446 CONCLUSION. [1701. 



the respect, not to say admiration, of liis French 

 contemporaries. 



The French charged themselves with the funeral 

 rites, carried the dead chief to his wigwam, 

 stretched him on a robe of beaver skin, and left 

 him there lying in state, swathed in a scarlet 

 blanket, with a kettle, a gun, and a sword at his 

 side, for his use in the world of spirits. This was 

 a concession to the superstition of his countrymen ; 

 for the Rat was a convert, and went regularly to 

 mass. 1 Even the Iroquois, his deadliest foes, paid 

 tribute to his memory. Sixty of them came in 

 solemn procession, and ranged themselves around 

 the bier; while one of their principal chiefs pro- 

 nounced an harangue, in which he declared that 

 the sun had covered his face that day in grief for 

 the loss of the great Huron. 2 He was buried on the 

 next morning. Saint-Ours, senior captain, led the 

 funeral train with an escort of troops, followed by 

 sixteen Huron warriors in robes of beaver skin, 

 marching four and four, with faces painted black 

 and guns reversed. Then came the clergy, and 

 then six war-chiefs carrying the coffin. It was 

 decorated with flowers, and on it lay a plumed hat, 

 a sword, and a gorget. Behind it were the brother 



1 La Potherie, IV. 229. Charlevoix suppresses the kettle and gun, 

 and says that the dead chief wore a sword and a uniform, like a French 

 officer. In fact, he wore Indian leggins and a capote under his scarlet 

 blanket. 



2 Charlevoix says that these were Christian Iroquois of the missions. 

 Potherie, his only authority, proves them to have been heathen, as their 

 chief mourner was a noted Seneca, and their spokesman, Avenano, was 

 the accredited orator of the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, 

 in whose name he made the funeral harangue. 



