We smoked the calumet in the Chiefs tent, whose name was the Thumb, and distributed some tobacco and a weak mixture of spirits and water among the men.

They received this civility with much less grace than the Crees, and seemed to consider it a matter of course.

There was an utter neglect of cleanliness, and a total want of comfort in their tents; and the poor creatures were miserably clothed.

Mr.Frazer, who accompanied us from the Methye Lake, accounted for their being in this forlorn condition by explaining, that this band of Indians had recently destroyed every thing they possessed, as a token of their great grief for the loss of their relatives in the prevailing sickness.

It appears that no article is spared by these unhappy men when a near relative dies; their clothes and tents are cut to pieces, their guns broken, and every other weapon rendered useless, if some person do not remove these articles from their sight, which is seldom done .-- Mr.Back sketched one of the children, which delighted the father very much, who charged the boy to be very good, since his picture had been drawn by a great chief.
We learned that they prize pictures very highly, and esteem any they can get, however badly executed, as efficient charms.