THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AND THEIK FOLK-LOKE 305 



arrow. These Indians were not always so particular 

 about ridding themselves of one wife before taking 

 another, and my good friend Father Babel relates 

 that during one season's missionary labors in the in- 

 terior of Labrador he separated the parties to no less 

 than twenty bigamous alliances. 



Though still clinging to many of their old supersti- 

 tions, deeds of blood and violence are far less common 

 than formerly. Up to quite recent times, however, it 

 was the custom among both Montagnais and Es- 

 capees to strangle their old and infirm whenever they 

 became unable to accompany the rest of the party 

 upon their hunting trips. To carry them about with 

 them was out of the question, their own tents, guns, 

 provisions, axes, and canoes being all that they could 

 manage. They probably justified the murder upon 

 the ground that it was more merciful than to permit 

 the infirm to perish alone of hunger. Many old Hud- 

 son Bay officials now living, such as Mr. Peter Mac- 

 kenzie, of Montreal, and Messrs. Henry Connolly and 

 Allan G. Cameron, formerly of the Labrador posts, 

 can furnish instances, just as the older missionaries 

 can, of successful intervention in cases of intended 

 murder of aged and helpless Indians. But sometimes 

 humane efforts of this kind have been thwarted, and 

 Mr. Connolly tells of an old woman thus ruthlessly 

 killed close to his post ; his first intimation of the en- 

 actment of the tragedy having been a conversation 

 which he overheard between two other squaws, who 

 were discussing the division of her poor belongings, 

 and commenting upon the victim's apparent unwill- 

 ingness to die. Usually in such cases there is a quick 

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