1648.] MURDER AND ATONEMENT. 359 



his reproaches for the enormity of their crime. 

 This closed the interview, and the deputation with- 

 di'ew. 



The grand ceremony took place on the next day. 

 A kind of arena had been prepared, and here were 

 hung the fifty presents in which the atonement 

 essentially consisted, — the rest, amounting to as 

 many more, being only accessory.^ The Jesuits 

 had the right of examining them all, rejecting any 

 that did not satisfy them, and demanding others in 

 place of them. The naked crowd sat silent and 

 attentive, while the orator in the midst delivered 

 the fifty presents in a series of harangues, which 

 the tired listener has not thought it necessary to 

 preserve. Then came the minor gifts, each with 

 its signification explained in turn by the speaker. 

 First, as a sepulchre had been provided the day 

 before for the dead man, it was now necessary to 

 clothe and equip him for his journey to the next 

 world ; and to this end three presents were made. 

 They represented a hat, a coat, a shirt, breeches, 

 stockings, shoes, a gun, powder, and bullets ; but 

 they were, in fact something quite difi'erent, as 

 wampum, beaver-skins, and the like. Next came 

 several gifts to close up the w^ounds of the slain. 

 Then follow^ed three more. The first closed the 

 chasm in the earth, which had burst through horror 

 of the crime. The next trod the ground fii'm, that 

 it might not open again ; and here the whole assem- 



1 The number was unusually large, — partly because the aflau- was 

 thought very important, and partly because the murdered man belonged 

 to another nation. See Introduction. 



