ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 565 



the Huron boys, even up to the early years of the nineteenth century. No 

 more is seen of it now. Even lacrosse, the Huron national game, which 

 has become the favourite sport of so many Canadians, is no longer played 

 at Lorette. 



Village and State, 



Lorette is not well provided with the elements which give variety and 

 activity to village life, and help to build up the framework of municipal 

 government. The employers of labour are very few, and nearly all out- 

 siders, French or Scotch Canadians. In the same way the bulk of the 

 trade which is done at Lorette in connection both with the provisioning 

 of the families and the output of their industries (the smaller class of 

 Indian fancy wares excepted) is carried on by their white neighbours of 

 St. Ambroise. 



There is, however, a very notable departure from this condition of 

 things in the enterprise shown by Mr. Maurice Bastien, of Huron descent, 

 who operates the largest hide-dressing and moccasin and snowshoe- 

 making establishment in and about Lorette, and at times gives employ- 

 ment to some fifty people. In other respects also does Mr. Bastien set a 

 good example for his kinsmen to follow. He is almost a total abstainer 

 from alcoholic beverages. He has bought and partly cleared and improved 

 some fifty arpencs of land adjoining the village plot, on which he now cuts 

 every year about 20 tons of hay, reaps about 150 bushels of oats and 

 buckwheat, pastures nine cows and some horses. An interesting 

 experiment which he is carrying on for the firm of Renfrew, fur dealers, 

 of Quebec, is the breeding of butt'aloes from stock obtained in the State of 

 New York. Mr. Bastien proposes to have one or two of his sons to take 

 up agriculture as a means of livelihood. A further proof of his spirit of 

 enterprise and progress is the building, at his own expense, of a system 

 of waterworks whereby each family in the Huron village is enabled to 

 secure in its own house, at the low rate of four dollars per annum, an 

 abundant supply of pure water. 



Education does not provide more leaders than do industry and com- 

 merce. The school for girls and that for boys are each under the care of 

 a female teacher paid by the Canadian Government. The school house 

 is built on the site, and partly out of the material of the priest's house 

 erected by the Jesuits in the early years of the eighteenth century. The 

 progress at school of the girls is said to be satisfactory, that of the 

 boys not so. There are very few persons of culture, or even ordinary 

 education, at Lorette. The professional men whose services may be 

 required all reside in neighbouring villages. Mr. Paul Picard, a retired 

 Civil Service employe of the Quebec Government, and the son of a noted 

 Huron chief, resides here. He was employed as a diaughtsman, and at 

 one time was a public notary. He is particularly well informed on the 

 history of the Huron community, and a staunch defender of the rights of 

 his kinsmen. 



A feature of Lorette is its quaint little church, the greater part of which 

 dates hack to 1730.' There is no resident missionary, but the parish priest 

 of St. Ambroise, near by, ministers to the religious welfare of the Huron 

 community. An early morning service is held every Sunday and a 

 sermon preached. The singing and preaching are done in French, The 



' L. St. G, Lindsay, B.mic Canadienne, 1900, p. 1?2. 



