Adventure and adventurers > Away in the wilderness, or, Life among the red Indians and fur-traders of North America

AWAY m THE WILDERNESS.
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its surface; some thickly wooded to the water’s
edge, others little better than bare rocks. Cross¬
ing this lake they came to the mouth of a pretty
large stream and began to ascend it. The first
thing they saw on rounding a bend in the stream
was an Indian tent, and in front of this tent was an
Indian baby, hanging from the branch of a tree.
Let not the reader be horrified. The child was
not hanging by the neck, but by the handle of its
cradle, which its mother had placed there, to keep
her little one out of the way of the dogs. The
Indian cradle is a very simple contrivance. A
young mother came out of the tent with her child
just as the canoe arrived, and began to pack it in
its cradle. Jasper stopped for a few minutes to
converse with one of the Indians, so that the artist
had a good opportunity of witnessing the whole
operation.
The cradle was simply a piece of flat board,
with a bit of scarlet cloth fastened down each side
of it. First of all, the mother laid the poor in¬
fant, which was quite naked, sprawling on the
ground. A dirty-looking dog took advantage of
this to sneak forward and smell at it, whereupon
the mother seized a heavy piece of wood, and hit
the dog such a rap over the nose as sent it away
howling. Then she spread a thick layer of soft
moss on the wooden board. Above this she laid
a very neat small blanket, about two feet in