Appendixes — Crossing on Land 219 



was uttered. For were not these crosses the rude but tender memorials of the 

 voyageiurs to mates who had perished at these spots, caught in the treacher- 

 ous swirl and eddies of the stream ? As many as thirty crosses on one bank 

 were recorded by a clerk who entered the country in the summer of 1800. 



Soon after leaving Ste. Anne's aU clerks or bourgeois who had never before 

 accompanied a brigade into the interior were given to understand that they 

 would be "baptized" in the chilly waters of the river if they did not moisten 

 the whistles of their men. Accordingly high wines (brandy) was produced, 

 kegs were broached, and soon the red plumes in the Northmen's caps waved 

 at more uncertain angles, and the sorrows of leaving home were forgotten, 

 (p. 40^1.) 



Though the clerk could indulge in such luxuries as tea, a voyageur 's rations 

 were almost invariably a quart of lyed com ( dried peas were frequently used 

 until Mackinac was reached) and an ounce or two of grease, pork, or bacon. 

 From this last item, called lard in French, the class name, mangeur de lard, 

 "pork-eater," was derived, (p. 51.) 



There were compensations, however, in travehng on Lake Superior. When 

 the wind was soft and light and blowing from the proper quarter, sails were 

 improvised from ou cloths or blankets, and the little vessels sped along while 

 the voyageurs took their ease, smoking, singing, or sleeping. It was La Vieille, 

 or "the old woman of the wind," who thus blessed the voyageurs with favor- 

 ing breezes and Hghtened their toil; and so, sacrifices to her were always in 

 order. The ritual consisted of throwing a httle tobacco into the waters, or 

 scattering a httle water from the blades of the paddles, and uttering the 

 formula, "Souffle, souffle, la vieille" ( "Blow, blow, old woman" ) . This cere- 

 mony was doubtless borrowed from the Indians, whose customs were often 

 appropriated by the voyageurs, (p. 62. ) 



Grand Portrage was left with regrets for the end of rest and conviviality. 

 The carrying place there was nine mues in length, and the voyageurs earned 

 six livres extra for every pièce carried over the bitterly toilsome way. Now 

 the current was against the voyageurs until the height of land was reached 

 near Rainy Lake. On this eminence, whence water flowed northward to 

 Hudson Bay, east to the Atlantic, and south to the Gulf of Mexico, the voya- 

 geurs halted for another of their many ceremonies. Here every novice, be 

 he bourgeois, clerk, or pork-eater, must be made a Northwester. The cere- 

 mony consisted of sprinkling the candidate with a cedar branch dipped in 

 water. He then gave certain promises, among others, never to allow anyone 

 to pass that way without initiation into the ranks of Nor'westers, and never 

 to kiss a voyageur 's wife without her consent. The rites were completed with 

 a dozen gunshots fired in rapid succession and a treat of high wines by the 

 new members. 



Another custom practiced in this region was the construction of a lob 

 stick. It was customary to make one of these Maypoles in honor of any gentle- 

 man who might be a passenger in a canoe. A taU pine, standing out on a point 

 in the lake, was chmbed by one of the voyageurs, who, with an ax, cut off all 



