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Page 2
The account of Acadia (Nova-Scotia) will, it is to be hoped, appear not
uncurious; allowance being made for its being only in form of a letter.
A
LETTER, &c.
_Micmaki-Country_, March 27, 1755.
SIR,
I should long before now have satisfied you in those points of curiosity
you expressed, concerning the savages amongst whom I have so long
resided, if I could have found leisure for it. Literally true it is,
that I have no spare time here, unless just in the evening, and that not
always. This was my case too in Louisbourg; and I do not doubt but you
will be surprised at learning, that I enjoy as little rest here as
there.
Had you done me, Sir, the honor of passing with me but three days only,
you would soon have seen what sort of a nation it is that I have to deal
with. I am obliged to hold frequent and long parleys with them, and, at
every occasion, to heap upon them the most fair and flattering promises.
I must incessantly excite them to the practice of acts of religion, and
labor to render them tractable, sociable, and loyal to the king (of
France). But especially, I apply myself to make them live in good
understanding with the French.
With all this, I affect a grave and serious air, that awes and imposes
upon them. I even take care of observing measure and cadence in the
delivery of my words, and to make choice of those expressions the
properest to strike their attention, and to hinder what I say from
falling to the ground. If I cannot boast that my harangues have all the
fruit and success that I could wish, they are not however wholly without
effect. As nothing inchants those people more than a style of metaphors
and allegories, in which even their common conversation abounds, I adapt
myself to their taste, and never please them better than when I give
what I say this turn, speaking to them in their own language. I borrow
the most lively images from those objects of nature, with which they are
so well acquainted; and am rather more regular than even themselves, in
the arrangement of my phrases. I affect, above all, to rhime as they do,
especially at each member of a period. This contributes to give them so
great an idea of me, that they imagine this gift of speaking is rather
an inspiration, than an acquisition by study and meditation. In truth, I
may venture to say, without presumption, that I talk the _Micmaki_
language as fluently, and as elegantly, as the best of their women, who
most excel in this point.
Another of my occupations is to engage and spur them on to the making a
copious chace, when the hunting-season comes in, that their debts to the
dealers with them may be paid, their wives and children cloathed, and
their credit supported.
It is neither gaming nor debauchery that disable them from the payment
of their debts, but their vanity, which is excessive, in the presents of
peltry they make to other savages, who come either in quality of envoys
from one country to another, or as friends or relations upon a visit to
one another. Then it is, that a village is sure to exhaust itself in
presents; it being a standing rule with them, on the arrival of such
persons, to bring out every thing that they have acquired, during the
winter and spring season, in order to give the best and most
advantageous idea of themselves. Then it is chiefly they make feasts,
which sometimes last several days; of the manner of which I should
perhaps spare you the description, if the ceremony that attends them did
not include the strongest attestation of the great stress they lay on
hunting; the excelling wherein they commonly take for their text in
their panegyrics on these occasions, and consequently enters, for a
great deal, into the idea you are to conceive of the life and manners of
the savages in these parts.
The first thing I am to observe to you is, that one of the greatest
dainties, and with which they crown their entertainments, is the flesh
of dogs. For it is not till the envoys, friends, or relations, are on
the point of departure, that, on the eve of that day, they make a
considerable slaughter of dogs, which they slea, draw, and, with no
other dressing, put whole into the kettle; from whence they take them
half boiled, and carve out into as many pieces as there are guests to
eat of them, in the cabbin of him who gives the treat. But every one,
before entering the cabbin, takes care to bring with him his _Oorakin_,
or bowl, made of bark of birch-tree, either polygone shaped, or quite
round; and this is practised at all their entertainments. These pieces
of dogs flesh are accompanied with a small _Oorakin_ full of the oil or
fat of seal, or of elk's grease, if this feast is given at the
melting-time of the snow. Every one has his own dish before him, in
which he sops his flesh before he eats it. If the fat be hard, he cuts a
small piece of it to every bit of flesh he puts into his mouth, which
serves as bread with us. At the end of this fine regale, they drink as
much of the oil as they can, and wipe their hands on their hair. Then
come in the wives of the master and persons invited, who carry off their
husbands plates, and retire together to a separate place, where they
dispatch the remains.
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