uld send him a pleasant
and plentiful season. His oration was concluded by an invocation to all
the animals in the land, and a signal being given to the slave at the
door, he invited them severally by their names to come and partake of
the feast.

The Cree chief having by this very general invitation displayed his
unbounded hospitality, next ordered one of the young men to distribute a
mess to each of the guests. This was done in new dishes of birch bark,
and the utmost diligence was displayed in emptying them, it being
considered extremely improper in a man to leave any part of that which
is placed before him on such occasions. It is not inconsistent with good
manners, however, but rather considered as a piece of politeness, that a
guest who has been too liberally supplied, should hand the surplus to
his neighbour. When the viands had disappeared, each filled his calumet
and began to smoke with great assiduity, and in the course of the
evening several songs were sung to the responsive sounds of the drum,
and seeseequay, their usual accompaniments.

The Cree drum is double-headed, but possessing very little depth, it
strongly resembles a tambourine in shape. Its want of depth is
compensated, however, by its diameter, which frequently exceeds three
feet. It is covered with moose-skin parchment, painted with rude figures
of men and beasts, having various fantastic additions, and is beat with
a stick. The seeseequay is merely a rattle, formed by enclosing a few
grains of shot in a piece of dried hide. These two instruments are used
in all their religious ceremonies, except those which take place in a
sweating-house.

A Cree places great reliance on his drum, and I cannot adduce a stronger
instance than that of the poor man who is mentioned in a preceding page,
as having lost his only child by famine, almost within sight of the
fort. Notwithstanding his exhausted state, he travelled with an enormous
drum tied to his back.

Many of the Crees make vows to abstain from particular kinds of food,
either for a specific time, or for the remainder of their life,
esteeming such abstinence to be a certain means of acquiring some
supernatural powers, or at least of entailing upon themselves a
succession of good fortune.

One of the wives of the Carlton hunter, of whom we have already spoken
as the worshipper of Kepoochikawn, made a determination not to eat of
the flesh of the Wawaskeesh, or American stag; but during our abode at