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 the
neighboring town also took part in the work. Before October the task was
finished.
The house was constructed after the Huron model. 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 changes 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 bedchamber. 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 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, an Indian mortar
for crushing corn, and a clock completed the furniture of the room.
There was no lack of visitors, for the house contained marvels 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 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.
“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 remembered. At noon visitors were never
wanting; but at the stroke of four all arose and departed, leaving the
missionaries for a time in peace.--FRANCIS PARKMAN.