A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs: The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861Wrong, George McKinnon
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A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs: The Story of a Hundred Years, 1761-1861
Wrong, George McKinnon
La Malbaie (Québec); Nairne family; Nairne, John, -1802
So it is not strange that the Canadian peasant dwells in a world charged
with the supernatural. Night furnishes the opportunity for goblins to be
abroad; the flickering lights on the marshes are goblin fires. Then,
too, the vagrant dead wander about restlessly, sinful souls refused
entrance to Heaven until they have sought and secured adequate prayers
for their pardon and relief. To cross a cemetery at night might attract
the fatal vengeance of the dead thus disturbed. The grumbling mendicant
at the door may really be an evil spirit bent on mischief. With a few,
magic and the gift of the evil eye are still dreaded forces and it is
well to know some charm by which evil may be averted. Since night is the
time of danger, if abroad then be watchful; if at home close doors and
windows, ere you go to sleep. I was once on a fishing expedition with
habitant guides when we had to share the same _cabane_. The air becoming
insufferable, I got up quietly, opened the door and went back to bed.
Presently I heard one of the guides steal softly to the door and close
it. When I thought he was asleep I opened it again. But in vain; once
more it was closed. In the morning nothing was said about it. Certainly
not cold was what he feared, for the weather was hot. I do not think it
was the mosquitoes. Was it the goblins?
A simpler and touching faith is common. Every one has noticed in the
Province of Quebec the numerous crosses by the way side. These Calvaires
are of rough wood, usually eight or ten feet high; sometimes with the
cross are the dread implements of Christ's pain--the crown of thorns,
the hammer and nails, the executioner's ladder, the Roman soldier's
spear. Often at the foot is a box for alms to help the forgotten dead
who are in purgatory. As the habitant passes them he usually lifts his
hat. The Calvaires are a kind of domestic altar to which the people
come. In the summer evenings one may see a family grouped about them in
prayer. When there is need for special prayers, several families will
come across the fields to meet at the Calvaire. Dr. Henry, of whom more
later, tells how at Malbaie some eighty years ago he found in the
cottages social family worship night and morning. It is to be feared
that the present generation at Malbaie is less devout, corrupted it may
be by the heretic visitors' bad influence and example. But still the
guide with whom one goes camping rarely neglects his evening devotions.
In some families prayer sanctifies all the actions of the day. There is
prayer at rising, prayer at going to bed. Though here, as in France,
women are spoken of as only _creatures_, the mother is usually better
educated than the father and often leads these devotions, the others
joining in the responses. Before meals is recited a prayer, usually the
_Benedicite_. There is often a family oratory and here at the
appropriate seasons, in the month consecrated to the special family
saint and guardian, in May, the Virgin's month, in June, that of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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