Читать книгу A Canadian History for Boys and Girls - Emily Poynton Weaver - Страница 5
ОглавлениеThe Old and the New Worlds.
You all know that the continents of Europe and America are divided from each other by the great Atlantic Ocean. We still sometimes call Europe the Old, and America the New World, but the ease with which we can send news, or travel from one to the other, prevents our thinking much of the great distance between them. Swift steamships cross the ocean in less than a week, and every day messages are telegraphed from one side to the other, so that we can read in the newspapers of events that happened in London or Paris only a few hours before.
An Unknown Land.
A little more than four hundred years ago, however, the people who lived in Europe did not know that there was such a continent as America. If one of them had been asked to draw a map of the world, he would have drawn it something like the sketch shown on page 8. What lay beyond the great ocean to the west no one knew. There were traditions, indeed, from very early times, that sailors from Iceland and other places had discovered strange countries beyond the ocean; but most people had never heard these stories, and very likely those who had did not believe them.
The Indians.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the wide Atlantic, the black-haired, copper-coloured people of America were hunting and fishing and fighting in their woods and wilds, probably thinking that they were the only people in the world. These Indians, as they were afterwards called, were thinly scattered all over America, but in this chapter I shall tell you only a little about those who lived in what is now Canada and the United States.
Tribes.
They were divided into many tribes, having different languages and customs. These wasted their strength in constant fighting, each tribe making war upon its neighbours. They did not often make alliances with one another, but the five kindred “nations” of the Iroquois wisely agreed to help each other, and thus became so strong that they were a terror to all within their reach.
Indian Fish-Hooks.
Mode of Life.
Hunting and fighting were the chief employments of the men, and all hard and heavy work was left to the women. Most of the Indians lived entirely on fish, wild creatures, and the fruit that they could gather in the woods; but a few grew Indian corn and kept pigs. Some tribes lived in pointed tents covered with skin. Others built long bark houses, large enough to shelter ten or twelve families at once. They did not understand how to make iron tools, but used clumsy stone hatchets and shell knives. With such tools it was difficult to work in wood, but some tribes made beautiful canoes and other articles of bark, whilst others made rough boats of great tree-trunks, hollowed out by burning. The women of some of the tribes wove mats of rushes, spun twine from hemp, and made bowls and pots of clay.
Dress.
The warriors, as well as the women, generally allowed their hair to grow long, plaiting it in many little tails, or dressing it in some still odder fashion. In winter they wore leggings and short loose dresses of deerskin, and robes of beautiful fur. In war-time the men decked their heads with feathers and painted their faces and bodies in strange patterns. Both men and women adorned themselves with beads, which were made from shells and bones, until Europeans brought glass beads into the country.
Wampum Belt.
Records.
The Indians did not know how to write, but some of the shell-beads, called wampum, were made into collars and belts of curious patterns, and were used as reminders of important events. For instance, when one tribe made a treaty with another, a belt of wampum was given at the end of each clause; and these belts were put into the charge of old men, who were expected to remember and explain their meaning. To a certain extent, the Indians also used picture-writing,—that is, they made rough sketches instead of writing words.
Indian Medicine-Man.
Superstitions.
The Indians had very strange ideas about God and religion. They believed in a great Good Spirit and a great Bad Spirit. They did not pay much attention to the Good Spirit, but tried to frighten the Bad Spirit by wearing charms, and to put him in good humour by making strange sacrifices to him. They believed, also, that a host of unseen beings peopled the woods and mountains and streams, and affected their fate for good or ill. The “medicine-men,” who professed to be able to make rain and to control evil spirits, had great influence. When a man fell ill he was thought to be possessed by a demon, and was often cruelly tortured in the attempt to drive it out. The good, after death, were supposed to go to the “happy hunting-grounds”; but the journey thither was held to be long and perilous. Food and cooking-pots, weapons and garments were laid beside the dead, with the idea that his spirit would need the spirits of these things.
Indians of To-day.
The Indians living now are few in number, and, in Canada, are found chiefly on lands set apart for them by government and in the unsettled regions of the north and west.
The Eskimos.
Near the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay live the Eskimos, who are of a different race from the Indians. Their habits have probably changed little since America was discovered. They are said to be honest and good-humoured, but very dirty. They live by hunting and fishing, often eating their food raw. They dress from head to foot in fur. In winter they live in houses half underground, made of earth, turf, or even bones; but when they need shelter suddenly they build a round hut of snow.
