130 An Hijtorical yonrnal of 



But would you believe, Madam, that in this Seafon, and in 



Wh the Trees ^'^ E)egrees Latitude, there is not yet a Leaf 



1 T ' Upon the Trees, thouo h we have fometimes as 



haue no Lea<ves in ^tt.. i- -^iA/r 1 r i 



7!/f r^^nr. ereatlieat as you have m the Month of July, 



the Month of m?iy, R^, r> r r ^-l- - -n* i 1''^ 



^ I he Reaion of this is, without Doubt, be- 



caufe the Earth, which has been covered with Snow feveral 

 Months, is not yet heated enough to open the Pores of the 

 Roots, and to make the Sap rife. For the reft, the great and the 

 little Famine do not deferve the Name of Rivers ; they are but 

 Brooks, efpecially the laft, but are pretty well ftocked with Fifh. 

 There are here fome Eagles of a prodigious Bignefs. My Peo- 

 ple have juft now taken down a Neft, which confifted of a Cart 

 Load of Wood, and two Eagles which were not yet fledged, and 

 which were bigger than the largeft Hen Turkeys : They eat 

 them, and found them very good. 



I returned to Cataroccui ; where, the Night that I ftaid there, 

 I was Witnefs to a Scene that was fomething curious. About 

 Ten or Eleven o'Clock at Night, juft as I was going to Bed, I 

 heard a Cry, which they told me v/as a War-Cry ; and a little 

 after, I faw a Company of Mijpfaguex. enter the Fort iinging. 

 Some Years fmce, theib Savages engaged themfelves in the 

 V/ar which the Iroquois make with the Cherokees, a pretty nume- 

 rous People, v/ho inhabit a fine Country to the South of Lake 

 Erie, and fince that Time the young People are eager for Wan 

 Three or four of thefe Heroes, equipped as fora Mafquerade, 

 their Faces painted in a horrible Manner, and followed by almoft 

 all the Savages who live about the Fort, after having run thro* 

 all their Cabins fmging their War-Song to the Sound of the 

 Chichikouê (a), came to do the fame in all the Apartments of the 

 Fort, in Honour to the Commandant and the Officers. I confefs 

 to you, Madam, that there is fomething in this Ceremony which 

 fills one with Horror the iirft Time one fees it ; and I found by 

 it what I had not fo fenfibly perceived before, as I did then, <vi%. 

 that I was amongft Barbarians : Their Singing has always feme- 

 thing mournful and difmal ; but here I found in it fomething ter- 

 rifying, cau fed perhaps folely by the Darknefs of the Night, 

 and the Preparation of the Feaft, for it is one for the Savages. 

 This Invitation was addrefTed to the Iroquois ; but they, who be- 

 gin to be Lofers by the War with the Cherokeesy or who were not 

 in a Humour for it, demanded Time to deliberate, and every one 

 returned to his own Home. 



(a) The Chkhïhué is a Kind of Calibaih, full ©f Pebblcf • 



It 



