these bones heaped upon one another without distinction, the poor with
the rich or the small with the great, are so many voices continually
reminding us of death, the vanity of worldly things, and the
insignificance of this present life. But it seems to me that the custom
of our savages on this occasion shows us still more sensibly our
wretchedness, for after the graves are opened all the bodies are laid
out on the ground and left thus uncovered for some time, giving the
spectators an opportunity for once to see what will be their condition
some day. Some of the bodies are entirely devoid of flesh and have only
a dry skin on the bones; others appear as if they had been smoked and
dried and show scarcely any signs of decay. Others still are covered
with worms.
The friends, being satisfied with this sight, cover them with handsome
robes of beaver-skin, entirely new. Finally, after a while, they strip
off the flesh and the skin, which they throw into the fire, together
with the robes and mats in which the bodies have been buried. The
complete bodies of those newly buried are left in the same condition and
the friends content themselves with simply covering them with new robes.
They touched only one old man, of whom I have spoken heretofore, who
died this autumn on the return from fishing. This large body had only
begun to decay a month ago, at the time of the first heat of spring; the
worms were swarming all over it, and the pus which came from it caused
an odor almost intolerable; nevertheless they had the courage to take
the body from the robe in which it was enveloped, cleansed it as much as
possible, took it up carefully and placed it in a new mat and robe, and
all this was accomplished without exposing any of this corruption. Is
here not a good example to animate the hearts of Christians, who should
have more noble ideas to deeds of charity and works of pity towards
their brethren? After this who will look with horror upon the misery of
a hospital? And who will not feel a peculiar pleasure in serving a sick
man covered with wounds, in whose person he serves the Son of God?
As they were stripping the bodies they found in two of them a species of
charm. The one that I saw with my own eyes was a turtle's egg with a
leather strap (courroye); the other, which was examined by our fathers,
was a small turtle the size of a nut. This leads to the belief that
there were sorcerers in our village, on account of which some resolved
to leave it as soon as possible. Indeed, two or three days after one of
the richest men, fearing that some misfortune would befall him,
transported his cabin two miles from us to the village of Arontaen.
Now, when these bones are well cleaned, part of them are placed in
sacks, part in blankets, and they carry them on their shoulders,
covering these bundles with other beautiful hanging robes. Entire bodies
are put on a sort of litter and carried with all the others, each one
taking his bundle into his cabin, where every family makes a feast to
its dead.
Returning from this festival with a captain, who has considerable
intelligence and who will be some day of high standing in the affairs of
the country, I asked him why they called the bones of the dead
_Atisken_. He explained as clearly as he could, and I learned from what
he said that many believe that we have two souls, both divisible and
material and yet both rational; one leaves the body at death, but
remains, however, in the cemetery until the feast of the dead, after
which it either is changed into a turtle-dove, or according to the more
general belief, it goes immediately to the village of souls.
The other soul is attached to the body; it marks the corpse, as it were,
and remains in the grave after the feast, never to leave it, "si ce
n'est que quelqu'un l'enfante de rechef." He mentioned to me, as a proof
of this metempsychosis, the perfect resemblance which some persons bear
to others who are deceased. Here is a grand philosophy. This is why they
call the bones of the dead _Atisken_, "the souls."
A day or two before departing for the feast they carried all these
bodies into one of the largest cabins of the village, where some of them
were attached to the poles of the cabin, and others laid around it, and
the captain entertained and made a grand feast in the name of the
deceased captain, whose name he bore. I was present at this "feast of
spirits," and observed four things in particular: First, that the
offerings which were given for the feast by the friends, and which
consisted of robes, necklaces of shell beads, and kettles, were hung on
poles extending the whole length of the cabin from one side to the
other. Second, the captain sang the song of the dead captain, according
to the desire he had expressed before his death, that it should be sung
on this occasion. Third, all the guests had the privilege of dividing
among themselves all the good things they had brought, and even of
carrying them home, contrary to the custom at ordinary feasts. Lastly,
at the close of the feast, as a compliment to him who had entertained
them, they imitated as they sang the cry of the spirits, and left the
cabin crying _haéé haé_.
The master of the feast, and even _Anenkhiondic_, captain-general of all
the country, sent to invite us several times with much solicitation. You
would have thought that the feast could not be a success without us. I
sent two of our fathers several days beforehand to see the preparations
and to learn exactly the day of the feast. _Anenkhiondic_ received them
very kindly, and on their departure conducted them himself a quarter of
a league from there to where the grave was dug, and showed them with
much display of emotion all the arrangements, &c., of the feast.
This feast was to have taken place on the Saturday of Pentecost, but
some affairs which came up unexpectedly, and the uncertainty of the
weather, caused it to be put off until Monday.
The seven or eight days before the feast were passed in collecting the
bodies (les âmes) as well as assembling the strangers who were invited;
meanwhile from morning till night gifts were distributed by the living
to the young men in honor of the dead. On one side women were drawing
the bow to see who should have the prize, which was sometimes a girdle
of porcupine quills or a necklace of beads; on the other hand, in
several parts of the village the young men were drawing clubs upon any
who would try to capture them. The prize of this victory was a hatchet,
some knives, or even a beaver robe. Every day the remains were arriving.
There is some pleasure in seeing these funeral processions which number
sometimes from two to three hundred persons. Each one carries the
remains of his friends, that is the bones, packed upon his back after
the manner that I have described, under a beautiful robe. Some arranged
their packets in the shape of a man, decorated with strings of beads,
with a fine crown of red hair. On leaving their village the whole
company cried _haéé haé_ and repeated this "cry of the spirits" all
along the way. This cry, they say, comforts them greatly, otherwise
their burdens, although souls, would weigh very heavily and cause a
weakness of the side (costé) for the rest of their lives. They travel by
short stages; the people of our village were three days in going four
leagues and in reaching _Ossossané_, which we call Rochelle, where all
the ceremonies were to be held. As soon as they arrive near any village
they shout again the haéé haé. The whole village comes out to meet them;
many presents are again distributed on this occasion. Each one repairs
to some one of the cabins; all find a place to put their bundles; this
is done without confusion. At the same time the captains hold a council
to decide upon the time that the company shall spend in this village.
All the bodies of the dead of eight or nine villages were taken to
Rochelle on Saturday of Pentecost; but the fear of bad weather obliged
them, as I have said, to postpone the ceremony till Monday. We were
lodged a quarter of a league from there, at the old village, in a cabin
where there were at least a hundred skeletons hung up to the poles, some
of which smelled stronger than musk.
Monday at midday, word was sent that they were ready and that the
ceremony would begin. The bundles of skeletons were at once taken down
and the friends unfolded the wrappings to say their last farewells.
Their tears flowed anew. I admired the tenderness of one woman towards
the remains of her father and children. She is the daughter of a captain
who died at a great age and who formerly occupied a high position in the
country. She combed his hair; she touched the bones one after another
with as much affection as if she would have given them life; she placed
near him his _Atsatonesai_, that is, his packet of rods (bûchettes) of
the council, which are all the books and papers of the country. As for
her children, she put upon their arms bracelets of shells and glass
beads and bathed their bones with her tears. She could hardly be
separated from them, but they were in haste, and it was necessary to
start at once. The one who carried the body of this old captain walked
at the head, the men following and then the women. They marched in this
order until they arrived at the grave.
The following is the arrangement of this place: There was a space about
as large as the Place Royale at Paris. In the center was a large grave
about 10 feet (pieds) deep and 5 fathoms (brasses) in diameter, round it
a scaffolding and a sort of stage nicely made, from 9 to 10 fathoms
(brasses) in diameter and 9 or 10 feet high; above the stage there were
several poles raised and well arranged, and others laid across them on
which to hang all the bundles of skeletons. The entire bodies, as these
were to be placed at the bottom of the grave, were laid under the
scaffolding the day before, resting on bark, or mats raised on stones to
the height of a man around the grave. The whole company arrived with the
bodies about an hour after midday, and divided into parties according to
the families and villages, and laid their bundles upon the ground,
almost as the pots of earth were made at the village fairs; they also
unfolded their robes and all the offerings they had brought and hung
them upon the poles which extended for from 500 to 600 fathoms (toises);
there were nearly twelve hundred gifts which remained thus on exhibition
for two whole hours, to give strangers an opportunity to see the riches
and magnificence of the country. I did not find the company as great as
I had expected; there were not more than two thousand persons. About 3
o'clock each one fastened up his bundles and folded his robes. Meanwhile
each captain, in order, gave a signal, and all immediately took up their
bundles of bones, ran as if at the assault of a city, mounted upon this
stage by means of ladders which were placed all around, and hung them
(the bundles) to the poles; each village had its department. This done,
all the ladders were taken away. Some of the captains remained upon the
platform and spent the rest of the afternoon, until 7 o'clock, in
announcing the lists of presents which were given in the name of the
deceased to some particular persons. For instance, they would say, here
is what such a one, deceased, gives to a certain relative.
About 5 or 6 o'clock they lined (pauerent) the bottom of the grave and
bordered it with large new robes, the skins of ten beavers, in such a
way that these extend more than a foot out of it. As they were preparing
the robes which were to be used for this purpose, some of them descended
into the grave, and came from it with their hands full of sand. I
inquired what this ceremony meant, and learned that they believed that
this sand will render them happy at their games (au ieu).
Of the twelve hundred offerings that had been exhibited on the platform,
forty-eight robes were to line and trim the grave, and each complete
body had, besides the robe in which it was wrapped, another one, and
some even two others, to cover it. This is all: so that I do not think
[? but] that each body had one to itself, taking one with another, which
is the least that it could have for its burial; for these robes of
beaver skin are what the clothes and shrouds are in France. But what
becomes then of the rest? We will see presently.
At 7 o'clock the bodies were lowered into the grave. We had great
difficulty in approaching it. Nothing ever pictured better to me the
confusion among the damned. You could see unloaded on all sides bodies
half decayed, and everywhere was heard a terrible uproar of confused
voices of persons who were speaking without hearing one another; ten or
twelve men were in the grave and were arranging the bodies all around
it, one after the other. They placed, exactly in the center, three large
kettles, which were of no use save for the spirits; one was pierced with
holes, another had no handle, and the third was worth little more. I saw
a few necklaces of shell beads there; it is true, many of them were put
on the body. This was all that was done on this day.
The whole company passed the night on the spot, having lit a great many
fires and boiled kettles. We retired to the old village with the
intention of returning the next day at daylight when they were to cast
the bones into the grave; but we barely arrived in time, notwithstanding
all the diligence we employed, on account of an accident which happened.
One of the skeletons, which was not well fastened, or perhaps was too
heavy for the cord which held it, fell of itself into the grave. The
noise it made awoke the whole troupe, who ran and immediately mounted,
in a crowd, to the platform and emptied, without order, all the bundles
into the grave, reserving, however, the robes in which they had been
wrapped. We were just leaving the village at that time, but the noise
was so great that it seemed almost as though we were there. Approaching
we saw suddenly an image of the infernal regions. This great space was
filled with fire and smoke and the air resounded on all sides with the
mingled voices of the savages. This noise, nevertheless, ceased for a
while, and was changed to singing, but in a tone so doleful and weird
that it represented to us the terrible sadness and the depth of despair
in which condemned souls are forever plunged.
Nearly all the bones had been cast in when we arrived, for it was done
almost in a moment, each one being in haste for fear that there was not
room for all these skeletons; nevertheless we saw enough of it to judge
of the rest. There were five or six men in the grave, with poles, to
arrange the bones. It was filled up within 2 feet of the top with bones,
after which they turned over upon them the robes that bordered the grave
all around, and covered the whole with mats and bark. The pit was then
filled up with sand, rods, and stakes of wood which were thrown in
promiscuously. Some of the women brought dishes of corn, and on the same
day and the following days several cabins of the village furnished
basketfuls of it, which were cast into the pit.
We have fifteen or twenty Christians buried with these infidels. We say
a _De profundis_ for their souls, with the firm hope that if the Divine
goodness does not cease His blessings on His people this feast will be
made no more, or will be only for Christians, and will be celebrated
with rites as holy as these are foolish and useless. They also begin to
be a burden upon the people for the excess and superfluous expenses that
are caused by them.
All the morning was spent in distributing gifts (largesses), and most of
the robes that had been wrapped around the bodies were cut in pieces and
thrown from the top of the platform into the midst of the crowd for
whoever could seize them first. There was great sport when two or three
contested the possession of one beaver skin. In order to settle it
peaceably it was necessary to cut it into so many pieces, and thus they
came out nearly empty-handed, for these tatters were hardly worth the
picking up. I admired here the industry of one savage. He did not hurry
himself to run after these flying pieces; but, as there is nothing so
valuable this year in the country as tobacco (petun), he held some
pieces of it in his hand, which he presented at once to those who were
disputing over the skin, and thus acquired it for himself.
Before leaving the place we learned that, on the evening when presents
had been given to the foreign nations, on the part of the master of the
feast, we also had been named; and, in fact, as we were going,
_Anenkhiondic_ came and presented a new robe composed of ten beaver
skins, in return for the necklace which I had given them in the midst of
the council to show them the heavenly way. They were so much obliged for
this present that they wished to show some acknowledgment of it in so
good an assembly. I would not accept it, however, saying to him that, as
we had made them this present only to persuade them to embrace our
faith, they could not oblige us more than in listening to us willingly
and believing in Him who rules over all. He asked what I desired that he
should do with the robe. I replied that he could dispose of it in
whatever way he deemed best, with which he remained perfectly satisfied.
Of the rest of the twelve hundred presents forty-eight robes were used
to adorn the grave. Each body wore its robe and some of them two or
three. Twenty were given to the master of the feast, to reward the
nations who had assisted at it. A number were distributed on the part of
the dead, through the captains, to their living friends. A part of them
were only used for show, and were returned to those who had exhibited
them. The old people (anciens), and great leaders of the country, who
had the administration and management of it, privately took a great
deal, and the rest were cut in pieces, as I have said, and scattered
through the assembly. However, it was only the rich who lost nothing, or
very little, at this feast. The mendicants and poor people brought and
left there all they possessed of any value, and suffered much by
striving to appear as well as others in this celebration. Every one
stood upon this point of honor.
Indeed, it was only by a chance that we were not also participants of
the feast. During this winter the Captain Aenons, of whom I have spoken
before, came to make us a proposal on the part of all the anciens of the
country. At that time the boiling of the kettle (chaudiere) was not yet
divided. They proposed to us then that we should consent to exhume the
remains of the two Frenchmen who had died in this country, to wit,
Guillaume Chaudron and Estienne Bruslé, who was killed four years ago,
and that their bones might be placed in the common grave of their dead.
We replied at first that this could not be done; that it was forbidden;
that as they had been baptized, and were, as we hoped, in heaven, we
respected their bones too highly to allow them to be mixed with the
bones of those who had not been baptized. Besides, it was not our custom
to exhume the bodies of those who had been buried.
We decided, however, after all, that as they were interred in the wood
and since the people desired it so much, we would consent to take up
their bones on the condition that they allowed us to put them in a
particular grave, with the bones of all that we had baptized in the
country.
Four reasons especially persuaded us to give them this final answer.
First, as it is the greatest expression of friendship and good-will
that can be shown in this country, we yielded to them readily in this
point that which they wished, and thus showed that we desired to love
them as brothers and to live and die with them. Second, we hoped that
God would be glorified in it, especially, in that separating by consent
of all the nation the bodies of the Christians from those of the
unbelievers, it would not be difficult afterwards to obtain special
permission that their Christians should be interred in a separate
cemetery, which we would bless for that purpose. Third, we claimed to
bury them with all the rites of the Church. Fourth, the old men, of
their own accord, desired us to raise there a beautiful and magnificent
cross, as they showed us afterwards more particularly. Thus the cross
would have been established by the authority of the whole country and
honored in the midst of this heathenism, and they would have been
careful not to impute to it afterwards, as they have done in the past,
all the misfortunes that befell them.
This captain thought our proposition very reasonable and the old men
(anciens) of the country remained very well contented with it. Some time
after, the chaudiere was divided, and, as I have said, five villages of
our part of the country resolved to hold their feast apart.
In the spring a general assembly of all the principal men was held, to
consult about the feast and to endeavor to prevent this schism and
reunite the cooking of the kettle. These dissatisfied ones were there
and I also was invited. They made me the same proposition as before. I
replied that we were very well satisfied, provided that this was done
under the conditions that we had demanded. I was reminded of the
division, and they asked me, since there were two feasts (chaudieres),
that is, two graves, on which side I desired to have our special grave.
To this I answered, in order to offend no one, that I would leave it to
their judgment; that they were just and wise and they could decide
between themselves. The master of the feast of Rochelle said, thereupon,
with condescension, that he did not claim anything and that he was
willing that the other, who is the chief at this place, should have on
his side the remains of our two Frenchmen. The latter replied that he
laid no claim to the one that had been buried at Rochelle, but that as
for the body of Estienne Bruslé it belonged to him, as it was he that
had engaged with him and led him into this country. So here the bodies
were separated, one on one side, the other on the other side. At this
some one said privately that indeed he (the chief) had the right to
demand the body of Estienne Bruslé, and that it was reasonable that he
should render some honor to his bones, since they had killed him. This
could not be said so discreetly but that the captain had a hint of it;
he concealed his feelings, however, at the time. After the council, as
we had already gone, he raised this reproach and began to talk with the
captain of Rochelle, and finally gave over entirely the body of Bruslé,
in order not to embitter and make bloody this sore, of which the people
of this point have not yet cleared themselves. This caused us to
resolve, that we might keep in favor with those of Rochelle, not to
meddle with either the one or the other.
Truly there is reason to admire the secret judgments of God, for this
infamous man certainly did not merit that honor; and to tell the truth
we had hesitated much in resolving to make on this occasion a particular
cemetery, and to transport to holy ground a body that had led so wicked
a life in the country and given the savages such a wrong impression of
the manners of the French. At first some thought hard of it that we
should have this opinion and were offended, alleging that this being so
they could not boast as they hoped among strange nations of being
related to the French, otherwise it would be said to them that they did
not have much appearance of it, since we had not wished to put the bones
of our people with theirs. Afterwards, however, having heard all our
reasons, they decided that we had acted prudently and that it was the
best means of maintaining our friendship with each other.