NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.



195



nothing, in the persuasion that daily labor disgraces a
man, which, they imagine, should be the duty of the
women. Main, they say, is only made for war, hunlting,
and fishing. Nevertheless, it belonasS to them to make
all thinas necessary for these three exercises; therefore,
making arms, nets, and all the equipage of the hunters
and fishers, chiefly belong to them, as well as the ca-
noes and their rigging, the raquets or snow shoes, and
the binding and repairino of cabins; but they often
oblige the women to assist them in all these things.



THEIR HATCHETS.



  These people, before they had been furnished with
hatchets and other tools by Europeans, were greatly em-
barrassed in cutting down their trees and fitting them for
use. They burnt them at the foot, and to split and cut
them they used hatchets made of flints, which did not



break, but toc
fix them in th
tree, and, as i
notch in it, ini
et. After sor
the hatchet s
they cut the
the handle.



up a great deal of time t(
handle, they cut off the h
hey would have grafted
which they thrust the he
> time the tree, by growins
fixed that it could not c



tree to such a



length



as



) sharpen.
lead of a y
it, they m
ad of the I i
g toorether,
,.omxe out :



they would



To
oung
ade a
atch-
, kept
then
have



THE FORM OF THEIR VILLAGES.



  Their villages have generally no regular form. The
greatest part of the French missionaries represent them
as being of a round form, and perhaps their authors had
not seen any but of this sort. These villages consisted
of a heap of cabins without order; some like cart houses,