CXXViil A-GENERAL HISTORY

but in faét they prefer fleeping to either; and the greater part of their
time is paffed in procuring food, and refting from the toil neceffary to

obtain it.

They are alfo of a querulous difpofition, and are continually making
complaints; which they exprefs by a conftant repetition of the word

eduiy, “ it is hard,” in a whining and plaintive tone of voice.

They are fuperftitious in the extreme, and almoft every aétion of their
lives, however trivial, is more or lefs influenced by fome whimfical notion.
I never obferved that they had any particular form of religious worfhip ;
but as they believe in-a good and evil fpirit, and a ftate of future
rewards and punifhments, they cannot be devoid of religious impreffions.
At the fame time they manifeft a decided unwillingnels to make any
communications on the fubjeét.

The Chepewyans have been accufed of abandoning their aged and
infirm people to perifh, and of not burying their dead; but thefe are ©
melancholy neceffities, which proceed from their wandering way of
life. They are by no means univerfal, for it is within my knowledge,
that a man, rendered helplefs by the palfy, was carried about for many
years, with the greateft tendernefs and attention, till he died a natural
death. That they fhould not bury their dead in their own country can-
not be imputed to them as a cuftom arifing from a favage infenfibility,
as they inhabit fuch high latitudes that the ground never thaws; but
it is well known, that when they are in the woods, they cover their

dead with trees. Befides, they manifeft no common refpeét to the

memory