106 THROUGH CANADA 



pilgrimage to the great sepulchre. Would the virtues 

 of the Christ equally touch them ? He watched 

 the contests in which the youths so eagerly engaged, 

 and may have discerned in them a spirit of emula- 

 tion, worthy of a better cause. It was in honour 

 of the dead that prizes for these competitions were 

 awarded. The effect on Breboeuf of the closing 

 scene in the spectacle when the camp fires blazed in 

 the night and awakened weird shadows amongst the 

 giant trees is on record. In the drear funeral chant 

 that rose from hundreds of voices over the bones and 

 weapons piled in the open grave, the Jesuit priest 

 heard a wail as of despairing souls from the " abyss 

 of perdition." 



These sepulchres, ten feet deep and thirty feet 

 long, are still to be discovered in the Huron country. 

 The customs of the tribes were not of the nature to 

 inspire the Jesuit with hopes, any more than their 

 ceremonies. 



Their dwellings consisted of rows of strong 

 saplings, roofed with bark, which afforded no privacy 

 and fostered no separate family life. Members of 

 the tribe could come and go when and how they 

 pleased. Within the circle gossip, war councils, 

 tortures, vices were practised in turn. The flickering 

 light of the fire disclosed grizzled warriors, scarred 

 youths, wizened squaws, gaily bedizened girls, volatile 

 children, and snarling dogs. In summer the men 

 were almost naked, in winter clothed with the skins 



