The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1875-09-30

teHup6 IL HlHlSelI. lie Is SeHeidIiy Sooe'-
humored, though with occasional fits of
apparently causeless sulkiness. He fire.
quently coughs violently, and his habits
| of crouching about here and there are
those of a savage. He can count in
| French up to one hundred, having, how
ever, at the first attempt stuck at eighty,
passing from seventy-nlne to one hun
dred (.ssoiro7lte dir 1lcuf-cent.'' The
blacks, he says, have no names for the
different numbers, and can only count
by signs up to ten, signified by touching
different parts of the body.
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 kindness of his
family, which he distinctly remembers,
bnt always maintains that they must all,
even including his Younger brothers, be
now dead, and it would appear as ii,
having no measure of the time he pass
ed with the savages, the past appears to
him so vast a distance as to have given
him the impression that he is extreme
ly old, although, in fact, barely 30. He
| says
HE WISHED TO REMAIN WITH. THE BLACKS,
and, although he acquiesced in his re-
moval, he is evidently by no means as
yet either happy or satisfied. The name
of the tribe with which he lived is Ma
cadama. They have no kings, chiefs
nor leading men among them, all the
males being equal. The men, he says,
are strong, but observes with pride that
he himself is very strong, much strong
er than the blacks. On the other hand,
though he says he is good swimmer
and diver, he acknowledges that III the
water the blacks far surpass him. The
tribe subsists chiefly on fish, turtles,
turtles eggs, alligators' eggs, and roots
and fruits. Sometimes they hunt an
imals, but apparently not often. The
occupation of the men is fishing, that of
the women to gather roots, and some
times 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 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 harpoons
are made. Narcisse says he himself con-
structed, two canoes, with he has left be-
hind him.
| THE WOMEN
! appear to be more numerous than the
men, every man having from one to five
women in his suite. Their position is a
low one, as appears from the fact that
although there are separate names for
man, brother and son, there is only one
word beycheynumma for woman, sist-
er and daughter. The terms husband
and wife are, OF course, unknown, as
are the ideas which they imply. The
relation of the sexes are strictly animal,
and might makes right" The men,
he says, not unfrequently fight with
spears for the possession of woman,
while the women fight among themselves
| about a man, their weapons being heavy
slaves, with which they beat one anoth-
er about the head till the blood flows.
These quarreis probably arise when n
| decided preference is shown to one wo-
man over another by their lord. The
men have no clothing whatever, not even
oposume rugs or other covering at night.
| The women wear fringe of cords ex-
tending from the waist half way down
the thigh. They have no houses nor
huts, but when it rains they put up some
temporary shelter of branches of trees
or bark. He maintains, however, that
they never feel cold, because they always
have fires. On board he feels the cold
bitterly, and dislikes the wind.
Like all savages, Peltier can make a
fire by rubbing together two pieces of
wood He describes the tribe he has
been attached to as very peceable, and
says that he has never seen one of its
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 Echans killed some of the
Macadamas, upon which the latter re-
taliated by surprising the Echans when
asleep one night, and killed large num-
Der. Two were 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
a mummy, and exposed to the action of
the sun, either in the forks OF a tree OF
on rough scaffold. He describes the
treatment he has received from the tribe
as having been uniformly kind and he
thinks they would 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 this 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 recollect
having seen this man himself, and is not
sure when his death occurred
CENTURY PLANT.-A century plant
! which recently blOOmed in Florida is