552 ’The Discoveries and Settlements Book I. 
to the Weflward, who have no Arms. The Illinois know- 
ing how much they are frighted at the Noife of their 
“ Guns, make Excurfions very far to the Weft ward, and 
“ bring Slaves from thence, which they barter with other 
“ Nations for the Commodities they want. Thofe Nations 
“ are altogether ignorant of Iron Tools, and their Knives, 
“ Axes, and other Inftruments, are made of Flints, and 
“ other jfharp Stones. When the Illinois go upon any 
“ Expedition, the whole Village muft have Notice of 
“ it, and therefore they ufe to make an Out-cry at the 
“ Door of their Huts the Evening before they go, and 
“ the Morning they are to fet out. Their Captains are 
“ diftinguifhed from the Soldiers by red Scarffs, made 
“ with the Hair of Bears, or wild Oxen, that are curi- 
oufly wrought. T'hey have abundance of Game ; and 
“ their Soil is fo fertile, that their Indian Corn never 
“ fails, and therefore they never labour under Famine. 
“ They fow Beans and Melons, which are excellent, and 
“ efpecially thofe whofe Seed is red. 
“ They efteem much their Citruls, though they are 
“ none of the beft •, they dry them up and keep them 
“ till the Winter and Spring. Their Cabbins are very 
“ large, they are made covered, and paved with Mats 
“ of Marfh Rulhes. Their Dilhes are of Wood, but 
“ their Spoons are made with the Bones of the Skulls 
“ of wild ^xen, which they cut fo as to make them 
“ very convenient to eat their Sagamite. They have 
“ Phyficians amofigft them, towards whom they are 
“ very liberal when they are ftck, thinking that the 
“ Operation of the Remedies they take, is proportiona- 
“ ble to the Prefents they make unto them, who have 
“ prefcribed them.# They have no other Clothes but 
Skins of Beafts, which ferve to cover their Women, 
“ for the Men go moft of the Year ftark naked. I 
“ don’t know by what Superftition fome of the Illinois, 
“ and Nadonejfians, wear Womens Apparel ; when they 
“ have taken the fame, which they do in their Youth, 
“ they never leave it off. And certainly there muft be 
“ fome Myftery in this Matter, for they never marry, 
and work in the Cabbins with Women, which other 
“ Men think it below them to do. They may go, how- 
“ ever, to the Wars, but they muft ufe only a Club, 
“ and not Bows and Arrows, which are fit, as they fay, 
“ only for Men. They affift at all the Superftitions of 
“ their Jugglers, and their folemn Dances in Flonour of 
“ the Calumet, at which they may fing, but it is not 
“ lawful for them to dance. They are called to their 
“ Councils, and nothing is determined without their 
“ Advice ; for becaufe of their extraordinary way of 
“ living, they are looked upon as Manitoas, or, at 
“ leaft, for great and incomparable Genii. 
“ I muft fpeak here of the Calumet, the moft extraor- 
“ dinary thing in the World. The Scepters of our Kings 
are not fo much refpedted ; for the Savages have fuch 
“ a Deference for this Pipe, that one may call it the 
“ God of Peace and War, and the Arbiter of Life and 
“ Death. One, with this Calumet, may venture among 
his Enemies, and in the hotteft Engagements, they 
“ lay down their Arms before this facred Pipe. The 
“ Illinois prefeiited me with one of them, which was 
‘‘ very ufeful to us in our Voyage. Their Calumet of 
‘‘ Peace is different from the Calumet of War. They 
make ufe of the former to feal their Alliances and 
‘‘ Treaties, to travel with Safety, and receive Strangers *, 
“ and the other is to proclaim War. It is made of a 
“ red Stone, like our Marble: The Head is like our 
“ common Tobacco-Pipes, but larger-, and it is fixed to 
“ a hollow Reed to hold it for fmoaking. They adorn 
“ it with fine Feathers of feyeral Colours, and they 
“ call it the Calumet of the Sun, to whom they pre- 
fent it, efpecially when they want fair Weather, or 
Rain ; thinking that that Planet can have no lefs Re- 
fpeift for it than Men have, and therefore that they 
fhall obtain their Defires. They dare not wafti them^ 
felves in Rivers in the Beginning of the Summer, or 
tafte the new Fruit of Trees, before they have danced 
the Calumet, which they do in the following Manner : 
This Dance of the Calumet, is a folemn Ceremony 
* amongft the Savages, v/hich they perform upon im- 
2 
“ portant Occafions, to confirm an Alliance^ or make 
“ Peace with their Neighbours. They ufe it alfo to en- 
“ Certain any Nation that comes to vifit them ; and in 
“ this Cafe we may confider it as their Balls. They per- 
“ form it in Winter-time in their Cabbins, and in open 
“ Fields in the Sumrrier. They chufe for this Purpofe a 
“ fet Place among Trees, to fhelter themfelves againft: 
“ the Heat of the Sun, and lay in the Middle a large 
“ Mat, as a Carpet, and fet upon it the God of 
“ the Chief of the Company who gave the Ball j for 
“ every one has his peculiar God, whom they call 
“ Manitoa : It is fometimes a Stone, a Bird, a Ser- 
“ pent, or any Thing elfe that they dream of in their 
“ Sleep i for they think that this Manitoa will profper 
“ their Uundertakings, as Filhing, Hunting, and other 
“ Enterprizes. To the Right of their Manitoa they 
“ place the Calumet, their great Deity, making round 
“ about it a kind of Trophy with their Arms viz. 
“ Their Clubs, Axes, Bows, Quivers, and Arrows. 
“ Things being thus difpofed, and the Hour of Dance- 
“ ing coming on, thofe who are to fing take the moft 
“ honourable Seats under the Shadow of the Trees, or 
“ green Arbours they make, in cafe the Trees be not 
“ thick enough to fhadow them. They chufe for this 
“ Service the beft Wits amongft them, either Men or 
“ Women. Every body fits down afterwards round 
“ about, as they come, having firft of all faluted the 
“ Manitoa, which they do by the blowing the Smoke of 
“ their Tobacco upon it, which is as much as offering 
“ to it Frankincenfe *, every body, one after another, 
“ takes the Calumet, and holds it with his two Hands, 
“ dances with it, following the Cadence of the Songs. 
“ This Preludium being over, he who is to begin the 
“ Dance appears in the Middle of the Affembly, and 
“ having taken the Calumet prefents it to the Sun, as if 
“ he would invite him to fmoke *, then he moves it into 
“ an infinite Number of Poftures, fometimes laying it 
“ near the Ground, then ftretching its Wings as if he 
“ would make it fly, and then prefents it to the Spec- 
“ tators, who fmoke with it one after another, dancing 
“ all the while : This is the firft Scene of this famous 
“ Ball. The fecond is, a Fight, with Vocal and Inftru- 
“ mental Mufic -, for they have a kind of Drum, which 
“ agrees pretty well with the Voices the Perfon who 
“ dances with the Calumet gives a Signal to one of 
“ their Warriors, who takes a Bow and Arrows with an 
“ Ax from the Trophies already mentioned, and fights 
“ the other, who defends himfelf with the Calumet alone, 
“ both of them dancing all the while. The Fight being 
“ over, he who holds the Calumet makes a Speech, 
“ wherein he gives an Account of the Battles he has 
“ fought, and the Prifoners he has taken, and then re- 
“ ceives a Gown, or any other Prefent, from the Chief 
“ of the Ball : He gives then the Calumet to another, 
“ who having adled his Part, gives it to another ; and fo 
“ to all the others, till the Calumet returns to the Captain, 
“ who prefents it to the Nation invited unto the Feaft, 
“ as a Mark of their Friendlhip, and a Confirmation of 
“ their Alliance. I cannot pretend to be fo much Mafter 
“ of the Language, as to judge of their Songs ; but 
“ methinks they are very lively and witty.” 
6. This Country of Canada, as we find it defcribed by 
the French Writers, is faid to be half as big as Eu- 
rope, reaching from the Latitude of 39 Degrees to that 
of 65 ; that is, from the Lake of Erne to the North of 
HudfoF s-hay, and from the Longitude of 284 Degrees to 
336 viz. from the Wiy'tv Miffiffippi to that Part of the 
Continent which fronts Cape Rafe in Nezvf lundland. Ac- 
cording to this Defeription, it has HudfoFs Bay on the 
North, the Sea on the Eaft, the Englijh Cojonies on the 
South, Louvifiana on the South-eaft, and the Ter- 
ritories of the Crown of ^pain on the Weft. This 
we muft allow is a very large and noble Plan of Nev} 
Frame, if it were in any Degree in the Poffeffion of the 
Subjeds of that Crown but the Truth of the Matter is, 
tliat a great Part of this Trad is not fo much as known 
to them, and, at the very moft, there is not a twentieth 
Part of the Country that can with any Propriety be faid to 
be under their Jurifdidion. The great ^ver of St. Lau- 
rence, 
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