184 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



The value of these skins was about 8,000 livres, 

 and the size of the church (which was probably the 

 original Parish Church of Quebec) was 30 by 100 

 feet. The churches were furnished indirectly by 

 the beaver, for we find that "in the year 1642 

 Monsieur de ITsle, lieutenant of Monsieur the 

 Governor, gave a robe of beaver skins with which 

 were purchased the two pieces of carpet that lie 

 around the altar." From the same source (The 

 Jesuit Relations in Canada) there is given a pathetic 

 account of the early Christianity (1659) of the 

 Indians in which the beaver robes are mentioned. 

 " A good Christian Algonkin (also in other places 

 spelled Algonquin) woman named Cecile Koue- 

 koueat^, falling sick in the midst of the woods and 

 seeing herself in extremity without being able to 

 confess, she believed that she might make up for 

 this in some fashion with a present of beaver skins 

 which she bequeathed to the Church at Three 

 Rivers," sending this by her kinsmen who came 

 after her death to the priest. They spoke thus : 

 " Black Gown (as they called the priests), listen to 

 the voice of the dead and not to that of the living. 

 It is not we who speak to thee ; it is a departed 

 woman who before dying enclosed her voice in this 

 package. She charged it to declare to thee all her 

 sins, as she herself could not do by word of mouth. 

 Your handwriting enables you to speak to the 

 absent ; she intends to do so by these beaver skins 

 what you do with your papers," etc. A few years 



