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Of their head-dress, of their ornaments, and of their
finery. Of the regimen which they observe during their illness; of their
amusements and conversations. Of the work of the men and of the women, and
of their more usual occupations.
To
distinguish the men and the women from the boys and the girls by their
ornaments; the first have the hair cut below the ears. The boys wear theirs of
full length; they tie it in tufts on the two sides with cords of leather. The
dainty ones have theirs ornamented with coloured Porcupine quills. The girls
wear theirs also full length, but tie it behind with the same cords. But the
belles, who wish to appear pretty, and who know how to do good work, make
ornamental pieces of the size of a foot or eight inches square, all embroidered
with Porcupine quills of all colours. It is made on a frame, of which the warp
is threads of leather from unborn Moose, a very delicate sort; the quills of
Porcupine form the woof which they pass through these threads, just as one
makes tapestry, and it is very well made. All around they make a fringe of the
same threads, which are also encircled with these Porcupine quills in a medley
of colours. In this fringe they place wampum, white and violet. They make of it
also pendants for the ears, which they have pierced in two or three places.
This wampum (porcelene) is nothing
else than the teeth of a certain fish which is caught by the Indians of New
England, and which was really rare among them.1 In those
times it was valued greatly among them, though it is common at present. Each
grain is the length of half the width of a finger. It was all their
ornament, in every kind of work in which it was necessary to sew with a needle.
The latter was the awl of which I have already spoken, or a bodkin of bone,
well pointed for making a little hole, and they passed through it a thread,
which was made from the tendon of a Moose, found along the spine of the back.
When this tendon is well beaten it separates into threads, as fine as one
wishes. It is with these they sew all their robes, which never rip out. Such is
the ornamentation of the girls. As soon as they are married, the mother
in delivering them to their husbands, cuts their hair. This is the symbol of
marriage, as it is also for the husband.
1. Our
author is in error as to the source of wampum; it was really made from the
shells of molluscs-the white from a species of Busycon and the purple
from the round clam or quahog, Venus mercenaria. An account of wampum
in Acadia is in the
Bulletin of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick,
No. VIII., 1889, 12, 91. Lescarbot
(732) also says the Acadian
Indians obtained it from those of New England. Compare also Thwaites, Jesuit
Relations, VIII. 312 where other references may be found.
The law
which they observed in old times was this to do to another only that which
they wished to be done to them. They had no worship. All lived in good
friendship and understanding. They refused nothing to one another. If one
wigwam or family had not provisions enough, the neighbours supplied them,
although they had only that which was necessary for themselves. And in all
other things it was the same. They lived pure lives; the wives were faithful
to their husbands, and the girls very
chaste. They were not subject to diseases, and knew nothing of fevers. If
any accident happened to them, by falling, by burning, or in cutting wood,
(the latter happening) through lack of good axes, theirs being unsteady
through failure to cut well, they did not need a physician. They had
knowledge of herbs, of which they made use and straightway grew well. They
were not subject to the gout, gravel, fevers, or rheumatism. Their general
remedy was to make themselves sweat, something which they did every month
and even oftener. I tell this for the men; for I have
never had knowledge that the women made themselves sweat. For this purpose,
they constructed a little round wigwam to hold as many as four, five, six,
seven or eight or more. These wigwams were covered with bark from top to
bottom, entirely closed up with the exception of a little opening for
entering, and the whole was covered besides with their garments. Whilst this
was being done, large rocks were gathered and placed in the fire, and made
red hot. After this those who wished to sweat placed themselves wholly
naked in the wigwam, seated on their buttocks all around. Being therein,
their wives, or some boys, gave them these rocks all red-hot, with a big
dish full of water and another small dish for pouring the water upon the
rocks which were placed in the middle of the circle. This water which they
poured upon the rocks made a steam which filled the cabin, and heated it so
much that it made them sweat. When they commenced to sweat they threw on
more water only from time to time. When the rocks were cold they threw them
outside, and they were given others all
red-hot. They did not make haste in the sweating, but heated up little by
little, but so thoroughly that the water trickled over them in all parts,
and these they wiped down from time to time with the hand. They remained
there as long as they could, and they stuck to it an hour and a half or two
hours. During this time they chanted
songs, and
told stories to make themselves laugh. When they wished to come out, they dashed
on the water as much as they could from head to foot, and then, making a run,
went to throw themselves into the sea or a river. Being refreshed they put their
robes upon them; and then
went into
their wigwams as composed as ever. Our Frenchmen make themselves sweat like
them, and throw themselves into the water similarly, and are never incommoded
thereby. The water in those parts never injures the health. In the winter when
our men go a hunting, sometimes they have no Dogs, and (when) they kill game
those who know how to swim throw themselves into the water to go after it. On
returning to the house and changing their clothes, they receive no
inconvenience, and never catch cold therefrom.
If they were
ill and dying of old age, or by some accident happening through trees or other
object falling upon them, or where there was no apparent cause, there were old
men who claimed to speak to the manitou, that is to say, the Devil, who
came to whisper to them. These fellows put many superstitions into the mind, of
which I have mentioned several in the foregoing. They were men who had some
cunning more than the others, and made them believe all they wished, and passed
for their physicians. These fellows came there to see the sick man, and asked of
him where his ill was. After being well informed in all, they promised health,
by blowing on him. For this
purpose they
set themselves a dancing and speaking to their
manitou.
They danced with such fury that they emitted foam as big as the fists on both
sides of the mouth. During this performance they approached the patient from
time to time, and at the place where he felt the most pain, they placed the
mouth upon it, and blew there with all their might for some time, and then
commenced again to dance. Following this, they returned again to the sick man to
do just the same as before. Then they said it was the manitou which had
possession of him, and that he (the sick
man) had passed through several places where he had not rendered the accustomed
homage, or some other similar follies. And (they said) that in time they hoped
to make him get out. This lasted sometimes seven to eight days, and finally they
made a pretence of drawing something from his body by dexterously showing it,
saying- "There, there, he has gone out; now he is cured." And often in fact the
man got well through imagination. And if the patients did not grow well, they
found some other excuse, such as that there were several manitous, that
they had been unwilling to go out, and that they had too far ignored them.
They
always made out a good case
for
themselves. One never omitted to give them
something, though not so much as if he had been entirely cured. Those
medicine-men were lazy old fellows who would no longer go hunting, and who
received from others everything they needed. If there were any fine robes,
or other rarity in a wigwam, that was for Monsieur the Medicine-man. When
animals were killed, all the best parts were sent to him. When they had
cured three or four persons, they never lacked anything more. This it was
not difficult for them to do, since the greatest malady of the Indians
proceeded only from their imagination. This being removed from the mind,
immediately they became well.
The Indians were very fond of feats of
agility, and of hearing stories. There were some old men who composed them,
as one would tell children of the times of the fairies, of the Asses'
skin, and the like. But they compose them about the Moose, the Foxes, and
other animals, telling that they had seen some powerful enough to have
taught others to work, like the Beavers, and had heard of others which could
speak. They composed stories which were pleasing and spirited. When they
told one of them, it was always as heard from their grandfather.
These made it appear that they had knowledge of the Deluge, and of matters
of the ancient Law1. When they made their holiday feasts,
after being well filled, there was always somebody who told one so long that
it required all the day and evening with intervals for laughing. They were
great laughers. If one was telling a story, all listened in deep
silence; and if they began to laugh, the laugh became general. During such
times they never failed to smoke. They had a certain green tobacco, the
leaf of which was not longer than the finger, nor any broader.2
They dried it, and made it into a loaf, in the form of a cake, four inches
thick. The smoke was not strong, the tobacco good and very mild. Those
story-tellers who seemed more clever than the others, even though their
l. Our author gives but a scant idea of the
very rich legendary and folk-lore of the Micmacs. Their principal stories
have been collected and published by Silas Rand. Legends of the Micmacs
(New York,1894), and in more popular form in The Algonquin Legends of
New England, by C.G.Leland (Boston, 1884), and in Kuloskap, the
Master, by Leland and Prince (New York, 1902). Denys was in error in
thinking they were composed upon the spot, and in fact they had been related
by the narrator's grandfather.
2. This I presume, was the
leaf of a willow.
cleverness
was nothing more than sportiveness, did not fail to make fun of those who took
pleasure in listening to them.
As to the
work of the men, it consisted in making their bows, which were of Maple, an
unsplit piece. In fashioning them, they made use of their axes and knives; for
polishing them, they used shells of Oysters or other shells, with which they
polished as can be done with glass. Their arrows were of Cedar, which splits
straight; they were nearly half a fathom in length. They feathered them with
Eagles' quills. In place of iron they tipped them with bone. The frames of
their snow-shoes were of Beech, of the thickness of those used in playing
tennis, but longer and thicker and of the same form without a handle. The
length of each was as a rule the distance from the waist to the ground. They
placed there two pieces of wood which ran across, at a distance from one
another equal to the length of the foot. They were corded with Moose skin,
dressed to parchment; this was cut into very long cords (which were) both
thick and thin. The thick were placed in the middle part of the snow-shoe,
where the foot rests between the two sticks, while the thin were used at the
two ends. Close against the stick in front there was left an opening in the
middle of the snow-shoe to admit the end of the foot in walking. This was in
order that the snowshoe might not rise behind, and that it might do nothing
but drag. It was usually the women who did the cording.
Their
lances were also of Beech, at the end of which they fixed a large pointed
bone. They used them to spear animals when there was deep snow.
For making their canoes they sought the
largest Birch trees they could find. They removed the bark of the length of the
canoe, which was of three to four fathoms and a half (in length). The breadth
was about two feet in the middle, and always diminished towards the two ends,
falling away to nothing. The depth was such that for a man seated it came up to
his armpits. The lining inside for strengthening it was of slats, of the length
of the canoe and some four inches broad, lessening towards the ends in order
that they might match together. On the inside the canoe was lined with them
completely, as well as all along it from one end to the other. These slats were
made of Cedar, which is light, and which they split in as great lengths as they
wished, and also as thin as they pleased. They also made from the same wood
half-circles to form ribs, and gave them their form in the fire.
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