1634, 1635.
BRÉBEUF AND HIS ASSOCIATES.
The Huron Mission-House • Its Inmates • Its Furniture • Its Guests • The
Jesuit as a Teacher • As an Engineer • Baptisms • Huron Village Life •
Festivities and Sorceries • The Dream Feast • The Priests accused of
Magic • The Drought and the Red Cross
Where should the Fathers make their abode? Their first thought had been
to establish themselves at a place called by the French Rochelle, the
largest and most important town of the Huron confederacy; but Brébeuf
now resolved to remain at Ihonatiria. Here he was well known; and here,
too, he flattered himself, seeds of the Faith had been planted, which,
with good nurture, would in time yield fruit.
By the ancient Huron custom, when a man or a family wanted a house, the
whole village joined in building one. In the present case, not
Ihonatiria only, but the neighboring town of Wenrio also, took part in
the work,--though not without the expectation of such gifts as the
priests had to bestow. Before October, the task was finished. The house
was constructed after the Huron model. [1] It was thirty-six feet long
and about twenty feet wide, framed with strong sapling poles planted in
the earth to form the sides, with the ends bent into an arch for the
roof,--the whole lashed firmly together, braced with cross-poles, and
closely covered with overlapping sheets of bark. Without, the structure
was strictly Indian; but within, the priests, with the aid of their
tools, made innovations which were the astonishment of all the country.
They divided their dwelling by transverse partitions into three
apartments, each with its wooden door,--a wondrous novelty in the eyes
of their visitors. The first served as a hall, an anteroom, and a place
of storage for corn, beans, and dried fish. The second--the largest of
the three--was at once kitchen, workshop, dining-room, drawing-room,
school-room, and bed-chamber. The third was the chapel. Here they made
their altar, and here were their images, pictures, and sacred vessels.
Their fire was on the ground, in the middle of the second apartment, the
smoke escaping by a hole in the roof. At the sides were placed two wide
platforms, after the Huron fashion, four feet from the earthen floor. On
these were chests in which they kept their clothing and vestments, and
beneath them they slept, reclining on sheets of bark, and covered with
skins and the garments they wore by day. Rude stools, a hand-mill, a
large Indian mortar of wood for crushing corn, and a clock, completed
the furniture of the room.
[1] See Introduction.
There was no lack of visitors, for the house of the black-robes
contained marvels [2] the fame of which was noised abroad to the
uttermost confines of the Huron nation. Chief among them was the clock.
The guests would sit in expectant silence by the hour, squatted on the
ground, waiting to hear it strike. They thought it was alive, and asked
what it ate. As the last stroke sounded, one of the Frenchmen would cry
"Stop!"--and, to the admiration of the company, the obedient clock was
silent. The mill was another wonder, and they were never tired of
turning it. Besides these, there was a prism and a magnet; also a
magnifying-glass, wherein a flea was transformed to a frightful monster,
and a multiplying lens, which showed them the same object eleven times
repeated. "All this," says Brébeuf, "serves to gain their affection, and
make them more docile in respect to the admirable and incomprehensible
mysteries of our Faith; for the opinion they have of our genius and
capacity makes them believe whatever we tell them." [3]
[2] "Ils ont pensé qu'elle entendoit, principalement quand, pour rire,
quelqu'vn de nos François s'escrioit au dernier coup de marteau, c'est
assez sonné, et que tout aussi tost elle se taisoit. Ils l'appellent le
Capitaine du iour. Quand elle sonne, ils disent qu'elle parle, et
demandent, quand ils nous viennent veoir, combien de fois le Capitaine a
desia parlé. Ils nous interrogent de son manger. Ils demeurent les
heures entieres, et quelquesfois plusieurs, afin de la pouuoir ouyr
parler."--Brébeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 33.
[3] Brébeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 33.
"What does the Captain say?" was the frequent question; for by this
title of honor they designated the clock.
"When he strikes twelve times, he says, 'Hang on the kettle'; and when
he strikes four times, he says, 'Get up, and go home.'"
Both interpretations were well remembered. At noon, visitors were never
wanting, to share the Fathers' sagamite; but at the stroke of four, all
rose and departed, leaving the missionaries for a time in peace. Now the
door was barred, and, gathering around the fire, they discussed the
prospects of the mission, compared their several experiences, and took
counsel for the future. But the standing topic of their evening talk was
the Huron language. Concerning this each had some new discovery to
relate, some new suggestion to offer; and in the task of analyzing its
construction and deducing its hidden laws, these intelligent and highly
cultivated minds found a congenial employment. [4]
[4] Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 17 (Cramoisy).
But while zealously laboring to perfect their knowledge of the language,
they spared no pains to turn their present acquirements to account. Was
man, woman, or child sick or suffering, they were always at hand with
assistance and relief,--adding, as they saw opportunity, explanations of
Christian doctrine, pictures of Heaven and Hell, and exhortations to
embrace the Faith. Their friendly offices did not cease here, but
included matters widely different. The Hurons lived in constant fear of
the Iroquois. At times the whole village population would fly to the
woods for concealment, or take refuge in one of the neighboring
fortified towns, on the rumor of an approaching war-party. The Jesuits
promised them the aid of the four Frenchmen armed with arquebuses, who
had come with them from Three Rivers. They advised the Hurons to make
their palisade forts, not, as hitherto, in a circular form, but
rectangular, with small flanking towers at the corners for the
arquebuse-men. The Indians at once saw the value of the advice, and soon
after began to act on it in the case of their great town of Ossossané,
or Rochelle. [5]
[5] Brébeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 86.
At every opportunity, the missionaries gathered together the children of
the village at their house. On these occasions, Brébeuf, for greater
solemnity, put on a surplice, and the close, angular cap worn by Jesuits
in their convents. First he chanted the Pater Noster, translated by
Father Daniel into Huron rhymes,--the children chanting in their turn.
Next he taught them the sign of the cross; made them repeat the Ave, the
Credo, and the Commandments; questioned them as to past instructions;
gave them briefly a few new ones; and dismissed them with a present of
two or three beads, raisins, or prunes. A great emulation was kindled
among this small fry of heathendom. The priests, with amusement and
delight, saw them gathered in groups about the village, vying with each
other in making the sign of the cross, or in repeating the rhymes they
had learned.
At times, the elders of the people, the repositories of its ancient
traditions, were induced to assemble at the house of the Jesuits, who
explained to them the principal points of their doctrine, and invited
them to a discussion. The auditors proved pliant to a fault, responding,
"Good," or "That is true," to every proposition; but, when urged to
adopt the faith which so readily met their approval, they had always the
same reply: "It is good for the French; but we are another people, with
different customs." On one occasion, Brébeuf appeared before the chiefs
and elders at a solemn national council, described Heaven and Hell with
images suited to their comprehension, asked to which they preferred to
go after death, and then, in accordance with the invariable Huron custom
in affairs of importance, presented a large and valuable belt of wampum,
as an invitation to take the path to Paradise. [6]
[6] Brébeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 81. For the use of wampum belts,
see Introduction.
Notwithstanding all their exhortations, the Jesuits, for the present,
baptized but few. Indeed, during the first year or more, they baptized
no adults except those apparently at the point of death; for, with
excellent reason, they feared backsliding and recantation. They found
especial pleasure in the baptism of dying infants, rescuing them from
the flames of perdition, and changing them, to borrow Le Jeune's phrase,
"from little Indians into little angels." [7]
[7] "Le seiziesme du mesme mois, deux petits Sauvages furent changez en
deux petits Anges."--Relation, 1636, 89 (Cramoisy).
"O mon cher frère, vous pourrois-je expliquer quelle consolation ce
m'etoit quand je voyois un pauure baptisé mourir deux heures, une demi
journée, une ou deux journées, après son baptesme, particulièrement
quand c'etoit un petit enfant!"--Lettre du Père Garnier à son Frère,
MS.--This form of benevolence is beyond heretic appreciation.
"La joye qu'on a quand on a baptisé un Sauvage qui se meurt peu apres, &
qui s'envole droit au Ciel, pour devenir un Ange, certainement c'est un
joye qui surpasse tout ce qu'on se peut imaginer."--Le Jeune, Relation,
1635, 221 (Cramoisy).
The Fathers' slumbers were brief and broken. Winter was the season of
Huron festivity; and, as they lay stretched on their hard couch,
suffocating with smoke and tormented by an inevitable multitude of
fleas, the thumping of the drum resounded all night long from a
neighboring house, mingled with the sound of the tortoise-shell rattle,
the stamping of moccasined feet, and the cadence of voices keeping time
with the dancers. Again, some ambitious villager would give a feast, and
invite all the warriors of the neighboring towns; or some grand wager of
gambling, with its attendant drumming, singing, and outcries, filled the
night with discord.
But these were light annoyances, compared with the insane rites to cure
the sick, prescribed by the "medicine-men," or ordained by the eccentric
inspiration of dreams. In one case, a young sorcerer, by alternate
gorging and fasting,--both in the interest of his profession,--joined
with excessive exertion in singing to the spirits, contracted a disorder
of the brain, which caused him, in mid-winter, to run naked about the
village, howling like a wolf. The whole population bestirred itself to
effect a cure. The patient had, or pretended to have, a dream, in which
the conditions of his recovery were revealed to him. These were equally
ridiculous and difficult; but the elders met in council, and all the
villagers lent their aid, till every requisition was fulfilled, and the
incongruous mass of gifts which the madman's dream had demanded were all
bestowed upon him. This cure failing, a "medicine-feast" was tried; then
several dances in succession. As the patient remained as crazy as
before, preparations were begun for a grand dance, more potent than all
the rest. Brébeuf says, that, except the masquerades of the Carnival
among Christians, he never saw a folly equal to it. "Some," he adds,
"had sacks over their heads, with two holes for the eyes. Some were as
naked as your hand, with horns or feathers on their heads, their bodies
painted white, and their faces black as devils. Others were daubed with
red, black, and white. In short, every one decked himself as
extravagantly as he could, to dance in this ballet, and contribute
something towards the health of the sick man." [8] This remedy also
failing, a crowning effort of the medical art was essayed. Brébeuf does
not describe it, for fear, as he says, of being tedious; but, for the
time, the village was a pandemonium. [9] This, with other ceremonies,
was supposed to be ordered by a certain image like a doll, which a
sorcerer placed in his tobacco-pouch, whence it uttered its oracles, at
the same time moving as if alive. "Truly," writes Brébeuf, "here is
nonsense enough: but I greatly fear there is something more dark and
mysterious in it."
[8] Relation des Hurons, 1636, 116.
[9] "Suffit pour le present de dire en general, que iamais les
Bacchantes forcenées du temps passé ne firent rien de plus furieux en
leurs orgyes. C'est icy à s'entretuer, disent-ils, par des sorts qu'ils
s'entreiettent, dont la composition est d'ongles d'Ours, de dents de
Loup, d'ergots d'Aigles, de certaines pierres et de nerfs de Chien;
c'est à rendre du sang par la bouche et par les narines, ou plustost
d'vne poudre rouge qu'ils prennent subtilement, estans tombez sous le
sort, et blessez; et dix mille autres sottises que ie laisse
volontiers."--Brébeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1636, 117.
But all these ceremonies were outdone by the grand festival of the
Ononhara, or Dream Feast,--esteemed the most powerful remedy in cases of
sickness, or when a village was infested with evil spirits. The time and
manner of holding it were determined at a solemn council. This scene of
madness began at night. Men, women, and children, all pretending to have
lost their senses, rushed shrieking and howling from house to house,
upsetting everything in their way, throwing firebrands, beating those
they met or drenching them with water, and availing themselves of this
time of license to take a safe revenge on any who had ever offended
them. This scene of frenzy continued till daybreak. No corner of the
village was secure from the maniac crew. In the morning there was a
change. They ran from house to house, accosting the inmates by name, and
demanding of each the satisfaction of some secret want, revealed to the
pretended madman in a dream, but of the nature of which he gave no hint
whatever. The person addressed thereupon threw to him at random any
article at hand, as a hatchet, a kettle, or a pipe; and the applicant
continued his rounds till the desired gift was hit upon, when he gave an
outcry of delight, echoed by gratulatory cries from all present. If,
after all his efforts, he failed in obtaining the object of his dream,
he fell into a deep dejection, convinced that some disaster was in store
for him. [10]
[10] Brébeuf's account of the Dream Feast is brief. The above
particulars are drawn chiefly from Charlevoix, Journal Historique, 356,
and Sagard, Voyage du Pays des Hurons, 280. See also Lafitau, and other
early writers. This ceremony was not confined to the Hurons, but
prevailed also among the Iroquois, and doubtless other kindred tribes.
The Jesuit Dablon saw it in perfection at Onondaga. It usually took
place in February, occupying about three days, and was often attended
with great indecencies. The word ononhara means turning of the brain.
The approach of summer brought with it a comparative peace. Many of the
villagers dispersed,--some to their fishing, some to expeditions of
trade, and some to distant lodges by their detached corn-fields. The
priests availed themselves of the respite to engage in those exercises
of private devotion which the rule of St. Ignatius enjoins. About
midsummer, however, their quiet was suddenly broken. The crops were
withering under a severe drought, a calamity which the sandy nature of
the soil made doubly serious. The sorcerers put forth their utmost
power, and, from the tops of the houses, yelled incessant invocations to
the spirits. All was in vain; the pitiless sky was cloudless. There was
thunder in the east and thunder in the west; but over Ihonatiria all was
serene. A renowned "rain-maker," seeing his reputation tottering under
his repeated failures, bethought him of accusing the Jesuits, and gave
out that the red color of the cross which stood before their house
scared the bird of thunder, and caused him to fly another way. [11] On
this a clamor arose. The popular ire turned against the priests, and the
obnoxious cross was condemned to be hewn down. Aghast at the threatened
sacrilege, they attempted to reason away the storm, assuring the crowd
that the lightning was not a bird, but certain hot and fiery
exhalations, which, being imprisoned, darted this way and that, trying
to escape. As this philosophy failed to convince the hearers, the
missionaries changed their line of defence.
[11] The following is the account of the nature of thunder, given to
Brébeuf on a former occasion by another sorcerer.
"It is a man in the form of a turkey-cock. The sky is his palace, and he
remains in it when the air is clear. When the clouds begin to grumble,
he descends to the earth to gather up snakes, and other objects which
the Indians call okies. The lightning flashes whenever he opens or
closes his wings. If the storm is more violent than usual, it is because
is young are with him, and aiding in the noise as well as they
can."--Relation des Hurons, 1636, 114.
The word oki is here used to denote any object endued with supernatural
power. A belief similar to the above exists to this day among the
Dacotahs. Some of the Hurons and Iroquois, however, held that the
thunder was a giant in human form. According to one story, he vomited
from time to time a number of snakes, which, falling to the earth,
caused the appearance of lightning.
"You say that the red color of the cross frightens the bird of
thunder. Then paint the cross white, and see if the thunder will come."
This was accordingly done; but the clouds still kept aloof. The Jesuits
followed up their advantage.
"Your spirits cannot help you, and your sorcerers have deceived you with
lies. Now ask the aid of Him who made the world, and perhaps He will
listen to your prayers." And they added, that, if the Indians would
renounce their sins and obey the true God, they would make a procession
daily to implore his favor towards them.
There was no want of promises. The processions were begun, as were also
nine masses to St. Joseph; and, as heavy rains occurred soon after, the
Indians conceived a high idea of the efficacy of the French "medicine."
[12]
[12] "Nous deuons aussi beaucoup au glorieux sainct Ioseph, espoux de
Nostre Dame, et protecteur des Hurons, dont nous auons touché au doigt
l'assistance plusieurs fois. Ce fut vne chose remarquable, que le iour
de sa feste et durant l'Octaue, les commoditez nous venoient de toutes
parts."--Brébeuf, Relation des Hurons, 1635, 41.
The above extract is given as one out of many illustrations of the
confidence with which the priests rested on the actual and direct aid of
their celestial guardians. To St. Joseph, in particular, they find no
words for their gratitude.
In spite of the hostility of the sorcerers, and the transient commotion
raised by the red cross, the Jesuits had gained the confidence and
good-will of the Huron population. Their patience, their kindness, their
intrepidity, their manifest disinterestedness, the blamelessness of
their lives, and the tact which, in the utmost fervors of their zeal,
never failed them, had won the hearts of these wayward savages; and
chiefs of distant villages came to urge that they would make their abode
with them. [13] As yet, the results of the mission had been faint and
few; but the priests toiled on courageously, high in hope that an
abundant harvest of souls would one day reward their labors.
[13] Brébeuf preserves a speech made to him by one of these chiefs, as a
specimen of Huron eloquence.--Relation des Hurons, 1636, 123.