The Conquest of Canada, Vol. 1

242

Hunter gives the following view of the Indian mythology, while describing his own and his companions' first sight of the Pacific Ocean: "Here the surprise and astonishment of our whole party was indescribably great. The unbounded view of waters, the incessant and tremendous dashing of the waves along the shore, accompanied with a noise resembling the roar of loud and distant thunder, filled our minds with the most sublime and awful sensation, and fixed on them as immutable truths the tradition we had received from our old men, that the great waters divide the residence of the Great Spirit from the temporary abodes of his red children. We have contemplated in silent dread the immense difficulties over which we should be obliged to triumph after death before we could arrive at those delightful hunting-grounds, which are unalterably destined for such only as do good, and love the Great Spirit. We looked in vain for the stranded and shattered canoes of those who had done wickedly; we could see none, and were led to hope they were few in number. We offered up our devotions, or, I might say, our minds were serious, and our devotions continued all the time we were in this country, for we had ever been taught to believe that the Great Spirit resided on the western side of the Rocky Mountains; and this idea continued throughout the journey, notwithstanding the more specific boundary assigned to Him by our traditionary dogmas."—Memoirs of a Captivity among the North American Indians from Childhood to the Age of Nineteen. By John D. Hunter, p. 69. 1824.—See Appendix, No. LIII. (vol. II.)

243

See Appendix, No. LIV. (vol. II.)

244

See Appendix, No. LV. (vol. II.)

245

See Appendix, No. LVI. (vol. II.)

246

"While I remained among the Indians, a couple, whose tent was adjacent to mine, lost a son of four years of age. The parents were so much affected at the death of their child, that they observed the usual testimonies of grief with such extreme rigor as through the weight of sorrow and loss of blood to occasion the loss of the father. The woman, who had hitherto been inconsolable, no sooner saw her husband expire than she dried up her tears, and appeared cheerful and resigned. I took an opportunity of asking her the reason of so extraordinary a transition, when she informed me that her child was so young it would have been unable to support itself in the world of spirits, and both she and her husband were apprehensive that its situation would be far from happy. No sooner, however, did she behold her husband depart for the same place, who not only loved the child with the tenderest affection, but was a good hunter, and would be able to provide plentifully for its support, than she ceased to mourn. She said she had now no reason to continue her tears, as the child on whom she doted was under the care and protection of a fond father, and she had now only one wish remaining ungratified, that of herself being with them."—Carver.

247

Captain Franklin says of the Chippewyans, "No article is spared by these unhappy men when a near relative dies; their clothes and tents are cut to pieces, their guns broken, and every other weapon rendered useless if some person do not remove these articles from their sight."

"When the French missionaries asked the Indians why they deprived themselves of their most necessary articles in favor of the dead, they answered, 'that it was not only to evidence their love for their departed relatives, but that they might avoid the sight of objects which, having been used by them, would continually renew their grief.' The same delicacy of feeling, so inconsistent with the coarseness of the Red Man's nature, was manifested in their custom of never uttering the names of the dead; and if these names were borne by any of the other members of the family, they laid them aside during the whole of their mourning. And it was esteemed the greatest insult that could be offered to say to any one, 'Your father is dead, your mother is dead.'"—Charlevoix, tom. vi., p. 109.

248

Père Brebeuf, Relation de la Nouvelle France; Charlevoix; Lafitau. Catlin describes the same ceremonies.

It has been often said that the care taken by the Indians for the deceased corpses of their ancestors was in consequence of a universally received tradition that these corpses were to rise again to immortal life.

249

"The custom of squeezing and flattening the head is still strictly adhered to among the Chinooks. The people bearing the name of Flat Heads are very numerous, but very few among them actually practice the custom. Among the Chinooks it is almost universal. The process is thus effected: The child is placed on a thick plank, to which it is lashed with thongs to a position from which it can not escape, and the back of the head supported by a sort of pillow made of moss or rabbit-skins, with an inclined piece resting on the forehead of the child. This is every day drawn down a little tighter by means of a cord, which holds it in its place, until at length it touches the nose, thus forming a straight line from the crown of the head to the end of the nose. This process is seemingly a cruel one, though I doubt whether it causes much pain, as it is done in earliest infancy, while the bones are soft and cartilaginous, and easily pressed into this distorted shape by forcing the occipital up and the frontal down, so that the skull at the top in profile will show a breadth of not more than an inch and a half or two inches, when in a front view it exhibits a great expansion on the sides, making it at the top nearly the width of one and a half natural heads. By this remarkable operation the brain is singularly changed from its natural state, but in all probability not in the least diminished or injured in its natural functions. This belief is drawn from the testimony of many credible witnesses who have closely scrutinized them, and ascertained that those who have the head flattened are in no way inferior in intellectual powers to those whose heads are in their natural shapes. This strange custom existed precisely the same until recently among the Choctaws and Chickasaws, who occupied a large part of the states of Mississippi and Alabama, where they have laid their bones, and hundreds of their skulls have been procured, bearing marks of a similar treatment, with similar results."—Catlin's American Indians, vol. ii., p. 112.

With respect to the origin of this singular custom, Humboldt is inclined to think that it may be traced from the natural inclination of each race to look upon their own personal peculiarities as the standard of beauty. He observes that the pointed form of the heads is very striking in the Mexican drawings, and continues thus: "If we examine osteologically the skulls of the natives of America, we see that there is no race on the globe in which the frontal bone is more flattened or which have less forehead.["L'anatomie comparée en offre une autre confirmation dans la proportion constante du volume des lobes cérébrales avec le degré d'intelligence des animaux."—Cuvier's Report to the Institute on Flouren's Experiments in 1822] (Blumenbach, Decas Quinta Craniorum, tab. xlvi., p. 14, 1808.) This extraordinary flattening exists among people of the copper-colored race, who have never been acquainted with the custom of producing artificial deformities, as is proved by the skulls of Mexican, Peruvian, and Aztec Indians, which M. Bonpland and myself brought to Europe, and several of which are deposited in the Museum of Natural History at Paris. The negroes prefer the thickest and most prominent lips, the Calmucks perceive the line of beauty in turned-up noses. M. Cuvier observes (Leçons d'Anatomie Comparée, tom. ii., p. 6) that the Grecian artists, in the statues of heroes, raised the facial line from 85° to 100°, or beyond the natural form. I am led to think that the barbarous custom, among certain savage tribes in America, of squeezing the heads of children between two planks, arises from the idea that beauty consists in this extraordinary compression of the bone by which Nature has characterized the American race. It is no doubt from following this standard of beauty that even the Aztec people, who never disfigured the heads of their children, have represented their heroes and principal divinities with heads much flatter than any of the Caribs I saw on the Lower Orinoco."—Humboldt's Researches on the Ancient Inhabitants of America.

250

"Ces huiles leur sont absolument nécessaires, et ils sont mangés de vermine quand elles leur manquent."—Lafitau, tom. i., p. 59.

It is supposed by Volney that the fatal effects of the small-pox among the Indians are to be attributed to the obstacle that a skin thus hardened opposes to the eruption.—P. 416. In the most detailed account given of the ravages of this disease, Catlin particularly mentions that no eruption was visible in any of the bodies of the dead. Forster, the English translator of Professor Kalm's Travels in America, held the same opinion as Volney.

"When the Kalmucks in the Russian dominions get the small-pox, it has been observed that very few escape. Of this, I believe, no other reason can be alleged than that the small-pox is always dangerous, either when the open pores of the skin are too numerous, which is caused by opening them in a warm-water bath, or when they are too much closed, which is the case with all the nations that are dirty and greasy. All the American Indians rub their body with oils; the Kalmucks rub their bodies and their fur coats with grease; the Hottentots are also, I believe, patterns of filthiness: this shuts up all the pores, hinders perspiration entirely, and makes the small-pox always fatal among these nations."—Note by the translator of Kalm, p. 532.

"The ravages which the small-pox made this year (1750) among their Mohawk friends was a source of deep concern to these revered philanthropists. These people having been accustomed from early childhood to anoint themselves with bear's grease, to repel the innumerable tribes of noxious insects in summer, and to exclude the extreme cold ill winter, their pores are so completely shut up that the small-pox does not rise upon them, nor have they much chance of recovery from any acute disorder."—Memoirs of an American Lady, vol. i., p. 322.

251

M. de Tracy, when governor of Canada, was told by his Indian allies that, with his good-humored face, he would never inspire the enemy with any degree of awe. They besought him to place himself under their brush, when they would soon make him such that his very aspect would strike terror.—Creuxius, Nova Francia, p. 62; Charlevoix, tom, vi., p. 40.

252

St. Isidore of Seville, and Solinus, give a similar description of the manner of painting the body in use among the Picts. "The operator delineates the figures with little points made by the prick of a needle, and into those he insinuates the juice of some native plants, that their nobility, thus written, as it were, upon every limb of their body, might distinguish them from ordinary men by the number of the figures they were decorated with."—Isidor., Origin, lib. xix., cap. xxiii.; Solin., De Magnâ Britanniâ, cap. xxv.

253

"These horns are made of about a third part of the horn of a buffalo bull, the horn having been split from end to end, and a third part of it taken, and shaved thin and light, and highly polished. They are attached to the top or the head-dress on each side, in the same place as they rise and stand on the head of a buffalo, rising out of a mat of ermine skins and tails, which hangs over the top of the head-dress somewhat in the form that the large and profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo bull. This custom is one which belongs to all northeastern tribes, and is no doubt of very ancient origin, having purely a classic meaning. No one wears the head-dress surmounted with horns except the dignitaries who are very high in authority, and whose exceeding valor, worth, and power is admitted by all the nation. This head-dress is used only on certain occasions, and they are very seldom: when foreign chiefs, Indian agents, or other important personages visit a tribe, or at war parades. Sometimes, when a chief sees fit to send a war party to battle, he decorates his head with this symbol of power, to stimulate his men, and throws himself into the foremost of the battle, inviting the enemy to concentrate his shafts upon them. The horns upon these head-dresses are but loosely attached at the bottom, so that they easily fall backward or forward; and by an ingenious motion of the head, which is so slight as to be almost imperceptible, they are made to balance to and fro, and sometimes one backward and the other forward like a horse's ears, giving a vast deal of expression and force of character to the appearance of the chief who is wearing them. This is a remarkable instance, like hundreds of others, of a striking similarity to Jewish customs, to the kerns (or keren, in Hebrew), the horns worn by the Abyssinian chiefs and Hebrews as a symbol of power and command—worn at great parades and celebrations of victories."—Catlin, vol. i., p. 104.

254

"When a young Indian becomes attached to a female, he does not frequent the lodge of her parents, or visit her elsewhere, oftener, perhaps, than he would provided no such attachment existed. Were he to pursue an opposite course before he had acquired either the reputation of a warrior or a hunter, and suffer his attachment to be known or suspected by any personal attention, he would become the derision of the warriors and the contempt of the squaws. On meeting, however, she is the first, excepting the elderly people, who engages his respectful and kind inquiries; after which, no conversation passes between them, except it be with the language of the eyes, which, even among savages, is eloquent, and appears to be well understood. The next indication of serious intentions on the part of the young hunter is the assumption of more industrious habits. He rises by daybreak, and, with his gun or bow, visits the woods and prairies, in search of the most rare and esteemed game. He endeavors to acquire the character of an expert and industrious hunter, and, whenever success has crowned his efforts, never fails to send the parents of the object of his affections some of the choicest he has procured. His mother is generally the bearer, and she is sure to tell from what source it comes, and to dilate largely on the merits and excellences of her son. The girl, on her part, exercises all her skill in preparing it for food, and when it is cooked, frequently sends some of the most delicious pieces, accompanied by other small presents, such as nuts, moccasins, &c., to her lover. These negotiations are usually carried on by the mothers of the respective parties, who consider them confidential, and seldom divulge even to the remaining parents, except one or both of the candidates should be the offspring of a chief, when a deviation from this practice is exacted, and generally observed. After an Indian has acquired the reputation of a warrior, expert hunter, or swift runner, he has little need of minor qualifications, or of much address or formality in forming his matrimonial views. The young squaws sometimes discover their attachment to those they love by some act of tender regard, but more frequently through the kind offices of some confidante or friend. Such overtures generally succeed: but should they fail, it is by no means considered disgraceful, or in the least disadvantageous to the female; on the contrary, should the object of her affections have distinguished himself especially in battle, she is the more esteemed on account of the judgment she displayed in her partiality for a respectable and brave warrior."—Hunter, p. 235-237.

255

See Appendix, No. LVII. (vol. II.)

256

"They firmly believe that the spirits of those who are killed by the enemy without equal revenge of blood, find no rest, and at night haunt the houses of the tribe to which they belonged; but when that kindred duty of retaliation is justly executed, they immediately get ease and power to fly away."—Adair's Account of the American Indians.

257

"The modern scalping-knife is of civilized manufacture made expressly for Indian use, and carried into the Indian country by thousands and tens of thousands, and sold at an enormous price. In the native simplicity of the Indian, he shapes out his rude hatchet from a piece of stone, heads his arrows and spears with flints, and his knife is a sharpened bone or the edge of a broken silex. His untutored mind has not been ingenious enough to design or execute any thing so savage or destructive as these civilized refinements on Indian barbarity. The scalping-knife, in a beautiful scabbard which is carried under the belt, is generally used in all Indian countries where knives have been introduced. It is the size and shape of a butcher's knife with one edge, manufactured at Sheffield perhaps for sixpence, and sold to the poor Indians in these wild regions for a horse. If I should ever cross the Atlantic, with my collection, a curious enigma would be solved for the English people who may inquire for a scalping-knife, when they find that every one in my collection (and hear, also, that nearly every one that is to be seen in the Indian country, to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean) bears on its blade, the impress of G.R."—Catlin's American Indians, vol. i., p. 236.

258

See Appendix, No. LVIII. (vol. II.)

259

The savage Cantabrians and the first inhabitants of Spain sang songs of triumph as they were led to death and while they hung on the cross. Strabo mentions this as a mark of their ferocity and barbarism.—Strabo, lib. iii., p. 114.

260

The American word "cannibal," of a somewhat doubtful signification, is probably derived from the language of Hayti or that of Porto Rico. It has passed into the languages of Europe, since the end of the fifteenth century, as synonymous with that of Anthropophagi, "Edaces humanarum carnium novi heluones Anthropophagi, Caribes, alias Canibales appellati," says Peter Martyr of Anghiera, in the third decade of his Oceanics, dedicated to Pope Leo X. "We were assured by all the missionaries whom we had an opportunity of consulting, that the Caribbees are perhaps the least anthropophagous nation of the New Continent. We may conceive that the fury and despair with which the unhappy Caribbees defended themselves against the Spaniards when, in 1704, a royal decree declared them slaves, may have contributed to the reputation they have acquired of ferocity. The licendiado Rodrigo de Figuera was appointed by the court in 1520 to decide which of the tribes of South America might be regarded as of Caribbee race, or as Cannibals, and which were Guatiaos, that is, Indians of peace, and friends of the Castilians. Every nation that could be accused of having devoured a prisoner after a battle was arbitrarily declared of Caribbee race. All the tribes designated by Figuera as Caribbees wore condemned to slavery, and might at will be sold or exterminated in war."—Humboldt's Personal Narrative, vol. vi., p. 35.

Charlevoix and Lafitau speak of the cannibalism of the North American Indians as a generally acknowledged fact: Lafitau mentions the Abenaquis as the only tribe who held it in detestation.—Lafitau, vol. ii., p. 307.

261

"On ne peut guères douter que les sauvages en faisant fumer dans le calumet ceux dont ils recherchent l'alliance ou le commerce, n'ayent intention de prendre le soleil pour témoin et en quelque façon pour garant de leurs traités, car ils ne manquent jamais de pousser la fumée vers cette astre: … Fumer donc dans la même pipe, en signe d'alliance, est la même chose que de boire dans la même coupe, comme il s'est de tout tems pratiqué dans plusieurs nations."—Charlevoix, tom. v., p. 313.

Calumet in general signifies a pipe, being a Norman word, derived from chalumeau. The savages do not understand this word, for it was introduced into Canada by the Normans when they first settled there, and has still continued in use among the French planters. The calumet, or pipe, is called in the Iroquois language ganondaoe, and by the other savage natives, poagau.

Embassadors were never safe among any of the savage tribes who do not smoke the calumet.—Lafitau, vol. ii., p. 313. At the time of the early French writers on Indian customs, the calumet, since almost universally in use, was only known among the tribes inhabiting Louisiana, who in many respects were more advanced in civilization than those of the cold northern regions.

262

Wampum is the Indian name of ornaments manufactured by the Indians from vari-colored shells["Among the numerous shells which are found on the sea-shore, there are some which by the English here are called clams, and which bear some resemblance to the human ear. They have a considerable thickness, and are chiefly white, excepting the pointed end, which both within and without hath a blue color, between purple and violet. The shells contain a large animal, which is eaten both by Indians and Europeans. The shells of these clams are used by the Indians as money, and make what they call their wampum; they likewise serve their women for an ornament when they intend to appear in full dress. These wampums are properly made of the purple part of the shells, which the Indians value more than the white parts. A traveler who goes to trade with the Indians, and is well stocked with them, may become a considerable gainer, but if he take gold coin or bullion he will undoubtedly be a loser; for the Indians who live farther up the country put little or no value on the metals which we reckon so precious, as I have frequently observed in the course of my travels. The Indians formerly made their own wampums, though not without a great deal of trouble; but at present the Europeans employ themselves in that way, and get considerable profit by it."—Kalm in Pinkerton, vol. xiii., p. 455] which they get on the shore of the fresh-water streams, and file or cut into bits of half an inch, or an inch in length, and perforate, giving them the shape of pieces of broken pipe-stems, which they string on deer's sinews, or weave them ingeniously into war-belts for the waist. The wampum is evidently meant in the description of the esurgny or cornibolz, given by Verazzano in Ramusio, which has so much puzzled translators and commentators. Lafitau and Charlevoix both describe it under the name of porcelaine.

"La porcelaine dont nous parlons ici, est bien différente de ces ouvrages de porcelaine qu'on apporte de la Chine ou du Japan["Marsden et la Comte Baldelli ont rappellé, dans leur savans commentaires du Milione de Marco Polo, que c'est la nom de la coquille du genere Cypræa à dos bombé (porcellanor, de porcello, en latin porcellus, pourcelaine du père Trigault) qui a donné lieu à la dénomination de porcelaine par laquelle les peuples occidentaux ont désigné les Vasa Sinica. Marco Polo se sert du mot porcellane, et pour les coquilles karis, ou couries, employées comme monnaie dans l'Inde, et pour la poterie fine de la Chine. … La blancheur lustrée de plusieurs espèces de la famille des Buccinoides, appellées de pourcelaines au moine âge, a sans doute suffi pour faire donner aux beaux vases céramiques de la Chine une dénomination analogue. Ces coquilles ne sont pas entrées dans la composition de la porcelaine."—Humboldt, Géog. du Nouveau Continent, tom, v., p. 106] dont la matière est une terre beluttée et préparée. Celle ci est tirée de certains coquillages de mer, connues en générale sous le nom de porcelaines—celles dont nos sauvages se servent sont canelées, et semblable pour leur figure aux coquilles de St. Jacques. Il y a de porcelaine de deux sortes, l'une est blanche, et c'est la plus commune. L'autre est d'un violet obscur; plus elle tire sur le noir plus elle est estimée. La porcelaine qui sert pour les affaires d'état est toute travaillée au petits cylindres de la longueur d'un quart de pouce et gros à proportion. On les distribue en deux manières, en branches et en colliers. Les branches sont composées de cylindres enfilés sans ordre, à la suite les uns des autres comme des grains de chapelet. La porcelaine en est ordinairement toute blanche, et on ne s'en sert que pour des affaires d'une legère conséquence. Les colliers sont de larges ceintures, où les petits cylindres blancs et pourpre sont disposés par rangs et assujettès par de petites bandelettes de cuir, dont on fait un tissu assez propre. Leur longeur, leur largueur et les grains de couleur se proportionnent à l'importance de l'affaire. Les colliers communs et ordinaires sont de onze rangs de cent quatre-vingt grains chacun. Le fisc, ou le tresor public consiste principalement en ces sortes de colliers.... Les sauvages n'ont rien de plus précieux que leur Porcelaine: ce sont leurs bijoux, leurs pierreries. Ils en comptent jusqu' aux grains, et cela leur tient lieu de toute richesse."—Lafitau, 1720.