The personal appearance of the _habitans_ is peculiar. They are tall, thin, and, from exposure to the climate, almost as dark as the Indians. They have thin lips, and often aquiline noses, with small, dark, and lively eyes. Many of the girls are pretty oval-faced brunettes, with fine eyes, good teeth, and glossy locks. The dress is nearly after the old fashion of the French peasantry. The men wear the _capot_, a large grey coat or surtout, covering nearly the whole body, and tied with a girdle of brilliant colours. On the legs they have moccasins, and on the head a straw hat in summer, and a red bonnet in winter. The hair is still tied in a long queue behind. The women wear short jackets or bed-gowns (mantelets), with petticoats distinct, and sometimes of a different colour, and caps instead of bonnets—a mode of dress formerly common in Scotland, and not yet wholly disused. They have long waists, and sometimes the hair tied behind in a large club. At church, or other occasions of full dress, they adopt the English fashion, but display a much greater variety of showy colours. Hair-powder is sometimes worn, and beetroot employed as rouge; but both in their dress and houses they are perfectly clean. The _habitans_ are frugal and moderate in their ordinary diet, which mostly consists of different kinds of soup. They have, however, their _jours gras_, or great feast-days, particularly before and after Lent, when large companies assemble, and the board is spread with every delicacy which their larder can afford. The table groans beneath immense turkey pies, huge joints of beef, mutton, and pork, followed by a profusion of fruit puddings. Extraordinary justice is said to be done to these viands, as well as to the rum which follows; but the younger members of the company are soon roused by the sound of the violin, and the dancing, of which they are passionately fond, engages them till a late hour. Weddings, above all, are celebrated by a mighty concourse of friends and acquaintances. Twenty or thirty of the country carriages bring in parties to witness the ceremony, which is followed by feasts and dances, not unfrequently prolonged for several days. The young people, however, have a somewhat rude method of expressing their opinion of an unequal union, especially if arising from the relative age of the parties. They assemble at night in large bodies, sounding various discordant instruments—horns, drums, bells, kettles, accompanied by loud shouts; and a contribution to the church, or some charitable purpose, is indispensable to obtain a respite from this jocular persecution. The short summer is necessarily spent in almost unremitting labour; but when ice and snow have covered the ground the gay season begins, and in their carioles or little chaises, on steel runners, which pass swiftly over the frozen surface, they visit their neighbours, and spend much time in social intercourse.