becoming the spouse of a warrior so distinguished. Jealousy
began to fill the hearts of the Crees, but the mothers
and wives, and the daughters too, were constant mediators,
and never ceased to exert themselves for peace.

"When," said they, "the white-faces first came among us,
our chiefs and our young men all cried out, 'O they deem
themselves to be a better race than we; they think their
white blood is better than our red blood. They will not
mingle with us although they will join with us in hunting
our wild meat, or eating it after it has fallen to our
arrow or spear. They will not consider one of our daughters
fit for marriage with one of them; because it would blend
their blood with our blood.' Now, O you chiefs and young
men, that which you at the first considered a hardship
if it did not come to pass, has come to pass, and yet
you complain. 'The whites are above marrying our daughters,'
you first cry; now you plan revenge because they want to
marry, and do marry them." The arguments used by the
women were too strong, and the brawny, eagle-eyed hunters
were compelled to mate themselves with the ugly girls of
the tents. It is asserted by some writers on the North-West
that the beauty observed in the Metis women in after
years was in great part to be attributed to the fact that
the English settlers took to wife only the most beautiful
of the Indian girls. Now and again too, the canny Scotch
lad, with his gun on his shoulder and his retriever at
his heel, would walk through a Saulteux settlement. The
girls here were still shyer than their Cree cousins, but
they were not a whit less lovely. They were not dumpy