Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 03Champlain, Samuel de
History
Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 03
Champlain, Samuel de
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Indians of North America -- Canada; New France -- Discovery and exploration
When they are sick, the man or woman who is attacked with any disease sends
for the _oqui_, who visits the patient and informs himself about the malady
and the suffering. After this, the _oqui_ sends for a large number of men,
women, and girls, including three or four old women. These enter the cabin
of the sick, dancing, each one having on his head the skin of a bear or
some other wild beast, that of the bear being the most common as it is the
most frightful. There are three or four other old women about the sick or
suffering, who for the most part feign sickness, or are sick merely in
imagination. But they are soon cured of this sickness, and generally make
banquets at the expense of their friends or relatives, who give them
something to put into their kettle, in addition to the presents which they
receive from the dancers, such as porcelain and other bagatelles, so that
they are soon cured; for when they find that they have nothing more to look
for, they get up with what they have secured. But those who are really sick
are not readily cured by plays, dances, and such proceedings.
To return to my narrative: the old women near the sick person receive the
presents, each singing and pausing in turn. When all the presents have been
made, they proceed to lift up their voices with one accord, all singing
together and keeping time with sticks on pieces of dry bark. Then all the
women and girls proceed to the end of the cabin, as if they were about to
begin a ballet or masquerade. The old women walk in front with their
bearskins on their heads, all the others following them, one after the
other. They have only two kinds of dances with regular time, one of four
steps and the other of twelve, as in the _trioli_ de Bretagne. They
exhibit much grace in dancing. Young men often take part with them. After
dancing an hour or two, the old women lead out the sick person to dance,
who gets up dolefully and prepares to dance, and after a short time she
dances and enjoys as much as the others. I leave it to you to consider how
sick she was. Below is represented the mode of their dances.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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