Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02Champlain, Samuel de
History
Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 02
Champlain, Samuel de
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Indians of North America -- Canada; New France -- Discovery and exploration
All these savages from the Island Cape wear neither robes nor furs, except
very rarely: moreover, their robes are made of grasses and hemp, scarcely
covering the body, and coming down only to their thighs. They have only the
sexual parts concealed with a small piece of leather; so likewise the
women, with whom it comes down a little lower behind than with the men, all
the rest of the body being naked. Whenever the women came to see us, they
wore robes which were open in front. The men cut off the hair on the top of
the head like those at the river Choüacoet. I saw, among other things, a
girl with her hair very neatly dressed, with a skin colored red, and
bordered on the upper part with little shell-beads. A part of her hair
hung down behind, the rest being braided in various ways. These people
paint the face red, black, and yellow. They have scarcely any beard, and
tear it out as fast as it grows. Their bodies are well-proportioned. I
cannot tell what government they have, but I think that in this respect
they resemble their neighbors, who have none at all. They know not how to
worship or pray; yet, like the other savages, they have some superstitions,
which I shall describe in their place. As for weapons, they have only
pikes, clubs, bows and arrows. It would seem from their appearance that
they have a good disposition, better than those of the north, but they are
all in fact of no great worth. Even a slight intercourse with them gives
you at once a knowledge of them. They are great thieves and, if they cannot
lay hold of any thing with their hands, they try to do so with their feet,
as we have oftentimes learned by experience. I am of opinion that, if they
had any thing to exchange with us, they would not give themselves to
thieving. They bartered away to us their bows, arrows, and quivers, for
pins and buttons; and if they had had any thing else better they would have
done the same with it. It is necessary to be on one's guard against this
people, and live in a state of distrust of them, yet without letting them
perceive it. They gave us a large quantity of tobacco, which they dry and
then reduce to powder. [169] When they eat Indian corn, they boil it in
earthen pots, which they make in a way different from ours. [170]. They
bray it also in wooden mortars and reduce it to flour, of which they then
make cakes, like the Indians of Peru.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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