We set off with the six hares, and travelled four days without killing any thing; this was a disappointment, but with the little stock we carried with us, we subsisted tolerably well. About an hour before sunset on the fourth day, we stopped at a small creek, which was too deep to be forded, and whilst the Indian was assisting me in making a raft to cross over, rather than swim through in such cold weather, against a strong current, I looked round, and missed his wife: I was rather displeased, as the sun was near setting, and I was anxious to gain the opposite shore, to encamp before dark. I asked the Indian where she was gone; he smiled, and told me, he supposed into the woods to set a collar for a partridge. In about an hour she returned with a newborn infant in her arms, and coming up to me, said in Chippeway, “_Oway Saggonash Payshik Shomagonish_,” or, “Here, Englishman, is a young warrior.” It is said that the Indian women bring forth children with very little pain, but I believe it is merely an opinion. It is true they are strong and hardy, and will support fatigue to the moment of their delivery; but this does not prove they are exempt from the common feelings of the sex on such trying occasions. A young woman of the Rat Nation has been known to be in labour a day and a night, without a groan. The force of example acting upon their pride, will not allow these poor creatures to betray a weakness, or express the pain they feel, probably lest the husband should think her unworthy of his future attention, and despise both mother and child: at any rate, he would tell her the infant, {60} if a boy, would never be a warrior; and if a girl, would have a dastardly spirit, and of course neither of them be fit for a Savage life. I believe it will not be disputed that the Indian women love their children with as much affection as parents in the most civilized states can boast; many proofs might be adduced to support this assertion. A mother suckles her child till it attains the age of four or five years, and sometimes till it is six or seven. From their infant state they endeavour to promote an independent spirit; they are never known either to beat or scold them, lest the martial disposition which is to adorn their future life and character, should be weakened: on all occasions they avoid every thing compulsive, that the freedom with which they wish them to think and act may not be controuled. If they die, they lament their death with unfeigned tears, and even for months after their decease will weep at the graves of their departed children. The nation of Savages called Biscatonges, or by the French, Pleureurs, are said to weep more bitterly at the birth of a child, than at its decease; because they look upon death only as a journey from whence he will return, but with regard to his birth, they consider it as an entrance into a life of perils and misfortunes.[58]