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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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