They believe that the February Moon is longer by several days than the others, and therefore they call it the great Moon. I asked them whence came the Eclipse of the Moon and of the Sun. They answered that the Moon was eclipsed, or appeared to be dark, because she held her son in her arms, which prevented her brightness from being seen. "If the Moon has a son, she is married, or has been," I told them. "Oh, yes," they replied, "the Sun is her husband, who walks all day, and she all night; and if he be eclipsed, or darkened, it is because he also sometimes takes the son which he has had by [97] the Moon, into his arms." "Yes, but neither the Moon nor the Sun has any arms," I answered them. "Thou hast no sense; they always hold their drawn bows before them, and that is why their arms do not appear." "And whom do they wish to shoot?" "Ah, how do we know?" I asked them what those spots meant that appear on the Moon. "Thou knowest nothing at all," they said; "it is a cap which covers her head, and not spots." I inquired why the son of the Sun and of the Moon was not bright like parents, but black and gloomy. "We do not know," said they; "if we had been in the Sky, we might answer thee." Furthermore, they think that he comes now and then upon earth; and, when he walks about in their country, many people die. I asked them if they had never seen Comets, those Stars with long tails, and what they were. "We have seen them," they answered; "it is an animal that has a long tail, 4 feet, and a head; we can see all that," they said. Ie les interrogeay sur le tonnerre, ils me dirent qu'ils ne sçauoient pas quel animal c'estoit, qu'il mangeoit les serpents [98] & quelquefois les arbres, que les Hurons croyẽt que c'est vn oiseau fort grãd induit à cette creãce, par vn bruit sourd que fait vne espece d'hirondelle qui paroist icy l'Esté: Ie n'ay point veu de ces oiseaux en France, i'en ay tenu icy, il a le bec, & la teste, & la figure du corps, cõme vne hirondelle, sinõ qu'il est vn peu plus gros; il se pourmene le soir en l'air, faisant vn bruit pesãt par reprises. Les Hurons disent qu'il fait ce bruit du derriere, cõme aussi l'oiseau qu'ils pẽsent estre le tõnerre, & qu'il n'y a qu'vn seul hõme qui voye cét oiseau, & encore vne fois en sa vie; c'est ce que m'ẽ dit mõ vieillard.