Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1902), No. 13. 13 



indeed quite probable that they would find a male, since they had already found 

 and killed two females. When he understood what I was driving at, he said 

 to me sharply, " Believe me, this black robe has no sense." They are so 

 superstitious in these uproars and in their other nonsense, that if they have 

 sweats in order to cure themselves, or to have a good hunt, or to have fine 

 weather, [they think] nothing would be accomplished if they did not sing, 

 and if they did not observe these superstitions. I have noticed that, when 

 the men sweat, they do not like to use women's robes with which to 

 enclose their sweat boxes, if they can have any others. In short, when they 

 have shouted for three hours or thereabouts in these stoves, they emerge 

 completely wet and covered with their sweat, (vi. 189 ff. ) 



In the different villages there were endless feast 

 feasts of farewell to the dead, of thanksgiving, for display, 

 before going to war. Feasting took rank with other 

 practices which we have already described. 



This is a sorcerer's account of himself 



" I give feasts at which all must be eaten. I sing loudly during these 

 feasts. I believe in my dreams. I interpret them and the dreams of others. 

 I sing and beat my drum in order to be lucky in the chase and cure 

 sickness. I consult those who have made the light (Genii). I kill men by 

 my sorceries and with my contrivances. I take robes and other gifts for 

 curing the sick. I order that these should also be given to the sick them- 

 selves. What dost thou find bad in all that ?" (xi., 263.) 



The Jesuits however forbade their converts the eat-all 

 feasts, the belief in dreams, and the sweating to secure 

 good hunting. 



The different kinds of feasts are described in the 



following passage : — 



They have two«kinds of feasts — one at which everything is eaten ; the 

 other at which the guests eat what they please, carrying away the rest to 

 divide with their families. This last feast seems to me praiseworthy, for 

 there is no excess, each one taking as much as he likes of the portion given 

 to him ; indeed, I would venture to say that it is a happy invention to 

 preserve friendship among them, and for each to help feed the others. For 

 usually the heads of families only eat a part of their share, carrying the rest 

 to their wives and children. The trouble is that their feasts come too often. 

 In the famine through which we passed, if my host took two, three, or four 

 beavers, immediately, whether it was day or night, they had a feast for all 

 the neighbouring savages. And if those people had captured something, they 

 had one also ?.t the same time ; so that, on emerging from one feast, you 

 went to another, and- sometimes even to a third and a fourth. I told them 



