That which they hold in highest estimation among all their possessions, is a substance which they call _esurgny_ or _cornibotz_, which is as white as snow, and which is procured in the following manner. When any one is adjudged to death for a crime, or when they have taken any of their enemies during war, having first slain the person, they make many deep gashes on the buttocks, flanks, thighs, and shoulders of the dead body, which is then sunk to the bottom of the river, in a certain place where the _esurgny_ abounds. After remaining 10 or 12 hours, the body is drawn up, and the _esurgny_ or _cornibotz_ is found in the gashes. Of this they make beads, which they wear about their necks as we do chains of gold and silver, accounting it their most precious riches. These ornaments, as we have proved by experience, have the power to staunch bleeding at the nose[51]. This nation devotes itself entirely to husbandry and fishing for subsistence, having no care for any other wealth or commodity, of which they have indeed no knowledge, as they never travel from their own country, as is done by the natives of Canada and Saguenay; yet the Canadians and the inhabitants of eight or ten other villages on the river, are subject to the people of Hochelega. [Footnote 51: It is impossible to give any explanation of this ridiculous account of the _esurgny_, any farther than that the Frenchmen were either imposed upon by the natives, or misunderstood them from not knowing their language. In a subsequent part of the voyages of Cartier, this substance is called _Esnoguy_.--E.]