274 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. CHAP. xvn. 



an Iroquois in a tree to watch for the canoes which one 

 of their prisoners had told them would arrive in a day or 

 two. The Iroquois was to imitate the cry of the owl when 

 he saw the canoes ; the others lay in ambush ready to kill 

 and destroy as soon as the unsuspecting Algonkins came 

 within reach of their unerring arrows. The note of the 

 Kou-kou was sounded, but it excited no surprise among 

 the Algonkins ; in a few minutes they were all within 

 range, and mercilessly destroyed. The remnant of the 

 Algonkins tribe at the present clay always approach the 

 Kou-kou cache or owl-ambush with the same feelings as 

 an Ojibway of Lake Huron visits the scenes of former 

 surprises by the Mohawks. 



The falls of She-we-na-he-gan are also memorable in 

 Indian traditions on account of the death of a party of 

 Hurons, under circumstances very characteristic of the 

 Indian race in former times. After the dispersion of the 

 first-named people in 1648, a large number established 

 themselves north-east of the St. Maurice, that river being 

 fixed as the boundary between them and the Algonkins. 

 A party of Hurons had been hunting on the banks of the 

 river, and were returning with loaded canoes down 

 stream. They were at that time at war with their neigh- 

 bours the Algonkins. On approaching the head of the 

 She-we-na-he-gan they heard a signal, and, looking up, 

 they saw a party of their enemies half hidden in the foliage 

 of the surrounding trees. The Hurons had advanced too 

 far to recede : it was impossible to paddle back against the 

 stream, and to land at the head of the falls was to throw 

 themselves into the hands of their enemies, and submit to 

 the unsparing scalping-knife. The Huron chief, glancing 



