Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians | Page 9

slept with a pig. It was a vacant room in the Chief's new
house. After our services were over and we had had supper, Mrs.
Ahbettuhwahnuhgund took a clean blanket on her shoulder and a
lantern in her hand, and calling me to follow led me to the apartment.
There was a bedstead with a mattress on it in a corner, and on two
chairs in the middle of the room lay a pig which had been killed the day
before. Early next morning, before I was fully awake, the door opened,
and Mrs. Ahbettuhwahnuhgund appeared with a knife in her hand.
What could she want at this hour in the morning? I opened one eye to
see. Her back was turned to me, and I could not distinguish what she
was doing, but I heard a slicing and cutting and wheezing. Then the
good lady turned round, and closing the eye I had opened I did not

venture to look out again till the door was shut, and Mrs.
Ahbettuhwahnuhgund departed; then I peeped out from my rug--poor
piggy was minus one leg! Next time I saw the missing limb it was
steaming on the breakfast table!
I must not make this chapter longer. By-and-bye I shall tell of the
baptism of the Chief and several other of the pagan Indians of this place.
Suffice it to say now that our little school kept nicely together, and
services were held either by myself or my interpreter every fortnight. In
a little more than a year's time we had the satisfaction of seeing both a
school-church and a master's residence erected, and a catechist placed
in charge of the station.

CHAPTER V.
INDIAN NAMES GIVEN.
It is a custom with the Indians to bestow Indian names upon
missionaries and others who come to work among them, in order to
make them, as it were, one with themselves. We had not been many
months resident in Sarnia before we received an invitation from the
pagan Chief at Kettle Point, to come to a grand feast which the Indians
were preparing in our honour at that place, and to receive Indian names
by which we should be incorporated into the Ojebway tribe.
It was one of the coldest of winter days when we started, the glass very
low, a high wind, and the snow whirling through the air in blinding
clouds. We went by train to Forest, and there Ahbettuhwahnuhgund
met us with his sleigh. It was just a common box sleigh with two seats,
and the bottom filled with straw, and two horses to pull us. We were all
bundled up in rugs and blankets and wraps; the Chief, who was driving,
had his head completely smothered up in a bright blue shawl belonging
to his wife, and wrapped so many times round that he was as wide at
the top of his eyes as at his shoulders. The only one of the party who
appeared careless about the cold was an Indian named Garehees, who
had come with us from Sarnia, and he sat with his feet hanging over the

side of the sleigh; however, when we asked him how it was that he did
not feel the cold, he replied with a grin, "Moccasins no cold,--white
man boot cold,--ice!--two pair socks under moccasins me--big blanket
too!" In about an hour and a half we arrived at the Chief's house; it was
the first time my wife had been to Kettle Point, and she was very much
pleased to make acquaintance with the Indians of whom she had often
heard, and who had sent her presents of apples and cherries from their
orchards. She had brought with her a few small gifts for the children,
with which they were much delighted. A little boy named Isaac had a
sugar-dog given to him; he soon had its nose in close quarters with his
mouth, and the people laughed to see it disappearing. Indians are nearly
always very much behind time in their arrangements; they do not
appear yet to understand the value of time-- whether in their councils,
their daily work, their feasts, or their attendance at church, they are
generally behind the appointed hour. If a council is called to commence
at noon, three or four Indians will have perhaps assembled at that hour;
others straggle in as the day wears on; they sit or lie about, smoking
their pipes, chewing tobacco, and talking; and it will probably be three
o'clock before the council actually commences.
The Indian feast of to-day was no exception to the rule. It was
appointed to take place at noon, but hour after hour sped by, and it was
nearly four p.m. when they at length commenced. On entering the room
where the feast was laid