The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 6: Quebec, 1633-1634
History
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 6: Quebec, 1633-1634
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada; Jesuits -- Missions; Jesuits -- North America
ONLY actual hunters, and those who have been hunters, are usually
invited to their feasts, to which widows go also, especially if it
is not an eat-all feast. The girls, married women, and children,
are nearly always excluded. I say nearly always, for occasionally
they are invited. I have known them to have _Acoumagouchanai_, that
is to say, feasts where nothing is to be left, to which every one
was invited, [137] men, women, and little children. When they have
a great abundance of food, sometimes the women have a feast of
their own, where the men are not found.
Leur façon d'inuiter est sans fard & sans ceremonie, quand tout est
cuit & prest à manger (car on n'inuite personne auparauant) quelqu'vn
s'en va par les Cabanes où sont ceux qui doiuent estre conuiez,
ou bien mesme on leur criera ce mot du lieu où se faict le festin
k_hinatonmigaouinaouau_, vous estes inuitez au banquet, les hommes
ausquels ce mot s'adresse, respondent _ho ho_, & prenant sur l'heure
mesme leur plat d'escorce & leur cueiller de bois, s'en viennent en
la Cabane de celuy qui les traitte. Quand tous les hommes ne sont pas
inuitez, on nomme ceux qu'on veut conuier; le deffaut de ceremonies
faict épargner beaucoup de paroles à ces bõnes gens. Il me semble qu'au
siecle d'or on faisoit comme cela, sinon que la netteté y estoit en
plus grande recommandation que parmy ces peuples.
Their way of inviting is straightforward and without ceremony. When
all is cooked and ready to eat (for no one is invited before),
some one goes through the Cabins of those who are to be invited;
or else they will cry out to them this word, from the place where
the feast is given, _khinatonmigaouinaouau_, "You are invited to
the banquet." The men to whom this word is addressed, answer, _ho
ho_, and straightway taking their own bark dish and wooden spoon,
come to the Cabin of the one who is to entertain them. When all the
men are not invited, those who are desired are named. The absence
of ceremony spares these simple people many words. It seems to me
in the golden age they must have done like this, except that then
cleanliness was in higher favor than among these people.
Dans tous les festins, comme aussi dans leurs repas ordinaires, on
donne à vn chacun sa part, d'où vient qu'il n'y en a [138] que deux
ou trois qui ayẽt les meilleurs morceaux, car ils ne les diuisent
point: ils donneront par exemple la langue d'vn Orignac, & toutes ses
appartenances à vne seule personne, la queuë & la teste d'vn Castor à
vn autre; voila les meilleures pieces, qu'ils appellent _Mascanou_, la
part du Capitaine. Pour les boyaux gras de l'Orignac, qui sont leurs
grands delices, ils les font ordinairement rostir & en font gouster à
tous, comme aussi d'vn autre mets, dont ils font grand estat, c'est le
gros boyau de la beste remply de gresse, & rosty auec vne corde qui
pend & tourne deuant le feu.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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