Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Curious Account Of The Characters, Customs, And Manners, Of The Savages Of Cape Breton.
make - a signal , and the women enter . Immediately each woman takes aAA'ay her husband ' s plate , and they retire by themselves to eat the fragments . In the mean time , the eldest in company falls , or pretends to fall into a kind of revery , that lasts about a quarter of an hour , during which time they take care not to disturb him . Lie then orders pipes and tobacco . He li ghts his own first , puts it for a moment to
his mouth , and then offers it to the next in rank . They all perform the same ceremony . The pipes are hardly half out , when the leading person in company rises to return thanks to the inviter . But as this ceremony alone is capable of sheAving you , that the savages have no ideas but such as are relative to the passions or inclinations above-mentioned
, I shall gh r e you an abridgement of it . Yet I mus't previously acquaint you Avith their particular manner of expression , Avhich would otherwise occasion some astonishment . The language of the savages , and particularly of those I am acquainted with , viz-, the Mickmacks , Malechites , and Abenakis , bears a great resemblance to the oriental tongues . The same copiousness
of expression , the same turn of phrase , the same tiirgidity of stile , the same strain of metaphor ancl allegory . Some Avouid infer from thence , that the inhabitants of this new world are descended from the Tartars , a notion not destitute of probability . Be that as it may , the following is the speech or thanksgiving made by our grateful
savages to the donor of the feast . 'Othou , who heapest thy favours on us , who excitcst the transports of our gratitude , thou art like unto a tree AVIK .-SC wide-spreading roots support a thousand little branch . es ; thou art like unto a benefactor whom Ave meet with on-the borders of a lake ; thou resemblest the turpentine tree , which in all seasons imparteth its juice ; thou mayst be compared to those mild pleasant days Avhich we sometimes
behold in the middle of the rudest winters , and whose benign influence gladdens our hearts ; thou art great thyself , and so much the more , as . the remembrance of the signal exploits of thy ancestors does ' not degrade thee ; and indeed thy great great grandfather , whose memory is still recent amongst us , was conspicuous for his skill and agility as a huntsman ; Avhat Avonders did he not perform in the
jovial chace , and in pursuing the onicknals * and the caribous f . His art in catching those animals was not superior to ours ; but he had a particular agility in coming upon them by surprise . At the same time , he flew at them with such rapidity , that notwithstanding their great strength , he made ' no difficulty of running' them down . He . would afterwards bleed them himseliyand feast us with their blood ;
then he skinned them , and gave us theAvhole body of the beast . 'But if thy great great grandfather used to distinguish himself in this kind of chace , what feats hath not thy great grandfather done in the hunting of beavers ! He otitsttipt the Avatchfulness and industry of those animals ; by his frequent watchings round their huts ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Curious Account Of The Characters, Customs, And Manners, Of The Savages Of Cape Breton.
make - a signal , and the women enter . Immediately each woman takes aAA'ay her husband ' s plate , and they retire by themselves to eat the fragments . In the mean time , the eldest in company falls , or pretends to fall into a kind of revery , that lasts about a quarter of an hour , during which time they take care not to disturb him . Lie then orders pipes and tobacco . He li ghts his own first , puts it for a moment to
his mouth , and then offers it to the next in rank . They all perform the same ceremony . The pipes are hardly half out , when the leading person in company rises to return thanks to the inviter . But as this ceremony alone is capable of sheAving you , that the savages have no ideas but such as are relative to the passions or inclinations above-mentioned
, I shall gh r e you an abridgement of it . Yet I mus't previously acquaint you Avith their particular manner of expression , Avhich would otherwise occasion some astonishment . The language of the savages , and particularly of those I am acquainted with , viz-, the Mickmacks , Malechites , and Abenakis , bears a great resemblance to the oriental tongues . The same copiousness
of expression , the same turn of phrase , the same tiirgidity of stile , the same strain of metaphor ancl allegory . Some Avouid infer from thence , that the inhabitants of this new world are descended from the Tartars , a notion not destitute of probability . Be that as it may , the following is the speech or thanksgiving made by our grateful
savages to the donor of the feast . 'Othou , who heapest thy favours on us , who excitcst the transports of our gratitude , thou art like unto a tree AVIK .-SC wide-spreading roots support a thousand little branch . es ; thou art like unto a benefactor whom Ave meet with on-the borders of a lake ; thou resemblest the turpentine tree , which in all seasons imparteth its juice ; thou mayst be compared to those mild pleasant days Avhich we sometimes
behold in the middle of the rudest winters , and whose benign influence gladdens our hearts ; thou art great thyself , and so much the more , as . the remembrance of the signal exploits of thy ancestors does ' not degrade thee ; and indeed thy great great grandfather , whose memory is still recent amongst us , was conspicuous for his skill and agility as a huntsman ; Avhat Avonders did he not perform in the
jovial chace , and in pursuing the onicknals * and the caribous f . His art in catching those animals was not superior to ours ; but he had a particular agility in coming upon them by surprise . At the same time , he flew at them with such rapidity , that notwithstanding their great strength , he made ' no difficulty of running' them down . He . would afterwards bleed them himseliyand feast us with their blood ;
then he skinned them , and gave us theAvhole body of the beast . 'But if thy great great grandfather used to distinguish himself in this kind of chace , what feats hath not thy great grandfather done in the hunting of beavers ! He otitsttipt the Avatchfulness and industry of those animals ; by his frequent watchings round their huts ,