1636.1 THE IROQUOIS PRISONER. 79 



The priests were soon to witness another and a 

 more terrible rite, yet one in which they found 

 a consolation, since it signalized the saving of a 

 soul, — the snatching from perdition of one of that 

 di'eaded race, mto whose very midst they hoped, 

 with devoted daring, to bear hereafter the cross of 

 salvation. A band of Huron warriors had sui* 

 prised a small party of Iroquois, killed several, and 

 captured the rest. One of the prisoners was led in 

 triumph to a village where the priests then were. 

 He had suffered greatly ; his hands, especially, 

 were frightfully lacerated. Now, however, he was 

 received with every mark of kindness. " Take 

 courage," said a chief, addressing him ; " you are 



the Huron country,) ''the situation of which is indicated on the little 

 pencil map I send you. They contain from six hundred to twelve hun- 

 dred skeletons each, of both sexes and all ages, all mixed together pur- 

 posdij. With one exception, these pits also contain pipes of stone or clay, 

 small earthen pots, shells, and wampum wrought of these shells, copper 

 ornaments, beads of glass, and other trinkets. Some pits contained arti- 

 cles of copper of aboriginal Mexican fabric." 



This remarkable fact, together with the frequent occurrence in these 

 graves of large conch-shells, of which wampum was made, and which 

 could have been procured only from the Gulf of Mexico, or some part of 

 the southern coast of the United States, proves the extent of the relations 

 of traffic by wliich certain articles were passed from tribe to tribe over a 

 vast region. The transmission of pipes from the famous Red Pipe-Stone 

 Quarry of the St. Peter's to tribes more than a thousand miles distant is 

 an analogous modern instance, though much less remarkable. 



The Tache Museum, at the Laval University of Quebec contains a 

 large collection of remains from these graves. In one instance, the hu- 

 man bones are of a size that may be called gigantic. 



In nearly every case, the Huron graves contain articles of use or 

 ornament of European workmanship. From this it may be inferred, that 

 the nation itself, or its practice of inhumation, does not date back to a 

 period long before the arrival of the French. 



The Northern Algonquins had also a solemn Feast of the Dead ; but 

 it was widely different from that of the Hurons. — See the very curiou.s 

 account of it by Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1642, 94, 95. 



