d grace; they almost snatch the thing from you in the one instance
and throw it at you in the other. It could not be expected that such men
should display in their tents the amiable hospitality which prevails
generally amongst the Indians of this country. A stranger may go away
hungry from their lodges unless he possess sufficient impudence to thrust
uninvited his knife into the kettle and help himself. The owner indeed
never deigns to take any notice of such an act of rudeness except by a
frown, it being beneath the dignity of a hunter to make disturbance about
a piece of meat.

As some relief to the darker shades of their character it should be
stated that instances of theft are extremely rare amongst them. They
profess strong affection for their children and some regard for their
relations who are often numerous, as they trace very far the ties of
consanguinity. A curious instance of the former was mentioned to us and
so well authenticated that I shall venture to give it in the words of Dr.
Richardson's Journal:

A young Chipewyan had separated from the rest of his band for the purpose
of trenching beaver when his wife, who was his sole companion and in her
first pregnancy, was seized with the pains of labour. She died on the
third day after she had given birth to a boy. The husband was
inconsolable and vowed in his anguish never to take another woman to
wife, but his grief was soon in some degree absorbed in anxiety for the
fate of his infant son. To preserve its life he descended to the office
of nurse, so degrading in the eyes of a Chipewyan as partaking of the
duties of a woman. He swaddled it in soft moss, fed it with broth made
from the flesh of the deer and, to still its cries, applied it to his
breast, praying earnestly to the great Master of Life to assist his
endeavours. The force of the powerful passion by which he was actuated
produced the same effect in his case as it has done in some others which
are recorded: a flow of milk actually took place from his breast. He
succeeded in rearing his child, taught him to be a hunter and, when he
attained the age of manhood, chose him a wife from the tribe. The old man
kept his vow in never taking a second wife himself but he delighted in
tending his son's children and, when his daughter-in-law used to
interfere, saying that it was not the occupation of a man, he was wont to
reply that he had promised to the Great Master of Life, if his child were
spared, never to