Travels in North Jmertcal 299 



©bfervîng, that when the Thunder falls upon a TreCi jt leaves a 

 Mark fomething like the Shape of a Snake. > 

 They all reckon the Months by the Moons; the gréafteft Num- 



Their Ma f ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ "^^^^j 

 dividin Tim^^ thirteen. The Inconveniencies, which piay 

 I t mg ime, ^^.^^ Ixoxa this Diveriity, are not of any great 

 Confequence among People, who have no Annals, and whofe 

 AiFairs do not depend on Annual Epochas. There is alfo among 

 them a great Variety in the Names of the Seafons and of the 

 Moons, becaufe in all the diiFerent Nations, thefe are dif- 

 tinguithed or marked out by their Hunting and Fifhing, their 

 Sowing and Harveft, the firft Appearance and the Fall of the 

 Leaves, the Paffage of certain Beafts and Birds, the Time when 

 the Roe-Bucks Ihed their Hair, and the Rutting Time of va- 

 rious Animals ; and thefe Things vary much according to the 

 different Cantons» 



There are fome Nations, where they reckon the Years by the 

 twelve Signs, unlefs when they fpeak of their Age, and on fome 

 other Occafions, in Regard to which they ufe the Lunar Years. 

 They have not among any of them any Diflinélion of Weeks, 

 and the Days have no particular Names in any of their Lan- 

 guages. They have four fixed Points in the Day, <vi%, the rifing 

 and felting of the Sun, Noon and Midnight, and whateveir 

 Weather they happen to have, they are never miilaken in thefe. 

 For the reil, that aftronomical Exadnefs in adjuiling the Lunar 

 with the Solar Years, Baron la Hontan does them the Honour of 

 attributing to them, is a meer Invention of this Writer. 



They have no chronological Computation, and if theyprefervc 

 the Epochas of certain remarkable Events, they do not compre- 

 hend exactly the Time that is pall fince : They are fatisfied with 

 remembering the Fads, and they have invented feveral Ways of 

 preferving the Remembrance of them. For Inflance, the Hurons 

 and the Iroquois have in their public Treafuries Belts of Proce* 

 Iain, in which are wrought Figures, that revive the Memory of 

 Tranfa6lions. Others make ufe of Knots of a particular Form, 

 and if in thefe Things their Imagination labours, yet it always 

 leads them to the Point propofed. Laftly, they all reckon from 

 one to ten, the tens by ten to a hundred, the hundreds by ten to 

 a thoufand^ and they go no farther in their Calculations. 



lam^ &c, 



LETTER 



