| THE COMING OF THE EUROPEANS. 279
of life to which they had thus been ushered, and
have gone back into the woods, and relapsed hope-
lessly into their former condition.
FIXEDNESS OF THE INDIAN TASTES AND HABITS.
There are remnants of many of the ancient tribes
existing at the present day in various parts of our
country, but they live by themselves, a marked
and -separate race, with nothing changed except
the external circumstances by which they are sur-
rounded. They live in huts still, as their ances-
tors did three hundred years ago. It is only the
covering that is changed—the birch bark, which
has failed, being replaced with canvass, or with
slabs obtained from the white men. They sit upon
the ground around their wigwam fire, just as of
old, and are occupied in the same species of em-
ployment, only that they make baskets instead of
canoes, and bows and arrows to sell as toys, or to
be used by children in shooting at coppers for a
prize, instead of for the service of hunters in the
chase. Even their garments retain in a great
measure the forms of the old national costume,
though made now of blankets and calico, instead
of the skins of beasts, and adorned with glass
beads instead of wampum. They come with the
wares which they make to sell into the white
| |
|
