36 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



your fingers gone and your hands half rotten, I change my mind. I am sure 

 that you yourself would now regret to live longer. I shall do you a greater 

 kindness to tell you that you must prepare to die. Is that not so? It is the 

 Tohontaenrats who have treated you so ill, and who also cause your death. 

 Come then, my nephew, be of good courage ; prepare yourself for this evening, 

 and do not allow yourself to be cast down through fear of the tortures. 



The captive then asked the chief how he would be tortured and the 

 chief replied that he would die by fire. Wliile the chief was talking, 

 a sister of the deceased Huron whom the captive replaced by adoption 

 brought the prisoner food. She showed great solicitude for him and 

 treated him almost as if he were her own son. Her face was very sad 

 and her eyes were full of tears. The chief often put his own pipe 

 mto the prisoner's mouth, wiped the sweat from his face, and fanned 

 him with a feather fan (JR 13 : 53-55). 



About noon the captive made his athataion^ his farewell feast.*^ 

 Everyone was free to come and people were there in crowds. Before 

 the feast began, the prisoner walked through the middle of the house 

 and said in a loud and confident voice, "My brothers, I am going to 

 die; amuse yourselves boldly around me; I fear neither tortures nor 

 death." Then he began to sing and dance through the entire length 

 of the house and some others also sang and danced in their turn. 

 Next, food was given to those who had plates while those who had 

 none watched the others eat. The feasts over, the captive was taken 

 back to the village to which he had been originally brought to die 

 (JR 13: 55-57). 



The torture took place in the house of the war chief, the house 

 where all war councils were held. About 8 o'clock in the evening 

 11 fires were lighted along the house, about 1 brasse** from each 

 other. The people gathered immediately, the old men taking places 

 above, on a sort of platform that extended along both sides of the 

 house. The young men were below; it was so crowded that there 

 was hardly a passage along the fires. Cries of joy resounded on all 

 sides. Each provided himself with a firebrand or a piece of bark 

 with which to burn the prisoner. Before he was brought in, a chief 

 encouraged all to do their duty and told them of the importance of 

 this act which was viewed by the sim and by the god of war. He 

 ordered that at first they should burn only his legs, so that he 

 might hold out mitil daybreak. He also said that for this night 

 they were not to go and amuse themselves in the woods. Shortly 

 after he had finished speaking, the captive entered. The cries 

 redoubled at his arrival. He was made to sit down upon a mat and 

 his hands were bound. Then he rose and made a tour of the house, 

 singing and dancing. After he had returned to his place, the war 



*^Tlils fareweU feast was similar to that given by any man before he thought he was to 

 die (see below, "Feasts" and "Death"). 



**■ A brasse was about 5.3 feet (Kinietz 1940 : 40). 



