of any other fort of pipe. That formerly given to the Indians by the F n:nch traders, infl:ead of a pipe, had a large fpike on the back pa1 t of the hatch t; very few of thcfc infl:rument arc now to be found amongfl: them ; I never fitw but one. The tomahawk is commonly worn by the left fide, fl:uck in a belt. For the favourite chiefs, very legant pipe tomahawks, inhid witlt filver, arc rnanLlfaClured by the armourers in the Indian department. Captain E has given me one of this kind, which he had made for himfelf; it is fo much admired by the Indians, that when they have fecn it with me, they have frequently afked me to lend it to them for an hour or fo to fmokc out of, jufi as children would aO<: fur a pretty plaything; they have never failed to return it very punclually. The armourers here alluded to arc perfons kept al the xpsnce of government to repair the arms of the Indians when they happen to break, which is very commonly the cafe. An Indian child, foon after it is born, is fwathed with cloths or fki11s. and being then laid on its back, is bound down on a piece of thicl· board, fprcad over with [oft mofs. The board is left fomcwha t longer and broader than the child, and bent pieces of wood, like pieces of hoops, a.re placed over its fa e to proteCt it, fo t1Jat if the machine were fuffered to fall the child would not probably be injured. The women, when they go abroad, carry their children thus ti d down on thcit; backs, the board being fufpended by a broad band, which they wear round their foreheads. When they have any buftncf: to tranf1 at home, they hanp· the board on a tree, if there be one at hand, and fL:t them a [winging from fide to i1dc, like a pendulum, in order to excrcife the cbildren; fim1etimcs alfo, I ob[crvcd, they unloofcned the cbildr ·n from the boards, 3 D 2 :1nd |