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The difference that there is between the ancient customs of the Indians, and those of the
present.
The Indians today practise still their ancient form of burial in every respect, except that
they no longer place anything in their graves, for of this they are entirely
disabused. They have abandoned also those offerings, so frequent and usual,
which they made as homage to their manitou in passing by places in which
there was some risk to be taken, or where indeed there had happened some
misfortune (or other). This they did in order to avert the like from themselves
or their families. They are also cured of other little superstitions which they
had, such as giving the bones to the Dogs, roasting Eels, and many others of
that sort which are entirely abolished. (This is) as much through a spirit of
self-interest as through any other reason; for they gave there often the most
beautiful and rarest objects they had. But since they cannot now obtain the
things which come from us with such ease as they had in obtaining
robes of Marten, of Otter or of Beaver, (or) bows and arrows, and since they
have realised that guns and other things were not found in their woods or in
their rivers, they have become less devout. Or, it would be better to say, (they
have become) less superstitious since the time when their offerings have cost
them so much. But they practise still all the same methods of hunting, with
this difference, however, that in place of arming their arrows and spears with
the bones of animals, pointed and sharpened, they arm them today with iron, which is made expressly for sale to them. Their spears now are
made of a sword fixed at the end of
a shaft of seven to eight feet in length. These they
use in winter, when there is snow, to spear the Moose, or for fishing Salmon,
Trout, and Beaver. They are also furnished with iron harpoons, of the use of
which we have spoken before.
The musket is
used by them more than all other weapons in their hunting in spring, summer, and
autumn, both for animals and birds. With an arrow they killed only one Wild
Goose; but with the shot of a gun they kill five or six of them. With the arrow
it was necessary to approach an animal closely: with the gun they kill the
animal from a distance with a bullet or two. The axes, the kettles, the knives, and everything that is
supplied them, is much more convenient and portable than those which they had in
former times, when they were obliged to go to camp near
their
grotesque kettles, in place of which today they are free to go
camp where they wish. One can say that in those times
the immovable kettles were the chief regulators of
their lives, since they were able to live only in places
where these were.
With respect to the hunting of the Beaver in winter, they do that the same as they
did formerly, though they have
nevertheless nowadays a greater advantage with their arrows and
harpoons armed with iron than (they had) with the others
which they used in old times, and of which they have
totally abandoned the use.
As for their festivals, they make these as they did formerly. The women do not take
part in them; and those who have their monthlies are always separate. They always make
speeches there, and dances; but the outcome is not the same.
Since they have taken to drinking wine and brandy they are
subject to fighting. Their quarrelling comes ordinarily
from their condition; for, being drunk, they say they are
all great chiefs, which engenders quarrels between them. At
first it needed little wine or brandy to make them drunk.
But at present, and since they have frequented the fishing
vessels, they drink in quite another fashion. They no longer
have any regard for wine, and wish nothing but brandy. They do not call it
drinking unless they become drunk, and do not think they have been drinking
unless they fight and are hurt. However when they set about drinking, their
wives remove from their wigwams the guns, axes, the mounted swords (spears), the
bows, the arrows, and (every weapon) even their knives, which the Indians carry
hung from the neck. They leave nothing with which they can kill one another.
They permit that without saying a word, if it is before they commence to drink:
otherwise the women do not dare enter the wigwams. Immediately after taking everything
with which they can injure themselves, the women carry it into
the woods, afar off, where they go to hide with all
their children. After that they have a fine time, beating,
injuring, and killing one another. Their wives do not return
until the next day, when they are sober. At that time the
fighting can be done only with the poles of their
wigwams, which they pull to pieces to allow this use. Afterwards
their poor wives must go fetch other poles, and other pieces
of bark to repair their lodging. And they must not
grumble, otherwise they would be beaten.
If it is found that anyone among them is hurt, he who will have
done it asks his pardon, saying that he was drunk; and he is pardoned for that.
But if some one has been killed, it is necessary that the murderer, aside from
the confession of his drunkenness and the pardon he asks, should make to the
widow some present to which all the others condemn him. And to make the peace
complete, he must pay for another drinking bout. If he has not the skins, it is
as if one were to say "I have not the money." To buy the brandy it was then
necessary that he sell his gun, his blanket, or other thing in order to get it.
This will cost them five to six skins; they will give this to the fishermen for
a bottle or two of brandy. Then they commence again to drink. If the brandy they
have is not sufficient to make them drunk they will give everything they possess
to obtain more. That is only a way of saying they will not cease drinking so
long as they possess anything. Thus the fishermen are ruining them entirely.
For as to the (trading) establishments, no one will ever give
them so much that they are able to drink to the point of
killing one another, and one sells to them dearer than do the
ships. It is the captains and sailors who supply it to them,
to whom it costs no more than the original price.
Through this they do not fail to make great gain. For all the
expenses and charges of the ship, these are upon the
owner, besides which the crew trades or bargains with the
Indians using biscuit, lead, quite new lines, sails, and many
other things at the expense of the said owners. This allows them to give the
Indians two or three times more than they are given at the establishments, where
there is nothing on which the freight or carriage alone does not cost sixty livres a ton, aside from purchase price and leakage. And aside from this there
is given the Indians every time they come to the establishments a drink of
brandy, a bit of bread and of tobacco as they enter, however many they may be,
both men and women. As for the children they are given
only bread. They are again given as much when they go away.
And in addition it is necessary to keep up a crew under
wages aside from their keep. All of these attentions
have been introduced in the past to attract the Indians to
the establishments in order to be able more easily to
instruct them in the Christian faith and religion. This has
already been done for a very great number, through the labours
of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers, who have retired thence seeing
that there was nothing more to be done with these people,
whom the frequentation of the ships kept in perpetual
drunkenness.
At the
present time, so soon as the Indians come out of the woods in spring, they hide
all their best skins, bringing a few to the establishments in order to obtain
their right to something to drink, eat, and smoke. They pay a part of that which
was lent them in the autumn to support them, without which they would perish of
hunger. They insist that this is all their hunting for the winter has produced.
As soon as they have departed, they go to recover the skins which they have
hidden in the woods, and go to the
routes of the fishing ships and keep watch. If they see any vessels, they make
great smokes to let it be known that they are there. At the same time the ship
nears the land, and the Indians take some skins and embark in their canoes to go
to the ship, where they are well received. They are given as much as they want
to drink and to eat to start them going. They are then asked if they have many
skins, and if there are not other Indians, in addition to themselves, in the
woods. If they say that there are, and that they have skins, presently a cannon shot is fired from the largest piece, to let them know they are to
come. This they do not fail to do as soon as they hear the cannon, and they
bring their skins. During this time the ship shortens sail, and passes a day or
two moving back and forth awaiting the Indians who bring them one or two skins; they are
received with the same cheer as the first,
who have also a part in the good reception tendered the later comers, and they
drink again together afresh. It is
well to remark that when skins (peaux) are mentioned, simply without any
addition, it is the same as saying skins
of Moose, from which are made the best Buffalo skins (buffles).
The evening being come they return on shore with some casks of
brandy, and fall to drinking, but little for fear of getting drunk. They send
again only their wives to the ship, who carry a skin and bring back brandy; and
they send their wives again in the same manner from time to time in order to
obtain their bottles of brandy. But if you wish to know
why they do not take all they want to drink at one time, it is because their
wives do not make trips to the ships without bringing back twenty-five or thirty
sea-biscuits as a present, which each one makes them in return for some bark
dishes and peschipotys. I think I have already said that these peschipoty
are purses of leather ornamented for holding tobacco; they are the work of the
women, and rather nicely made.
A peschipoty
is anything which is closed by a string or secured like a purse, provided that
the whole does not surpass in size a bag for holding prayer-books. They are made
of Marten, of Squirrel, of Muskrat, or other little animals;
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