up, assists in drying the skins, gathers as much wild hemp as
possible for the purpose of making strings, carrying bands,
bags, and other necessary articles; collects roots for dyeing;
in short, does everything in her power to leave no care to
her husband but the important one of providing meat for the
family. After all, the fatigue of the women is by no means
to be compared to that of the men. Their hard and difficult
employments are periodical and of short duration, while their
husbands' labors are constant and severe in the extreme.
Were a man to take upon himself a part of his wife's duty,
in addition to his own, he must necessarily sink under the
load, and of course his family must suffer with him. On his
exertions as a hunter their existence depends; in order to
be able to follow that rough employment with success, he must
keep his limbs as supple as he can, he must avoid hard labor
as much as possible, that his joints may not become stiffened,
and that he may preserve the necessary strength and agility
of body to enable him to pursue the chase, and bear the
unavoidable hardships attendant on it; for the fatigues of
hunting wear out the body and constitution far more than
manual labor. Neither creeks nor rivers, whether shallow or
deep, frozen or free from ice, must be an obstacle to the
hunter when in pursuit of a wounded deer, bear, or other
animal, as is often the case. Nor has he then leisure to think
on the state of his body, and to consider whether his blood
is not too much heated to plunge without danger into the cold
stream, since the game he is in pursuit of is running off from
him with full speed. Many dangerous accidents often befall
him both as a hunter and a warrior (for he is both), and
are seldom unattended with painful consequences, such
as rheumatism or consumption of the lungs, for which the
sweat-house, on which they so much depend, and to which they
often resort for relief, especially after a fatiguing hunt
or warlike excursion, is not always a sure preservative or
effectual remedy.[173]

The male and female come together by sexual attraction, and the
chances of life are increased through association which permits each
to do that class of things which by reason of its somatic habit it can
do most effectively. Man's exploits were, however, of a more strik