SUPERSTITION. §33 
tute in the character of all of them, and by 
working upon that you may make them do 
what you please. Few of the men can read 
or write; the little learning there is amongst 
the inhabitants is confined to the women: 
a Canadian never makes a bargain, or takes 
any step of importance, without consulting; 
his wife, whose opinion is generally abided 
by. Both men and women are sunk in igno¬ 
rance and su perstition, and blindly devoted to 
their priests. The following anecdote may 
serve to shew how much they are so. 
On the evening before we reached Quebec, 
we stopped at the village of St. Augustin Cal- 
vaire, and after having strolled about for some 
time, returned to the farm-house where we 
had taken up our quarters for the night. The 
people had cooked some fish, that had been 
just caught, while we had been walking 
about, and every thing being ready on our re¬ 
turn, we sat down to supper by the light of 
a lamp, which was suspended from the ceil¬ 
ing. The glimmering light, however, that, 
it afforded, scarcely enabled us to see what 
was on the table; we complained of it to the 
man of the house, and the lamp was in con¬ 
sequence trimmed; it was replenished with 
oil; taken down and set on .the table; still 
the light was very bad. Sacre Dieu !” ex¬ 
claimed he, but you shall not eat your fish 
t» 2 
