I Have Been For
Several Years An Expert Marksman; But I Dread Lest The Imperceptible
Charm Of Indian Education, May Seize My Younger Children, And Give
Them Such A Propensity To That Mode Of Life, As May Preclude Their
Returning To The Manners And Customs Of Their Parents.
I have but
one remedy to prevent this great evil; and that is, to employ them
in the labour of the fields, as much as I can; I am even resolved to
make their daily subsistence depend altogether on it.
As long as we
keep ourselves busy in tilling the earth, there is no fear of any of
us becoming wild; it is the chase and the food it procures, that
have this strange effect. Excuse a simile - those hogs which range in
the woods, and to whom grain is given once a week, preserve their
former degree of tameness; but if, on the contrary, they are reduced
to live on ground nuts, and on what they can get, they soon become
wild and fierce. For my part, I can plough, sow, and hunt, as
occasion may require; but my wife, deprived of wool and flax, will
have no room for industry; what is she then to do? like the other
squaws, she must cook for us the nasaump, the ninchicke, and such
other preparations of corn as are customary among these people. She
must learn to bake squashes and pumpkins under the ashes; to slice
and smoke the meat of our own killing, in order to preserve it; she
must cheerfully adopt the manners and customs of her neighbours, in
their dress, deportment, conduct, and internal economy, in all
respects.
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