1634.] LE JEUNE LEAVES THE INDIANS. 39 



required the Indians to repeat the other after him, 

 promising to renounce their superstitions, and obey 

 Christ, whose image they saw before them, if he 

 would give them food and save them from perishing. 

 The pledge given, he dismissed the hunters with a 

 benediction. At night they returned with game 

 enough to relieve the immediate necessity. All 

 was hilarity. The kettles were slung, and the 

 feasters assembled. Le Jeune rose to speak, when 

 Pierre, who, having killed nothing, was in ill 

 humor, said, with a laugh, that the crucifix and 

 the prayer had nothing to do with their good 

 luck ; while the sorcerer, his jealousy reviving as 

 he saw his hunger about to be appeased, called out 

 to the missionary, " Hold your tongue ! You have 

 no sense ! " As usual, all took their cue from him. 

 They fell to their repast with ravenous jubilation, 

 and the disappointed priest sat dejected and silent. 



Eepeatedly, before the spring, they were thus 

 threatened with starvation. Nor was thek case 

 exceptional. It was the ordinary winter life of all 

 those Northern tribes who did not till the soil, but 

 lived by hunting and fishing alone. The deser- 

 tion or the killing of the aged, sick, and disabled, 

 occasional cannibalism, and frequent death from 

 famine, were natural incidents of an existence 

 which, during half the year, was but a desperate 

 pursuit of the mere necessaries of life under the 

 worst conditions of hardship, sufi'ering, and debase- 

 ment. 



At the beginning of April, after roaming for ^ye 

 months among forests and mountains, the party 



