In about a month that I remained here, I killed, notwithstanding the poorness of my gun, twenty-four bears and about ten moose. Having now a great deal of bear’s fat which we could not eat, I visited the sunjegwun I had made, where I killed the twenty moose with seven balls, and put the fat into it. At length, when provisions became very scarce, I returned with my family to this place, expecting to live until spring on the meat I had saved, but I found that Wa-me-gon-a-biew, with his own family and several others, had been there, broken it open, and taken away every pound of meat. Being thus reduced to the apprehension of immediate starvation, I was compelled to go in pursuit of buffalo. Fortunately the severity of the winter now drove these animals in towards the woods, and in a very few days I killed plenty of them. I was now joined by Wa-me-gon-a-biew and other Indians. We were encamped at a little grove of trees in the prairie. It happened one night that the old woman, as well as several others of our family, dreamed of a bear close to our lodge. Next morning I searched for him, and found him in his hole. I shot him, and waiting a moment for the smoke to clear away, as I saw him lying at the bottom, I went down head foremost to draw him out. As my body partly filled the hole, and excluded the light, I did not perceive that he was alive until I laid my hand on him. He then turned and sprang upon me. I retreated as fast as I could, but all the way he was snapping his teeth so near me that I felt his breath warm on my face. He might have seized me at any moment, but did not. I caught my gun as I leaped from the mouth of the den, the bear pursuing me very closely. As soon as I thought I had gained a little distance, I fired behind me, and broke his jaw, and soon killed him. Afterwards I became more cautious about going down into bear’s holes before I had ascertained that the animals were dead. Late in winter the buffalo were so plenty about us that we killed them with bows, and caught some of the younger ones with nooses of leather.
As the sugar season came on we went to Pe-kau-kau-ne Sah-ki-e-gun[*], (Buffalo Hump Lake,) two days’ journey from the head of Pembinah River, to hunt beavers. We took our wives to the hunting grounds, but left old Net-no-kwa with the children to make sugar. It was now our object to kill beaver enough to enable us to purchase each a good horse, intending to accompany the war-party against the Sioux the ensuing summer. In ten days I killed forty-two large and fine beavers, and Wa-me-gon-a-biew about as many. With these we repaired to the Mouse River trading-house to buy horses. Mr. M’Kie had promised to sell me a very large and beautiful horse of his, which I had before seen, and I was much dissatisfied when I found the horse had been sold to the North West Company. I told him, since the horse had gone to the north west, the beavers might go there also. So crossing to the other side, I bought a large gray mare for thirty beaver skins. This was, in some respects, as good a horse as the other, but it did not please me as well. Wa-me-gon-a-biew also bought a horse from the Indians, and then we returned to Great Wood River to look for old Net-no-kwa, but she had gone to Red River, whither we followed her.
As we remained for some time at the mouth of the Assinneboin, many Indians gathered around us, and among others, several of my wife’s relatives, whom I had not before seen. Among these was an uncle who was a cripple, and had not for years been able to walk. As he had only heard that I was a white man, he supposed that I could not hunt. When he saw my wife, he said to her, “Well, my daughter, I hear you are married. Does your husband ever kill any game?” “Yes,” said she, “if a moose or an elk has lost his road, or wants to die, and comes and stands in his path, he will some times kill him.” “He has gone to hunt to-day, has he not? If he kills any thing I shall go and bring it in, and you will give me the skin to make some moccasins.” This he said in derision, but I gave him the skin of the elk I killed that day to make his moccasins, and continuing to be successful, I gave game to all my wife’s relatives, and soon heard no more of their ridicule. After some time, the game was exhausted, and we found it necessary to disperse in various directions. I went about ten miles up the Assinneboin, where we found two lodges under a man called Po-ko-taw-ga-maw, (the little pond.) These people were relatives of my wife. When we first arrived, the wife of Po-ko-taw-ga-maw happened to be cooking a moose’s tongue for her husband, who had not yet returned from hunting. This she gave us immediately, and would, perhaps, have farther relieved our distress had not the man then arrived. After this, they gave us nothing, though our little children were crying for hunger, and they had plenty of meat about their lodge. It was now too late, and I too much fatigued to go a hunting that evening, nevertheless I would not suffer the women to buy meat from them, as they wished to do. At the earliest appearance at dawn on the ensuing morning, I took my gun, and standing at the door of my lodge, I said purposely in a loud voice, “Can none but Po-ko-taw-ga-maw kill elks?” My wife came out of my lodge, and handed me a piece of dried meat, about as large as my hand, which she said her sister had stolen to give to her. By this time, many of the people had come out of the lodges, and I threw the piece of meat from me, among the dogs, saying, “Shall such food as this be offered to my children, when there are plenty of elks in the woods?” Before noon I had killed two fat elks, and returned to my lodge with a heavy load of meat. I soon killed great numbers of buffaloes, and we dispersed ourselves about to make dry meat, preparatory to leaving our families to go on the proposed war-party. We then returned to the woods to select some good elk and moose skins for moccasins. The skins of animals living in the open prairies are tender, and do not make good leather.
As we were one day travelling through the prairie, we looked back and saw at a distance a man loaded with baggage, and having two of the large Ta-wa-e-gun-num, or drums used in the ceremonies of the Waw-be-no. We looked to our young women for an explanation, as we soon recognized the approaching traveller to be no other than Pich-e-to, one of the band of inhospitable relatives we had lately left. The face of Skwaw-shish, the Bow-we-tig girl, betrayed the consciousness of some knowledge respecting the motives of Pich-e-to.
At this time, the Waw-be-no was fashionable among the Ojibbeways, but it has ever been considered by the older and more respectable men as a false and dangerous religion. The ceremonies of the Waw-be-no differ very essentially from those of the Metai, and are usually accompanied by much licentiousness and irregularity. The Ta-wa-e-gun used for a drum in this dance, differs from the Woin Ah-keek, or Me-ti-kwaw-keek, used in the Me-tai, it being made of a hoop of bent wood like a soldier’s drum, while the latter is a portion of the trunk of a tree, hollowed by fire, and having the skin tied over it. The She-zhe-gwun, or rattle, differs also in its construction from that used in the Metai. In the Waw-be-no, men and women dance and sing together, and there is much juggling and playing with fire. The initiated take coals of fire, and red hot stones in their hands, and sometimes in their mouths. Sometimes they put powder on the insides of their hands, first moistening them, to make it stick; then by rubbing them on coals, or a red hot stone, they make the powder burn. Sometimes one of the principal performers at a Waw-be-no, has a kettle brought and set down before him, which is taken boiling from the fire, and before it has time to cool, he plunges his hands to the bottom, and brings up the head of the dog, or whatever other animal it may be which had been purposely put there. He then, while it remains hot, tears off the flesh with his teeth, at the same singing and dancing madly about. After devouring the meat, he dashes down the bone, still dancing and capering as before. They are able to withstand the effects of fire and of heated substances by what they would persuade the ignorant to be a supernatural power, but this is nothing else than a certain preparation, effected by the application of herbs, which make the parts to which they are applied insensible to fire. The plants they use are the Wa-be-no-wusk, and Pe-zhe-ke-wusk. The former grows in abundance on the island of Mackinac, and is called yarrow by the people of the United States. The other grows only in the prairies. These they mix and bruise, or chew together, and rub over their hands and arms. The Waw-be-no-wusk, or yarrow, in the form of a poultice, is an excellent remedy for burns, and is much used by the Indians, but the two when mixed together seem to give to the skin, even of the lips and tongue, an astonishing power of resisting the effects of fire.