Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/354

324, will hobble after the hunting-camp, often reaching it long past nightfall. They act as a dead weight upon the able hunters, who are by Indian law—a law founded on the two great principles of reciprocity and necessity—obliged to share their success with all present; and, when the scarcity occasioned by their own obstinacy ensues, these elderly people are, of course, the first to sink under it. In this very way were the twenty, whom Sinclair rescued from inevitable death, exposed to the last extremities, as already described. No people so soon get tired of any particular diet as Indians; and their longings for change, even amidst the best cheer, are often truly ridiculous. The flexibility of their stomachs is no less surprising. At one time they will gorge themselves with food, and are then prepared to go without any for several days, if necessary. Enter their tents; sit there, if you can, for a whole day, and not for an instant will you find the fire unoccupied by persons of all ages cooking. When not hunting or travelling, they are, in fact, always eating. Now, it is a little roast, a partridge or rabbit perhaps; now, a tid-bit broiled under the ashes; anon, a portly kettle, well filled with venison, swings over the fire; then comes a choice dish of curdled blood, followed by the sinews and marrow-bones of deer's legs singed on the