Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-09-29
He is verv bitter against the CAPTAIN

He is very bitter against the Captain
of the Saint Paul for deserving him,
but, at the same time, appears to be
afraid of him. He speaks with kind
ness of his family, which he distinctly
remembers, but always maintains that
they must all, even including his young
er brothers, be now dead, and it would
appear as if, having no measure of the
time he passed with the savages, the
past appears to him SO vast distance
as to lave given him the impression
that he is extremely old, although, in
fact, barely thirty He says he wished
to remain with the blacks, and al
though he acquiesced in his removal,
he is evidently by no means, as yet,
either happy OF satisfied: The name of
the tribe with which he lived is Maca-
dana. They have no kings, no chiefs
nor leading men among them all the
males beng equal. This men,
he says, are strong, but observes with
pride that he himself is very strong,
much stronger than the blacks. On the
other hand, though he says he is good
swimmer and diver, he acknowledges
that in the water the blacks far srrpass
him. The tribe subsists chiefly on fish,
turtles, turtles eggs, alligators' eggs,
and roots and fruits. Sometimes they
hunt animals, but apparently not often.
The occupation of the men is fishing.
that of the women to gather roots, and
sometimes, also, they gather honey.
They have no knowledge Of nets, lines,
or hooks. The larger fish are harpooned
from canoes. the smaller. speared with
a three pronged spear. The canoes are
cut out of trees with knives formed Of
hoop-iron, obtained from barrels washed
up from wrecks. OF this hoop-iron,
also, the heads of their spears and har-
poems are made. Narcisse says he him
self constructed two canoes, which he
has left behind. The women appear to
be more numerous than the men, every
man having from three to five women in
his suit. Their position isa low one, as APP
pears from the fact that although there
are separate names for oman, sbroth-
or" and s'son," there is only one word
-'sbeycheynumma" for 'swoman, I"
SISTER" and daughter" The terms
husband" and ''wife" are, of course, un-
known, as are the ideas which they i'm
ply. The relations of the sexes are
strictly animal, and ssmight makes
right" The men, he says, not unfre-
quently fight with spears for the posses
sion of woman, while the women fight
among themselves about man, their
weapons being heavy slaves, with which
they beat one another about the head
till the blood flows. These quarrel
probably arise when decided prefer
ence is shown to one woman over an
other by their lord. The men have no
clothing, whatever, not even opossum
rugs or other covering at night. The
women wear fringe of cords extending
from the waist half way down the thigh.
They have no houses nor huts, but
when it rains they put up some tempo
rary shelter of branches of trees Or
bark. He maintains. however, that
they never feel cold, because they al
ways have fires. On board he feels
the cold bitterly, and dislikes the wind.
Like all savages, Peltier can make q
fire by rubbing together two pieces of
wood. d. He describes the tribe he has
been attached to as very peaoeable, and
says that he has never seen one of it's
number killed by another member of
the tribe. Battles, however, sometimes
occur between the tribes. He describes
one in which he took part. A tribe
named the Echaus killed some of the
Macadams, upon which the latter re-
taliated by surprising the Echaus when
asleep one night, and killing large
number. Two we're speared by Narcisse
himself.
The blacks have no knowledge of any
Supreme Being, and no form of religion
of any kind whatever. The dead are
tied up with cords after the fashion of
mummy, and exposed to the action Of
the sun, either in the forks of tree or
on rough sca6old. He describes the
treatment he has received from the tribe
as having been uniformly kind, and he
thinks they will treat any white man as
well. They are not afraid, he says, of
white men, but of white mems guns.
They are not cannibals, nor does he
think that any of the tribes in that re-
gion are so. He states that he has
heard that in his tribe there was an old
white man who had lived among them
for many years, and was finally drowned
while out fishing. He does not recol-
lect having seen this man himself, and
is not sure when his death occurred.
Curious photography.