RELICS OF THE STONE AGE IN NOVA SCOTIA PIERS. 27 



LESCARBOT'S ACCOUNT OF THE MICMACS. 



Before entering upon a description of these implements, it 

 be well to consider the habits of our Indians as described 

 in the writings of one of the early voyagers. This will help us 

 much to understand the subject with which we deal. The first 

 exact and extensive account of the Micmacs, and by far the most 

 interesting, is to be obtained from the description of New France 

 written by the old French advocate, Mark Lescarbot, who in 

 1606 accompanied Poutrincourt to Acadie. He dwelt for some 

 time at Port Royal, now known as Annapolis, which had been 

 founded in the previous, year by Pierre du Guast, Comte de 

 Monts From an English version* of Lescarbot's rare book, in 

 the library of the late Dr. Akins, I have made some transcripts 

 which follow in ' the quaint language and spelling of the 

 translator. These extracts will be of great interest to any who 

 are studying the archaeology of Nova Scotia, for Lescarbot wrote 

 at the period when iron implements were only beginning to 

 supplant those of stone. Dr. J. B. Gilpin has already given us 

 much information gathered from this writer, but seldom in the 

 latter's language. 



Speaking of the dress of the Indians, Lescarbot says they wore 

 " a skin tied to a latch or girdle of leather, which passing 

 between their buttocks joineth the other end of the said latch 

 behind ; and for the rest of their garments, they have a cloak on 

 their backs made of many skins, whether they be of otters or of 

 beavers, and one only skin, whether it be of ellan, or stag's skin, 

 bear, or lucerne, which cloak is tied upward with a leather 

 ribband, and they thrust commonly one arm out ; but being in 

 their cabins they put it off, unless -it be cold.... As for the 

 women, they differ only in one thing, that is, they have a girdle 

 over the skin they have on ; and do resemble (without compari- 



* " Nova Francia : or, the Description Of that Part of New France, Which is one 



Continent with Virginia [by Mark Lescarbot, advocate]. Translated out of the 



French into English, by P. E [rondelle]." The Akins copy is bound separately, but it 

 originally formed pp. 795-917 of the second volume of Osborne's Collection of Voyages 

 and Travels, compiled from the Curious and Valuable Library of the Earl of Oxford, 

 London, 174547, 2 Is., folio, generally called the Harleian Collection of Voyages. 



