The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 7: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1635
History
The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Vol. 7: Quebec, Hurons, Cape Breton, 1634-1635
Canada -- History -- To 1763 (New France); Indians of North America -- Canada; Jesuits -- Missions; Jesuits -- North America
to rest, for it was well along into the night.
Le 3. de Decembre nous cõmençasmes nostre quatriesme station, ayans
délogé sans trompette, mais non pas sans tambour: car le Sorcier
n'oublioit iamais le sien, nous plantasmes nostre camp proche d'vn
fleuue large & rapide, [264] mais peu profond, ils le nomment _Ca
pititetchiouetz_, il se va dégorger dans le grand fleuue de sainct
Laurens, quasi vis à vis de Tadoussac, nos Sauuages n'ayans point icy
de viandes pour faire des festins, ils faisoient des banquets de fumée,
s'inuitans les vns les autres, dans leurs cabanes, & faisans la ronde à
vn petit plat de terre remply de Tabac, chacun en prenoit vne cornetée
qu'il reduisoit en fumée, remettant la main au plat s'il vouloit
petuner dauantage: l'affection qu'ils portent à ceste herbe est au
delà de toute créance, ils s'endormẽt le cabanet en la bouche, ils se
leuent par fois la nuit pour petuner, ils s'arrestent souuent en chemin
pour le mesme sujet, c'est la premiere action qu'ils font rentrant
dans leurs cabanes: ie leur ay battu le fusil pour les faire petuner
en ramants dans vn canot, ie leur ay veu souuent manger le baston de
leur calumet, n'ayans plus de petun, ie leur ay veu racler & pulueriser
vn calumet de bois pour petuner, disons auec compassion qu'ils passent
leur vie dans la fumée, & qu'ils tombent à la mort dans le feu.
On the 3rd of December we began our fourth station, having broken
camp without trumpets, but not without drums, for the Sorcerer
never forgot his. We pitched our camp near a broad and rapid, [264]
but rather shallow river, which they called _Ca pititetchiouetz_;
it flows into the great river saint Lawrence, almost opposite
Tadoussac. Our Savages, having no food for a feast here, made a
banquet of smoke; each inviting the others to his cabin, they
passed around a little earthen plate containing Tobacco, and every
one took a pipeful, which he reduced to smoke, returning his hand
to the dish if he wanted to smoke any more. The fondness they have
for this herb is beyond all belief. They go to sleep with their
reed pipes in their mouths, they sometimes get up in the night to
smoke; they often stop in their journeys for the same purpose, and
it is the first thing they do when they reënter their cabins. I
have lighted tinder, so as to allow them to smoke while paddling a
canoe; I have often seen them gnaw the stems of their pipes when
they had no more tobacco, I have seen them scrape and pulverize a
wooden pipe to smoke it. Let us say with compassion that they pass
their lives in smoke, and at death fall into the fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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