1633.] HURONS AT QUEBEC. 47 



on the strand now covered by the lower town. The 

 greater number brought furs and tobacco for the 

 trade ; others came as sight-seers ; others to gamble, 

 and others to steal/ — accomplishments in which 

 the Hurons were proficient : their gambling skill 

 being exercised chiefly against each other, and their 

 thieving talents against those of other nations. 



The routine of these annual visits was nearly 

 uniform. On the first day, the Indians built their 

 huts ; on the second, they held thek council with 

 the French officers at the fort; on the third and 

 fourth, they bartered their furs and tobacco for ket- 

 tles, hatchets, knives, cloth, beads, iron arrow-heads, 

 coats, shirts, and other commodities; on the fifth, 

 they were feasted by the French ; and at daybreak 

 of the next morning, they embarked and vanished 

 like a flight of birds. ^ 



On the second day, then, the long file of chiefs 

 and warriors mounted the pathway to the fort, — 

 tall, well-moulded figures, robed in the skins of the 

 beaver and the bear, each wild visage glowmg with 

 paint and glistening with the oil which the Hurons 

 extracted from the seeds of the sunflower. The 

 lank black hair of one streamed loose upon his 

 shoulders ; that of another was close shaven, ex- 

 cept an upright ridge, which, bristling like the crest 

 of a dragoon's helmet, crossed the crown from the 



1 "Quelques vns d'entre eux ne viennent a la traite auec les rran9ois 

 que pour iouer, d'autres pour voir, quelques vns pour derober, et les plus 

 sages et les plus riches pour trafiquer." — Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 34. 



2 "Comme une voice d'oiseaux." — Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 390 

 (Cramoisy). — The tobacco brought to the French by the Hurons may 

 have been raised by the adjacent tribe of the Tionnontates, who cultivated 

 it largely for sale. See Introduction. 



