h wooden
arrows, rather heavy and blunt at the end. Maquin said he could shoot
ducks and small birds with his arrows; but I should think they were not
calculated to reach objects at any great distance, as they appeared very
heavy.

'Tis sweet to hear the Indians singing their hymns of a Sunday night;
their rich soft voices rising in the still evening air. I have often
listened to this little choir praising the Lord's name in the simplicity
and fervour of their hearts, and have felt it was a reproach that these
poor half-civilized wanderers should alone be found to gather together
to give glory to God in the wilderness.

I was much pleased with the simple piety of our friend the hunter
Peter's squaw, a stout, swarthy matron, of most amiable expression. We
were taking our tea when she softly opened the door and looked in; an
encouraging smile induced her to enter, and depositing a brown papouse
(Indian for baby or little child) on the ground, she gazed round with
curiosity and delight in her eyes. We offered her some tea and bread,
motioning to her to take a vacant seat beside the table. She seemed
pleased by the invitation, and drawing her little one to her knee,
poured some tea into the saucer, and gave it to the child to drink. She
ate very moderately, and when she had finished, rose, and, wrapping her
face in the folds of her blanket, bent down her head on her breast in
the attitude of prayer. This little act of devotion was performed
without the slightest appearance of pharisaical display, but in
singleness and simplicity of heart. She then thanked us with a face
beaming with smiles and good humour; and, taking little Rachel by the
hands, threw her over her shoulder with a peculiar sleight that I feared
would dislocate the tender thing's arms, but the papouse seemed well
satisfied with this mode of treatment.

In long journeys the children are placed in upright baskets of a
peculiar form, which are fastened round the necks of the mothers by
straps of deer-skin; but the _young_ infant is swathed to a sort of flat
cradle, secured with flexible hoops, to prevent it from falling out. To
these machines they are strapped, so as to be unable to move a limb.
Much finery is often displayed in the outer covering and the bandages
that confine the papouse.

There is a sling attached to this cradle that passes over the squaw's
neck, the back of the babe being placed to the back of the mother, and
its face outward. The first