CHAP. XXI. MONTAGXAIS FEASTS. I7 



to Moose. Assistance was procured ; the conjuror and 

 his most violent adherents were taken prisoners, and 

 either hung or shot: tlius terminating an Indian insmTec- 

 tion against the whites, often conceived and spoken of by 

 the conjurors, but attempted without the shghtest prospect 

 of success. 



The Montagnais have many characteristics of the 

 western Crees, the race to which they belong. They do 

 not appear to sorrow for any calamity but the death of a 

 relative or friend. They are kind and hospitable ; they 

 hate the name of a miser, and, altliough fond of gambling, 

 show no desh^e to hoard wealth of any kind. Having 

 little sympathy with suffering, like other races of Indians'^ 

 they are very patient and enduring, except when will- 

 fully insulted. Pere le Jeune spoke disparagingly of the 

 chastity of the Montagnais of his time. He says that, like 

 the Hurons, they preferred the son of a sister to succeed 

 the chief rather than his own child, so weU were they 

 aware of the immorahty of theii' wives. 



The Montagnais had two kinds of feasts— a religious 

 feast, or one at which it was incumbent on each gue^t to 

 assist in consuming every particle of the food prepared ; 

 and an ordinary feast, when they ate as much as they 

 pleased, carrying the remainder home. 



In times of scarcity, when an Indian would kill three 

 or four beaver and return to his lodge with them, whether 

 ni the middle of the night, at the dawn of morning, or at 

 noon-day, he made a feast at once, inviting all his friends. 

 The men to whom the invitation was addressed would 

 reply, Ho ! ho ! ho ! ho ! and immediately snatch up 

 their birch-bark dishes and wooden spoons and repair to 



VOL. II. ^ 



