(1) _Trusty memory._--p. 9.
The memory of the Indians is as astonishing as their native sagacity
and penetration. They are entirely destitute of those helps which we
have invented to ease our memory, or supply the want of it; yet they
are never at a loss to recall to their minds any particular
circumstance with which they would impress their hearers. On some
occasions, they do indeed make use of little sticks to remind them of
the different subjects they have to discuss; and with ease they form a
kind of local memory, and that so sure and infallible, that they will
speak for a great length of time--sometimes for three or four hours
together--and display twenty different presents, each of which
requires an entire discourse, without forgetting any thing, and even
without hesitation.
(2) _Kind Friendship._--p. 14.
Every Indian has a friend nearly of the same age as himself, to whom
he attaches himself by the most indissoluble bonds. Two persons, thus
united by one common interest, are capable of undertaking and
hazarding every thing in order to aid and mutually succour each other;
death itself, according to their belief, can only separate them for a
time: they are well assured of meeting again in the other world never
to part, where they are persuaded they shall have occasion for the
same services from one another. Charlevoix tells of an Indian who was
a christian, but who did not live according to the maxims of the
gospel, and who, being threatened with hell by a Jesuit, asked this
missionary whether he thought his friend who was lately departed had
gone into that place of torment; the father answered him that he had
good grounds to think that the Lord had had mercy upon him, and taken
him to heaven. "Then, I won't go to hell, neither?" replied the
Indian, and this motive brought him to do every thing that was desired
of him; that is to say he would have been full as willing to go to
hell as heaven, had he thought to find his companion there.
It is said that these friends, when they happen to be at a distance
from each other, reciprocally invoke one another in all dangers. The
assistance they promise each other may be surely depended upon.
(3) _A Maqua saved from slaughter._--p. 15.
The following is the practice and ceremony of adoption: A herald is
sent round the village or camp, to give notice that such as have lost
any relations in the late expedition are desired to attend the
distribution which is about to take place. Those women, who have lost
their sons or husbands, are generally satisfied in the first place;
afterwards, such as have been deprived of friends of a more remote
degree of consanguinity, or who choose to adopt some of the youth. The
division being made, which is done as in other cases without the least
dispute, those who have received any share lead them to their tents or
huts, and, having unbound them, wash and dress their wounds if they
happen to have received any; they then clothe them, and give them the
most comfortable and refreshing food their store will afford.
Whilst their new domestics are feeding, they endeavour to administer
consolation to them; they tell them they are redeemed from death, they
must now be cheerful and happy; and, if they serve them well without
murmuring or repining, nothing shall be wanting to make them such
atonement for the loss of their country and friends as circumstances
will allow of.
If any men are spared, they are commonly given to the widows that have
lost their husbands by the hands of the enemy, should there be any
such, to whom, if they happen to prove agreeable, they are soon
married. The women are usually distributed to the men, from whom they
do not fail of meeting with a favourable reception. The boys and girls
are taken into the families of such as have need of them. The lot of
their conquerors becomes in all things theirs.