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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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