We then with our hands flattened it out and placed it in a frying pan,
baking it before the fire, and by the time it was baked it was as
black as the pan itself. We dined on bannock and bacon for two months,
and were very thankful to get it.
CHAPTER X.
COOKING FOR A LARGE FAMILY.
My experience of camp life was of such a character, that I would
rather be a maid-of-all-work in any position than slush in an Indian
tepee, reeking as it is, with filth and poisonous odors. There is no
such a thing as an health officer among that band of braves. They have
a half spiritualized personage whom they desiginate the Medicine Man;
but he is nothing more or less than a quack of the worst kind. As in
every other part of their life, so in the domestic they were unclean.
One evening, just as we had everything ready for our meal, in rushed
the Big Bear's, gobbling up everything. After they had gone, I set to
work to wash the dishes. Mrs. Pritchard thereat became quite angry,
and would not allow me, saying that we would be glad to do more than
that for the Indians yet. I went without my supper that night; I would
rather starve than eat after that dirty horde.
One day, Pritchard brought in a rabbit for dinner. I thought we were
going to have a treat as well as a good meal; we were engaged at other
work that day, and Mrs. Pritchard did the cooking herself, but I had
occasion to go in the direction of the fire, and there was the rabbit
in the pot boiling, it was all there, head, eyes, feet, and everything
together.
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