CHAP. xv. INDIAN CANNIBALISM. 245 



et encore ce sont la des traits tout-a-fait a part. Car nos 

 Indiens se montrent generalement bons, en toute occasion, 

 les uns envers les autres ; on voit qu'ils airnent a se 

 rencontrer et a se rendre service.'* 



The advent of the geese is a joyful time to the Montag- 

 nais and Nasquapees, who winter in the far interior of the 

 Labrador Peninsula. When caribou, partridge, and fish 

 fail, there is little left until the geese come. Indeed 

 throughout North America the advent of the geese is 



o < ~ > 



honoured or welcomed in many different ways. Even the 

 name of a month or moon is derived from the 'moon 

 when the goose lays her eggs.' The goose- dance is a 

 time-honoured custom among the Crees of the Saskat- 

 chewan ; and similar rejoicings ami ceremonies exist 

 among the heathen Montagnais and Nasquapees. On the 

 coast of Hudson Bay the coming of the geese is watched 

 with the greatest anxiety. When the long and ^dreary 

 winter has fully expended itself, and the willow grouse 

 have taken their departure for more southern regions, 

 there is frequently a period of dread starvation to many 

 of the natives, who are generally at that time moving 

 from their wintering grounds to the trading Posts. 



The first note, therefore, of the large gray Canada goose 

 is listened to with a rapture known only to those who 

 have endured great privations and gnawing hunger. The 

 melancholy visages brighten, and the tents are filled with 

 hope, to which joy soon succeeds, as the son or brother, 

 returning from a successful hunt, throws down the grateful 

 load.f 



* Rapport sur les Missions du Diocese de Quebec, 1854. 

 f Recollections of the Swans and Geese of Hudson's Bay, by George 

 Barnston, Esq., of the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company. Read before 



