The seven or eight days before the feast were passed in collecting the bodies (les âmes) as well as assembling the strangers who were invited; meanwhile from morning till night gifts were distributed by the living to the young men in honor of the dead. On one side women were drawing the bow to see who should have the prize, which was sometimes a girdle of porcupine quills or a necklace of beads; on the other hand, in several parts of the village the young men were drawing clubs upon any who would try to capture them. The prize of this victory was a hatchet, some knives, or even a beaver robe. Every day the remains were arriving. There is some pleasure in seeing these funeral processions which number sometimes from two to three hundred persons. Each one carries the remains of his friends, that is the bones, packed upon his back after the manner that I have described, under a beautiful robe. Some arranged their packets in the shape of a man, decorated with strings of beads, with a fine crown of red hair. On leaving their village the whole company cried _haéé haé_ and repeated this "cry of the spirits" all along the way. This cry, they say, comforts them greatly, otherwise their burdens, although souls, would weigh very heavily and cause a weakness of the side (costé) for the rest of their lives. They travel by short stages; the people of our village were three days in going four leagues and in reaching _Ossossané_, which we call Rochelle, where all the ceremonies were to be held. As soon as they arrive near any village they shout again the haéé haé. The whole village comes out to meet them; many presents are again distributed on this occasion. Each one repairs to some one of the cabins; all find a place to put their bundles; this is done without confusion. At the same time the captains hold a council to decide upon the time that the company shall spend in this village. All the bodies of the dead of eight or nine villages were taken to Rochelle on Saturday of Pentecost; but the fear of bad weather obliged them, as I have said, to postpone the ceremony till Monday. We were lodged a quarter of a league from there, at the old village, in a cabin where there were at least a hundred skeletons hung up to the poles, some of which smelled stronger than musk.