2 20 An Hijîorîcal Journal of 



çerning their Simples, or the little Curiofity of the French to 

 get. the Knowledge of them. If the laft are not in Fault, no- 

 thing makes it appear more, in my Opinion, that the Savages 

 are not pleafed to fee us in their Country : And we have other 

 Proofs, which are as clear as this. It is very likely alfo that 

 they are of the fame Opinion with Regard to their Simples, as 

 they are about their Mines ; that is to Jay^ that they would foon 

 die, if they difcoversd any cf them to Strangers. 



The Savages of thefe Parts are naturally Thieves, and think 

 n^*h M' ' Prizes that they can catch. It is 



UfthelVhamts. ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ difcover that we have 



loft any Thing, it is fufRcient to inform the Chief of it, and 

 we are fure to recover it ^ but we muft give the Chief more than 

 the Value of the Thing, and he requires further fome Trifle for 

 the Perfon that found it, and who is probably the Thief him- 

 felf : I happened to be in this Cafe the Day after my Arrival, 

 and they Ihewed me no Favour. Thefe Barbarians would fooner 

 engage in a War than make the leaft Concevions on this 

 Point. 



Some Days after I paid a Vifit to the Chief of the Miafmes^ 

 who had got the Start of me : He is a tall Man, v/ell fliaped, 

 but much disfigured, for he has no Nofe : I was told that this 

 Misfortune happened to him in a drunken-bout. When he 

 heard I v/as coming to fee him, he went and placed himfelf at 

 the Bottom of his Cabin, on a Sort of an Alcove, where I 

 found him fitting with his Legs acrofs, ^fter the Eaftern Man- 

 ner. He faid vej y little to me, and feemed to aflume a proud 

 Gravity, which he did not maintain well : This is the iirft Sa- 

 V2.^Q Chief that I faw, who obferved this Ceremony ; but I was 

 told beforehand that he mull be treated in the fame Way, if you 

 would not be defpifed by him. 



That Day the P out eouat amis were come to play at the Game cf 



rr-j n Sira^ivs with the Miajnis: They played in the 



The Kyume of o i • r r^x.- C A 



-, the Cabin of tiie Chief, and on an open 



htra^s. Place before the Cabin. Thefe Straws are 



fmall Reeds about the Bignefs of a Wheat Straw, and about fix 

 Inches long. They take a Parcel, which are commonly two 

 hundred and one, and always an odd Number. After having 

 fhufflcd them well together, making a thoufand Contorfions, 

 and invoking the Genii, they feparate them v/ith a Kind of an • 

 Awl, or a pointed Bone, into Parcels often each: Every one 

 takes his own at a Venture, and he that happens to get the Par- 

 cel with eleven, gains a certain Number of Points that are a- 

 greed on. The whole Game is fixty or eighty. 



There are other Ways of playing this Game, and they would 

 have explained them to me^ but I did not comprehend it, only 



that 



