OF THE FUR TRADE, &c. XCVit

fifter, if fhe has one; or he may, if he pleafes, have them both at the
fame time.

It will appear from the fatal confequences I have repeatedly imputed
to the ufe of fpirituous liquors, that I more particularly confider
_thefe people as having been, morally fpeaking, great fufferers from
their communication with the fubje@ts of civilized nations. At the
fame time they were not, in a flate of nature, without their vices,
and fome of them of a kind which is the moft abhorrent to cul-
tivated and refleGting man. I fhail only obferve that inceft and beftiality
are among them.

When a young man marries, he immediately goes to live with the
father and mother of his wife, who treat him, neverthelefs, as a perfeé&
ftranger, till after the birth of his firft child: he then attaches himfelf
more to them than his own parents; and his wife no longer gives him
any other denomination than that of the father of her child.

The profeffion of the men is war and hunting, and the more ac-
tive fcene of their duty is the field of battle, and the chafe in the
woods. They alfo fpear fifh, but the management of the nets is
left to the women. The females of this nation are in the fame
fubordinate flate with thofe of all other favage tribes; but the
feverity of their labour is much diminifhed by their fituation on
the banks of lakes and rivers, where they employ canoes.’ In
the winter, when the waters are frozen, they make their journies,
which are never of any great length, with {ledges drawn by dogs,

a They