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fufficiently humble. The former is no more than a frequent repetition of the words hee, hee, hee, ho, ho, ho, &c. which, by a more or lefs frequent repetition, dwelling longer on one word, and fhorter on another, and raifing and lowering the voice, produce fomething like a tune, and has the defired effect. This is always accompanied by a drum or tabor; and fometimes a kind of rattle is added, made with a piece of dried buffalo fkin, in fhape exactly like an oil-flafk, into which they put a few fhot or pebbles, which, when hook about, produces mufic little inferior to the drum, though not fo loud.

"This mode of dancing naked is performed only by the men; for when the women are ordered to dance, they always exhibit without the tent, to mufic which is played within it; and though their method of dancing is perfectly decent, yet -it has ftill lefs meaning and action than that of the men; for a whole heap of them crowd together in a ftraight line, and juft fluffle themfelves a little from right to left, and back again in the fame line, without lifting their feet from the ground; and when the mufic ftops, they all give a little bend of the body and knee, fomewhat like an awkward curtfey, and pronounce, in a little thrill tone, h-e-e,

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players gueffes right, he takes one of his antagonist's sticks, and lays it to his own; and he that first gets all the sticks from the other in that manner, is faid to win the game, which is generally for a fingle load of powder and hot, an arrow, or fome other thing of inconfiderable value.

"The women never mix in any of their diverfions, not even in dancing; for when that is required of them, they always exhibit without the tent, as has been already obferved; nor are they allowed to be prefent at a feaft. Indeed, the whole courfe of their lives is one continued fcene of drudgery, viz. carrying and hauling heavy loads, dreffing fkins for clothing, curing their provifions, and practifing other neceffary domeftic duties which are required in a 'family, without enjoying the leaft diverfion of any kind, or relaxation, on any occa fion whatever; and except in the execution of those homely duties, in which they are always inftructed from their infancy, their fenfes feem almoft as dull and frigid as the zone they inhabit. There are indeed fome exceptions to be met with among them, and I suppose it only requires indulgence and precept to make fome of them as lofty and infolent as any women in the world. Though they wear their hair at full length, and never tie it up, like the fouthern Indians; and though not one in fifty of them is ever poffeffed of a comb, yet by a wonderful dexterity of the fingers, and a good deal of patience, they make shift to ftroke it out fo as not to leave two hairs entangled; but when their heads are infefted with vermin, from which very few of either fex are free, they mutually affift each other in keeping them under."

"When any of the principal northern

northern Indians die, it is generally believed that they are conjured to death, either by fome of their own countrymen, by fome of the Southern Indians, or by fome of the Efquimaux: too frequently the fu fpicion falls on the latter tribe, which is the grand reafon of their never being at peace with thofe poor and diftreffed people. For fome time paft, however, thofe Efquimaux who trade with our floops at Knapp's bay, Navel's bay, and Whale cove, are in perfect peace and friendship with the northern Indians; which is entirely owing to the protection they have for feveral years paft received from the chiefs at the Company's fort at Churchill river. But thofe of that tribe who live fo far to the north, as not to have any intercourse with our veffels, very often fall a facrifice to the fury and fuperftition of the northern Indians, who are by no means a bold or warlike people; nor can I think from experience, that they are par. ticularly guilty of committing acts of wanton cruelty on any other part of the human race befide the Ef quimaux. Their hearts, however, are in general fo unfufceptible of tenderness, that they can view the deepest diftrefs in thofe who are not immediately related to them, with out the leaft emotion; not even half fo much as the generality of mankind feel for the fufferings of the meanest of the brute creation. I have been present when one of them, imitating the groans, diftorted features, and contracted pofition, of a man who had died in the most excruciating pain, put the whole company, except my felf, into the moft violent fit of laughter.

"The northern Indians never bury their dead, but always leave the bodies where they die, fo that

they are fuppofed to be devoured by beafts and birds of prey; for which reafon they will not eat foxes, wolves, ravens, &c. unless it be through mere neceffity.

But

"The death of a near relation affects them fo fenfibly, that they rend all their clothes from their backs, and go naked, till forme perfons lefs afflicted relieve them. After the death of a father, mother, husband, wife, fon, or brother, they mourn, as it may be called, for a whole year, which they meafure by the moons and feafóns. Thofe mournful periods are not diftinguished by any particular dress, except that of cutting off the hair; and the ceremony confifts in almoft perpetually crying. Even when walking, as well as at all other intervals from fleep, eating, and converfation, they make an odd howling noife, often repeating the relationship of the deceased. as this is in a great measure mere form and cuftom, fome of them have a method of foftening the harfhness of the notes, and bringing them out in a more musical tone than that in which they fing their fongs. When they reflect fe rioufly on the lofs of a good friend, however, it has fuch an effect on them for the prefent, that they give an uncommon loofe to their grief. At thofe times they feem to fympathife (through cuftom) with each other's afflictions fo much, that I have often feen feveral fcores of them crying in concert, when at the fame time not above half a dozen of them had any more reason for fo doing than I had, unless it was to preferve the old custom, and keep the others in countenance. The women are remarkably obliging on fuch occafions; and as no reftriction is laid on them, they may with truth be faid to cry with

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all

all their might and main; but in common converfation they are obliged to be very moderate."

fenfe had taught him to be an advocate for univerfal toleration; and I have seen him several times affift at fome of the most facred rites performed by the fouthern Indians, apparently with as much zeal, as if he had given as much credit to them as they did and with the fame libe rality of fentiment he would, I am perfuaded, have affifted at the altar of a Chriftian church, or in a Jewish fynagogue; not with a view to reap any advantage himself, but merely, as he obferved, to affift others who believed in fuch ceremonies.

"Being thus deftitute of all religious control, these people have, to ufe Matonabbee's own words,

Religion has not as yet begun to dawn among the northern Indians; for though their conjurers do indeed fing fongs, and make long fpeeches, to fome beafts and birds of prey, as alfo to imaginary beings, which they fay aflift them in performing cures on the fick, yet they, as well as their credulous neighbours, are utterly deftitute of every idea of practical religion. It is true, fome of them will reprimand their youth for talking difrefpectfully of particular beafts and birds; but it is done with fo little energy, as to be often retorted back in de-nothing to do but confult their rifion. Neither is this, nor their cuftom of not killing wolves and quiquehatches, univerfally univerfally obferved, and those who do it can only be viewed with more pity and contempt than the others; for I always found it arofe merely from the greater degree of confidence which they had in the fupernatural power of their conjurers, which induced them to believe, that talking lightly or difrefpectfully of any thing they feemed to approve, would materially affect their health and happiness in this world; and I never found any of them that had the leaft idea of futurity. Matonabbee, without one exception, was a man of as clear ideas in other matters as any that I ever faw: he was not only a perfect master of the fouthern Indian language, and their belief, but could tell a better story of our Saviour's birth and lite, than one half of those who call them felves Chriftians; yet he always declared to me, that neither he, nor any of his countrymen, had an idea of a future ftate. Though he had been taught to look on things of this kind as ufeless, his own good

own intereft, inclinations, and paffions; and to pass through this world with as much ease and contentment as poffible, without any hopes of reward, or painful fear of punishment, in the next.' la this ftate of mind they are, when in profperity, the happiest of mortals; for nothing but perfonal or family calamities can disturb their tran quillity, while misfortunes of the leffer kind fit light on them. Like moft other uncivilized people, they bear bodily pain with great forti tude, though in that refpect I cannot think them equal to the fouthern Indians.

"Old age is the greatest calamity that can befall a northern Indian; for when he is past labour, he is neglected, and treated with great difrefpect, even by his own chil dren. They not only ferve him laft at meals, but generally give him the coarseft and worst of the victuals: and fuch of the fkins as they do not chufe to wear, are made up in the clumfieft manner into clothing for their aged parents; who, as they had, in all probability, treated their fathers and mothers with the fame

neglect,

neglect, in their turns, fubmitted patiently to their lot, even without a murmur, knowing it to be the common misfortune attendant on old age; fo that they may be faid to wait patiently for the melancholy hour when, being no longer capable of walking, they are to be left alone to ftarve, and perish for want. This, however fhocking and unna tural it may appear, is nevertheless fo common, that, among thofe people, one half at least of the aged perfons of both fexes abfolutely die in this miferable condition.

"The northern Indians call the Aurora Borealis Ed-thin; that is, Deer: and when that meteor is very bright, they fay that deer is plentiful in that part of the atmofphere; but they have never yet extended their ideas fo far, as to entertain hopes of tafting those celeftial animals.

"Befide this filly notion, they are very fuperftitious with refpect to the existence of feveral kinds of

fairies, called by them Nant-e-na, whom they frequently fay they fee, and who are fuppofed by them to inhabit the different elements of earth, fea, and air, according to their feveral qualities. To one or other of thofe fairies they usually attribute any change in their circumftances, either for the better or worfe; and as they are led into this way of thinking entirely by the art of the conjurers, there is no fuch thing as any general mode of belief; for thofe jugglers differ fo much from each other in their accounts of thefe beings, that those who believe any thing they fay, have little to do but change their opinions according to the will and caprice of the conjurer, who is almost daily relating fome new whim, or extraordinary event, which, he fays, has been revealed to him in a dream, or by fome of his favourite fairies, when in a hunting excurfion."

GENUINE ACCOUNT of the NIMIQUAS, a Nation of SOUTHERN AFRICA, intended to correct the fabulous Relations of KOLBEN,

[From the Second Volume of LE VAILLANT'S NEW TRAVELS into the interior Parts of AFRICA, by Way of the CAPE of GOOD HOPE.]

WHE

"THEN I entered the Nimiqua country, my defign was to investigate every thing that had been faid of it at the Cape. How many tales had I not heard of this nation! what wonderful things concerning its manners, its arts, its treafures, &c.! The reader knows already what to think of its pretended mines of gold and filver: and the tales of its arts and its laws are on a par with thofe of its mines.

"Kolben is the man who has ftamped authority on all thefe fables,

Even I, having no idea refpecting thefe diftant and unknown people, gave fome credit to the dreams of this writer. In confequence, as I penetrated into the interior of Africa, and visited the Hottentots, I every where fought the traces of that flourishing agriculture, which they underftand incomparably better than the Europeans of the Cape, who frequently apply to them for advice on the fubject.' I was defirous of feeing fome of thofe folemn marriage ceremonies, which a prieft performs, and which

he

he legitimates by fprinkling the newly united couple with his urine. I wished to visit the public prifons of these people, and be prefent at the fittings of their tribunals, and the decrees of their fovereign coun, cil. Perhaps I had deftroyed monfters enough in Africa to afpire to the honour of being admitted into that order of knighthood; the progrefs and ceremonials of which the hiftorian has defcribed with no lefs pomp than minutenefs.

"Alas! all thefe fplendid chimeras vanished before me. Religion, police, laws, military tactics, orders of battle, treaties of peace, experienced generals, prifoners of war, vanquishers and vanquished, were all romances exifting only in the brain of the author, and in the taverns where they had been told him by those who made him their sport.

"Thirty or forty years after the publication of his voyage, abbé de la Caille made fome itay at the Cape, and thus was enabled, on fome points at left, to pass judgment on the work. He fpoke of it as he ought, and as it deferves. Since la Caille, other travellers have given their opinions of Kolben; and the learned now know how far they may rely on the accounts of that traveller.

"To listen to him, in all the Hottentot tribes without exception, mothers have the inhuman prejudice of refolving not to have twins, and the abominable cuftom of deftroying one of the two. If the twins confift of two boys, or two girls, they kill the weaker of the two; if a boy and girl, the girl, he fays, is the victim: and he blushes not to avow, that he has witneffed these

crimes.

"Now I aver, that this charge is the blackeft calumny againft na

ture that ever defiled the pen of a writer deftitute of modefty. The fight of the two twins of one of the wives of the chief was fufficient to convince me of this. However, as thefe children might have been an exception to the general law for fome particular reafon, I refolved to interrogate their father respecting this pretended maflacre.

"Every morning before I went a-hunting, he came to fee me with his two wives, and regale himself with a pipe of tobacco and a sopje, or fmall glafs, of brandy. Though his language was different from that of the Hottentots on the western coaft, yet, in the two months I had fpent in the country. I had learned to understand it a little, and make myfelf understood.

"One day as I was fitting on the grafs, near my tent, with him and his two wives, I turned the converfation to the subject of the twins, and afked his wife whether, if the fhould have twins again, the would not deftroy one of them? This queftion appeared to offend her; he kept filence, and fell inte a deep mufing. But her husband, turning towards me, and reminding me that I had feveral times asked him fimilar questions, declared with warmth, that fuch a facrifice was impoffible.

"Thus we fee how juft are the whites, who, believing Kolben, ac,cufe the Nimiquas of a crime fo abominable as to be an outrage a gainft the common mother of all beings.

"I will here add, that the Nimiquas not only do not make away with one of their twins when they have them, but preferve and bring up all their children. This duty is fo natural, that I could not have made them comprehend an idea repugnant to it.

"Befide

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