306 THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AND THEIR FOLK-LOBE 



and ready understanding of the situation, and when the 

 victim feels that he or she is no longer of any use, there 

 is a perfect resignation to approaching fate. The 

 executioner enters the tent or wigwam in which the 

 victim is lying, and places a thong made out of deer- 

 skin around the throat. The end is passed under the 

 edge of the hut or tent, and is there tightened until 

 strangulation has done its work. I have been told of 

 cases in which two executioners were employed, one 

 pulling on each side of the tent, always on the out- 

 side, and each having hold of the cord or strap of 

 deerskin that passed around the victim's throat. 



Among the Indians who hunt in the Gatineau coun- 

 try, and thence to the headwaters of the St. Maurice, 

 it was customary up to a very few years ago, and 

 doubtless is still, in the interior of the country, for an 

 aged hunter, when he felt himself no longer able to 

 accompany his companions upon the chase, to divide 

 his small belongings into as many little heaps or piles 

 upon the ground as he had sons. Beneath one of 

 these was concealed his axe. Then the different sons 

 were summoned, to select each the pile that was to 

 be his share of his father's goods. Upon him who dis- 

 covered the axe beneath his patrimony devolved the 

 duty of becoming his father's despatches While the 

 children were engaged in making the fatal selection, 

 the old hunter chanted a mournful dirge, of which the 

 following is a free translation : 



"Withered and old am I, 

 The fish can no longer take, 

 The deer can no longer chase, 

 The rabbit no longer trap, 

 And life is no more for me." 



