Original. WIGWAM IN THE FOREST. BY JOHN B. NEWMAN, M.D. [SEE PLATE.] THE Indian wigwam shown in our plate is situated in a Canadian forest; in a warmer climate the scene would necessarily be somewhat different to suit the temperature. The habitation of the Indian is the last thing he cares for; in making a cabin, he first forms a rude frame-work of poles, covering these with the bark of trees, fastening the whole together by strips of tough rind. From the different shapes they give these, an Indian village always presents a strange and confused appearance. We are told that they resemble tubs, cones, and sheds, and are from twenty to one hundred feet long. In common with the early state of society, chimneys are unknown, the smoke from the fires escaping through an aperture in the roof. It is a well known fact that, during winter, and mostly in travelling, when practicable, they convert the snow itself into a material for building, finding it at such times the warmest and most comfortable. Their furniture is composed of two or three vessels for preparing food, made of rude earthenware or stone when metal was not obtainable, and some wooden plates and spoons; shells often serving for the latter. We have narratives of travellers who tell us that even this apparatus is dispensed with, and that the food is eaten with the hands, after being cooked by throwing hot stones in a vessel of water containing the food. The shape of the canoes is well shown in the engraving; they are made of the bark of a single tree, strengthened in the middle by ribs of tough wood, the ends only of bark, and curved upwards. They are so light that one man can easily carry a canoe, by means of which twelve men can navigate in safety. As the savage thinks it inconsistent with his dignity to cultivate food, his great resort is hunting, and, consequently, game, in its various modes of preparation, constitutes the principle article of his diet. At present, the beaver, for purposes of traffic, forms the great object of the chase, but, apart from such purposes, the deer is the most valuable both for food and clothing. The women, who are, in reality, their beasts of burden, cultivate a little maize, and catch fish, and these employments make up, with dress and war, the sum of savage life. |