CHAF. xxvii. RELIGION OF TJIE NA.SCH'Al'EES. 101 



the practice of gambling, so common amongst savage 

 Indian tribes. 



The Nasquapees, like their friends and allies the Mon- 

 tagnais, hate the Esquimaux, whom they never fail to 

 attack when opportunity, offers. 



The vast extent of the country hunted by the wandering 

 Nasquapees may be conceived when, 100 years ago, we 

 find this people side by side with their allies the Mon- 

 tagnais on the Saugenay, and 100 miles west of the Straits 

 of BeUe Isle, places from 800 to 900 miles apart. 



Cartwright saw two Nasquapee canoes near the mouth 

 of Indian Tickle in 1774. He calls the Indians Nasqua- 

 picks ; and he not only purchased furs from them in the 

 same year, but he speaks of a chain of hills as Nasquapick 

 Eidge.* In 1771 he saw signs of I^^asquapick Indians 

 near Denbigh Island, and on several points of the coast 

 north-west of the Straits of Belle Isle. They must then 

 have been in the immediate neighbourhood of tlieir 

 enemies the Esquimaux, but Cartwright does not say that 

 any conflicts took place whilst he was on the cocist. 



The excellent missionary Pere Arnaud visited the 

 Nasquapees, whose hunting-grounds lie to the north-west 

 of Lake Manicouagan, in 1853. The comet which was 

 visible in August and September of that year produced 

 the utmost consternation in the minds of the Indians. 

 They crowded round the missionary, and their questions 

 evidently showed that the sight was new to them. 



Pere Arnaud says that the heathen Nasquapees which 

 he visited believe in two divinities or Manitou, one good, 



* Sixteen Years on the Coast of Lahrador. 



