Transcribed by:
Springfield, 1934
Introduction
[by Pease and Werner]
p. ix
.... Through the courtesy of the Newberry Library of Chicago, a memoir … hitherto unprinted is presented - the so-called De Gannes Memoir. The only known copy is a transcript bound with various other narratives of discovery, exploration, and trade in a series of bound volumes apparently part of the library of a Swiss gentleman in the second third of the eighteenth century. The signature "Degannes" is quite inexplicable unless it be the name of the secretary or transcriber or the usurpation of someone seeking to gain its credit for himself. The things which the author
p. x
tells us about himself, his own experiences, commands in the Illinois, point unmistakably to the Sieur Deliette, nephew of Henri de Tonti, as the author. The Jesuits did not give Deliette as good a character as he gave them, and possibly the narrative in question may reveal the reason. He writes very much from the point of view of the modern anthropologist, quite conscious of such things as racial psychologies, sociologies, and habits of life. His simplicity and straightforwardness give his story the earmarks of truth and force. It affords the very best of the early accounts of the Illinois country and of its Indians. ….
Chapter VII
Memoir of De Gannes Concerning the Illinois Country
p. 302
The Illinois country is undeniably the most beautiful
that is known anywhere between the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and that of
the Mississippi, which are a thousand leagues apart. You begin to see its fertility at Chicago
which is 140 leagues from Michillimackinac, at the end of Lake Michigan. The Chicago is a little stream only two
leagues long bordered by prairies of equal dimension in width. This is a route usually taken to go to this
country. At this river a portage is
made, of a quarter of a league in low water and of an arpent in high
water. One finds a streamlet for half a
league which comes from two little lakes that extend a league and a half, at
the end of which, on the rising ground at this point, is made a short portage
simply of one’s baggage. When the water
is favorable one reembarks at once, but
p. 303
when it is low it is necessary to go a league. This is called the Portage of the Oaks; and
it costs considerable effort to get the boat into this streamlet, which empties
into the river which the French call the Illinois. However, this is not the Illinois, as we only
come to that stream twenty leagues farther on. The passage is very difficult on account of
the low waters which virtually render this river impracticable, because one
ordinarily reaches this region only in summer or autumn. There are ten places where for half a league
it is necessary to take out half of the baggage, and very often to remove it
entirely, until the deep water is reached.
It is necessary also sometimes to carry the canoe. There is a place even, called Mount Joliet,
where there are four leagues of rapids, and where this must nearly always be
done.
This place is called Illes, because
a voyageur who bore that name was detained here a
long time. The Illinois and Miami call
it Missouratenouy, which signifies an earthen vessel. Indeed it has a certain resemblance to one;
it is about three arpents in length
p. 304
and half an arpent in width. It is embanked as if it had
been purposely shaped, and is about thirty feet high, situated an eighth of a
league from the river in a very beautiful valley. The woods on the other side
are distant about three arpents; there is only one tree on it. Several Illinois
and Miami have tried to persuade me that at the time of the deluge, of which it
appears they have learned, it was a vessel which had been made to save all
mankind from shipwreck; and that, on the subsiding of the waters, being on a
bad bottom, it had upset, and in course of time it had changed to earth.
Here you ordinarily begin to see the
buffalo. As for turkeys, there are quantities of them. There is a game bird
that is abundant, which is a good deal like the French pheasant, and which is
very good. Formerly you found it as far back as Chicago, but since a party of
Miami went to settle there, these birds have gone farther off. Four leagues
from here is the fork of the real river of the Illinois, which has its source
two leagues above the village of the Miami of the St. Joseph River, whence it
flows always
p. 305
northward for 120 leagues up to the fork. Afterwards it bends
to the southwest and flows on to empty into the Mississippi. Here you begin to
see the beauty of this country, both for the soil, which yields bountifully,
and for the abundance of animals. You see places on the one side that are unwooded prairies requiring only to be turned up by the
plow, and on the other side valleys spreading half a league before reaching the
hills, which have no trees but walnuts and oaks; and behind these, prairies
like those I have just spoken of. Sometimes you travel a league, seeing all
this from your boat. Afterwards you find virgin forest on both sides,
consisting of tender walnuts, ash, whitewood, Norway maple, cottonwood, a few
maples, and grass, taller in places than a man. More than an arpent in the
woods you find marshes which in autumn and spring are full of bustards, swans,
ducks, cranes, and teals. Ten steps farther on are the hills covered with wood
extending about an eighth of a league, from the edge of which are seen prairies
of extraordinary extent. Three leagues from the fork is the river
p. 306
Mazon, which signifies the
tow, in which neighborhood are found parakeets that live in bands of fifty to
sixty. They make a very strange
noise. They are a little bigger than turtledoves.
Seven leagues from here is a rapid where, in
low waters, you have to portage for an eighth of a league. Three leagues
farther are some places that are very flat because of several islands that are
located here, and a river flowing from the north, which the Illinois call Pestequouy (P.N.: the Fox River), near the
outlet of which there is a rich quarry of coal. This river comes from the
northeast. It has nothing but prairies on either side, except for a little
strip of wood consisting of oaks and walnuts, and running the whole length of
its banks. From here it is two leagues to the old fort. This is a steep rock,
very favorably situated, which induced the late Monsieur de la Salle to build a
fort here in 1682 or 1683. As I was not yet in the country [I cannot] precisely
tell the time. I did not
p. 307
arrive until 1687. It was very easy for me, in view of my
extreme youth, to learn the language of this nation.
There were also a hundred families of
Shawnee. But, aside from the fact that I never saw them except for two years, I
had so little inclination for their language, and so great a desire to know
that of the Illinois, that I learned very little of it. What spurred my desires
still more was that I was told that the languages of the Illinois and of the
Miami were the same, and this is true, there being no difference except that
the accent of the Illinois is very short and that of the Miami very long. One
pronounces the h and the other the f. This was my reason, in
1688, for begging Monsieur de Tonti to allow me to
accompany a village of Illinois who were going off on a buffalo hunt for five
weeks. This request he readily granted, being pleased to have me learn this
language, for which task he saw I had some talent, that he might safely absent
himself when his affairs demanded it, and leave me in his place. He recommended
me to the chief of this village, and with my servant I was placed in a cabin of
savage men, if one may say that there be any among
barbarians.
p. 308
We went into camp two leagues away. As I saw
only old men, women, and girls, and five or six young men, I asked them, partly
with the few words that I knew and partly by signs, how it happened that there
were so few young men. They gave me to understand that they were out on a
hunting expedition. The women had thrown down their packs and had run, each
with an axe, into the woods to cut poles and to peel bark for their summer hunting
cabin. As for the kind they use during their winter sojourn, they always carry
these along; they are similar to those which they have in summer, as I shall
tell in the proper place. They set them up on the edge of a prairie so as to be
in a cool place, for in the month of June and in order to be in the open, it is
to be remarked that all the southern nations establish themselves in the most
open spots so as to see what is going on, and so as not to be taken by
surprise, and in case an attack is made upon them, so as to be able to pursue.
The few young men who were with us while the
women and girls were making the cabins went an arpent into the woods to cut
p. 309
three poles of which they made a large tripod from which
they hung a big kettle, which they filled with water and then seated themselves
around the fire which they had made underneath. My man and I settled down near
them. A short time after, two men arrived each with a buck on his back. Two of
our cooks went to meet them. The hunters, on seeing them approach, threw down
their load and advanced proudly toward them, highly elated at being the first
to bring meat to the camp. Our servitors soon had the bucks cut up and put into
the kettle. When they were cooked the old men were called and came to eat. We
were the first served and got the best there was. I noticed that this happened
every day, and that some young men always came by turns with the old men. They
are called guards, and prevent anyone from separating from the band and going
off alone, because this frightens away the game. A man and woman once tried to
escape from the band while the guards were busy gathering strawberries; one of
the guards saw them and ran after them, took away the man's load, cut the
collar
p. 310
and the bear skins which they used as a mattress,
smashed the kettles which the woman was carrying, and came near killing a
child, which she had upon her load, by pulling it from her head; and all this
happened without the man or woman saying a single word.
The next day we saw in a prairie a great
herd of buffalos. A halt was called and two old men harangued the young men for
half an hour, urging them to show their skill in shooting down all the buffalos
that we saw, and to manage so as to make all those that they could not kill
move toward us. After removing us to the nearest spot, they started out in two
bands, running always at a trot. When they were about a quarter of a league
from the animals, they all ran at full speed, and when within gunshot they
fired several volleys and shot off an extraordinary number of arrows. A great
number of buffalos remained on the ground, and they pursued the rest in such
manner that they were driven toward us. Our old men butchered these. As for me,
I did not
p. 311
shoot. Their appearance filled me with terror, and I
withdrew from our troop when I [saw] them approach; which set all the savages
laughing, at which I was not a little mortified. It is certain that those
animals are frightful looking and usually terrify people who have never seen
them.
The cows are as big as the big oxen here.
They have a hump about eight inches high which extends from their shoulders to
the middle of their backs. They have their whole heads covered with fine hair
so that their eyes can hardly be seen. They have short hair in summer, but from
the month of September until June they are covered with a
very fine wool.
To return to the hunt in which our savages
engaged, they killed 120 buffalos from which they brought back a hundred
tongues. The people from my cabin smoked these and distributed them among
themselves to carry to me.
We remained a week in this place in order to
dry all this meat. They make for this purpose a kind of cradle ten feet long,
three feet wide, and four feet high, which they call gris, upon
p. 312
which they spread out their meat after preparing it. Under
this they kindle a little fire. They are at it for a day, ordinarily, when they
wish to dry a flat side. There are two of these in a buffalo. They take it from
the shoulder clear to the thigh and from the hump to the middle of the belly,
after which they spread it out as thin as they can, making it usually four feet
square. They fold it up while still hot, like a portfolio, so as to make it
easier to carry. The most robust men and women carry as many as eight, for a
whole day. This is not possible in autumn nor in winter, however, as the cows
are then very fat; they then can carry four at most.
The drying of this meat by the women and
girls does not prevent the young men from going to the chase every day each for
himself, for it is only when they all go together that they have guards. If
anyone has no luck (which rarely happens in buffalo hunting), his relatives
contribute from their share. These little hunts are ordinarily for bucks, bears,
and young turkeys, on which
p. 313
they feast, not failing to invite the strangers whom they
have among them (a very frequent thing), such as Miami, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and others;
so that there were days when I was invited as many as ten times. We did not
dare to refuse, having learned that they were grieved if anyone who was among
them did not come. Some days later they again surrounded a large herd of
buffalos. I went to the chase in the hope of finding some one of these isolated
so as to surprise and kill him, and thus redeem in some sort the poor opinion
they had formed of me because of the apprehension I had shown at the sight of
the first buffalos. About an eighth of a league from the spot where we were
camping I heard a loud breathing in the brushwood. I listened very intently,
and, having assured myself that I was not mistaken, I advanced as softly as I
could and saw a calf stretched on the ground, its mother having been killed. It
was completely exhausted. I did not wait long to discharge my gun. Several
women who were in the vicinity, engaged in peeling off bark, came up on hearing
the report. One of them, leaving the others, went off to
p. 314
the village to announce that I had killed a calf. Two
old men came up, who gave me to understand that the animal was not worth the
shot, as the calves are never fat; but as this was the first animal that I had
killed, they felt it must be given the proper honors. They skinned it, leaving
nothing but the entrails and the skin, and as soon as all our hunters had
returned, one of the old men went off to harangue the village, announcing that
I had killed a calf and that they must partake of it, in order to thank the
Master of Life because he had allowed me to begin to kill game. The meat was
divided among 120 men, who did not allow the least scrap of it to go to waste.
We did not taste it, as it is not customary for the savages to eat when they
give a feast.
The same day I had the old men assemble in our cabin
and gave them all the powder and bullets that we had, telling them that we were
not able to kill game while pursuing it on the run; so I begged them to divide
this with the young men, as it was not fair that they should feed us for
nothing; and to those of our
p. 315
own cabin I said that, according to the good treatment
they accorded us, I should find a way to reward them. We perceived that they
had understood me by the extraordinary care they took of us when we were on the
march. If we showed signs of being thirsty, the most agile of them ran to fetch
water for us from places that we should never have discovered.
As regards thirst, having gone to the chase,
I found two men in a prairie who were skinning a buffalo. They told me to come
with them as they wanted to have me eat a broiled slice of their meat. I told
them I stood more in need of drink than of food. They gave me to understand
that no water was to be found except at a great distance, but that there was
some in the buffalo which they had killed not half an hour before, if I would have
a little patience. I thought I had not rightly understood them, and the savages
perceiving this, said nothing in reply to everything that I wished to say to
them except, "Wait," my thirst not being so great but that I could do
so. But I was apprehensive about the two leagues and more that remained to be
traversed before arriving
p. 316
at the woods where streams are to be found. They
hurried as much as they could in skinning their buffalo, and I helped them lay
it on its back. After opening its belly, they opened the paunch and separated
with their hands the excrements from the water which had not yet had time to be
absorbed. Using my hands, I drank as much as I wished. It had a bad taste, but
in spite of that, I had the pleasure of slaking my thirst.
When I came for my broiled meat on which
they had promised to feast me, I could not understand where they would get
means for cooking it. They took a fillet from within the body, this being the
most tender part in all sorts of animals, and cut it into strips like sausages.
One of them went off three or four arpents into a hollow, which in spring is
nothing but a sort of marsh, and brought back a bundle of round reeds as thick
as one's fingers. They drew from their quivers two bits of wood which serve them
for striking a flame, and in less than half a Miserere, they had a fire. They
kindled a part of their reeds, over which they put their meat, which they
turned from time to time with their bows. In
p. 317
spite of all the care they took to scrape it with their
knives, some ash remained, which rendered it as black as itself. Nevertheless,
I ate abundantly of it and found it very good. It was very tender and I had a
good appetite. One of the pieces of wood which they use to make a fire is of
white cedar, which is the most combustible, a foot long more or less, according
as they choose to make it, and as thick as two fingers. On one side, on the
very edge, they make little holes, in which they make a notch. They put this
bit of wood on some rotten wood or on some grass, dry and very fine, after
taking care to crush it thoroughly in their hands. The other piece of wood is
as thick as the little finger; it is a bit of a wood that has a black berry,
which we call morette. When this wood
is green it is very soft, and it is proportionately hard when it is dry. They
shape the end to the size of the holes in the other piece of wood, into one of
which they insert it, and by turning it in their hands without ceasing, they
produce a sort of powder from which, after a very short time, one sees smoke
issue, which shortly is converted
p. 318
into flame. This coming through the notch of which I have
just spoken, falls on the rotten wood or dry grass, which is ignited.
We went as much as twenty leagues from the
fort on this hunt, and I may say with truth that no finer landscape can be
found. There are avenues extending farther than the eye can reach, which seem
made expressly by nature to provoke our admiration, and offering, though about
as wide as the Cours de la Reine,
not a single bit of brushwood. This may be due to the endless number of
buffalos that pass there. The reason why these places are so much frequented by
these animals is because there is a kind of marsh here and there in the middle
of these alleys which serves them for watering places.
More than 1,200 buffalos were killed during
our hunt, without counting the bears, does, stags, bucks, young turkeys, and
lynxes. We killed also some animals which the Illinois and Miami call Quinousaoueia, which signifies the big tails, as they have
tails more than two feet long, a head like that of a cat, a body
p. 319
about three feet long, a very lank belly, and long legs,
and fur, reddish and very short. They move faster than any other beast for two
or three arpents. If they were as common as wolves, we should not see so many
bucks in that country, for they [live] only on these. I saw an exploit of a
young man of about twenty-two years which will show the agility of these
savages, and which made me admire him and could not but give great pleasure to
a thousand people themselves trained runners. On returning to the fort, we saw
on a large prairie in which we were (for these people have lynx-eyes) a band of
does numbering about sixty, and quite near the wood which we were about to
enter. Several young men started off, part to the right, part to the left, and
when they reached the wood, opposite the place where they had seen them, they
made for the animals and reached the prairie, with part of our people after
them, and with others at the flanks. They chased them for half an hour, letting
them go now to one side, now to the other, but steering them continually toward
us. The one of whom I wish to speak as the most agile, outran his comrades and
caught up with the animals, laying his hand on the back of one of
p. 320
them while uttering cries of victory; afterwards he drew
several arrows from his quiver, with which he killed and wounded several. Those
who had remained behind, like ourselves, ran up, and we killed more than half of
them with our guns. We camped in the wood where we had seen them, and came back
from there to get the meat.
We found in these woods a vast number of
trees laden with medlars, and others with nuts which
have a wonderfully delicate taste. They are ordinarily olive-shaped but twice
as big. The shells are very thin. There is a testa
inside dividing in two the kernel, which is very bitter. There were other trees
as thick as one's leg, which bend under a yellowish fruit of the shape and size
of a medium-sized cucumber, which the savages call assemina.
The French have given it an impertinent name. There are people who would not
like it, but I find it very good. They have five or six nuclei inside which are
as big as marsh beans, and of about the same shape. I ate, one day, sixty of
them, big and little. This fruit does not ripen till October, like the medlars. Grapes grow
p. 321
here in such abundance that one cannot travel four
arpents without finding trees full of trellises of charming beauty, with
clusters sometimes as large as those in France; but most of them have the
berries far apart. I cannot say as much of their quality, for out of all those
that I have tasted, I have found none that are edible. I tried to cook some and
used more than a quarter of a pound of sugar to a pint of this juice, yet it
was impossible for me or my serving man to swallow it.
There are wood rats here as big as a French
cat, which have white fur inclining to reddish, as long as that of a marten. It
is very fine and the women make garters of it. They have tails a foot long and
as thick as a finger, just like that of the muskrat. The female has two skins
under her belly which gives the effect of a justaucorps
closed at the top and the bottom, and open in the middle. They have as many as
eight young, which they carry inside when they walk. Some savages brought me a
couple of them once during the winter. I hoped to send them to France, but I
p. 322
was surprised some days after to find their tails
missing. The cold had frozen them, and they had broken off like glass. Sometime
later their ears also dropped off, so that I was obliged to kill them. Some
savages to whom I told this informed me that the mothers always kept them in
their holes until they were as big as themselves, and that, moreover, they did
not go out when it was very cold. They are very good to eat. They are very
heavy, and there is no need of running after them for when they see anyone they
do not flee; they only open their mouths and you smash their heads with a stick.
There is also a great abundance of stinking
animals, who produce an infectious stink with the
smell of their urine. This is their defense; when one tries to approach them to
kill them, they immediately turn tail and urinate if
they can. The dogs, after having strangled them, are often like mad for a very
long time. They do all they can by rolling on the ground to get rid of this bad
smell, which sticks to them for a long time. This does not keep the savages
from making dresses of their skin, the fur being white
p. 323
and black and very warm. The meat is very tender, but
despite all precautions taken in washing it, it develops an unpleasant odor
when eaten.
Plums are also very abundant here, and not
inferior in beauty to those of France. I found some at one time which, as
regards appearance, were nowise different from our Imperiale,
but they had a very different flavor indeed. They are never freestone, and have
a very thick skin.
There are also in the prairies many orchards
whose trees are laden with apples as big as the Api, but very bad. I was never able to eat them
except after boiling them, and after they had been frozen.
We got back from our hunt toward the middle
of July. From that time up to the end of September there arrived continually
bands of ten and fifteen and twenty Illinois, to the number of 800, whom the
late Monsieur de Tonti had sent out at the beginning
of March against the Iroquois, by order of Monsieur the Marquis Denonville. They brought in this summer, captive or killed,
sixty
p. 324
men, women, and children.
In the autumn Monsieur de la Forest arrived,
who told us that the Iroquois had killed many French and that everybody was in
great dismay. He and Monsieur de Tonti used all their
address to induce as many Illinois as possible to set out against them. In this
they were fairly successful, for the following summer we burned six Iroquois,
and they brought in more than twenty scalps.
In 1691 Monsieur de Tonti
left for some business which he had at Michillimackinac, leaving me to take
command in his place. Before his departure, he assembled all the principal
Illinois and told them that he was leaving me in his place,
and that in case any matters turned up regarding the service of the king or the
well-being of their village, they had only to apply to me - he would approve
whatever I might do. I learned afterward that this speech had had not a little
effect on their minds, for I can truthfully say to their praise that never had
Indians been so submissive as they were during this
time.
p. 325
Several women complained
that their corn had been cut, and others that they had found Iroquois moccasins
in their fields. I assembled the principal Indians, whom I feasted on a flat
side of buffalo, and told them that they should remember that Monsieur de Tonti had bid them listen to me whenever I might have
something to tell them concerning the safety of their wives and children. I
told them that I was informed that there were enemies out against them who were
cutting their corn, and that these might be a band of Iroquois who were coming
among them as they had done in the past. I said it was my opinion that they
ought to send out scouts on the roads over which they knew they were likely to
come, as undoubtedly, if it was true, as their women said, that enemies had cut
their corn, they would surprise the enemy scouts, who doubtless were waiting
for the crop to ripen before attacking them. They approved of my idea, and that
very night sent out four bands of twenty men each who four days later brought
in two Iroquois who had cut corn for the last time.
p. 326
They numbered 300 men. This made them draw
back, happily for the Illinois, for at that time there were not 200 young men
in the village. As soon as they were brought in they were fastened to the
stake. I had only three men about me at the time, the Reverend Father Gravier being a fifth. Soon after, there came in several
bands of the men whom Monsieur de Tonti had sent out
in the spring. They brought in four more prisoners whom we had captured. Our
Illinois lost four of their number, at which we were greatly pleased because
this roused them still more.
In September I received a letter from
Monsieur de Tonti, dated from Michillimackinac,
informing me that he had learned that Monsieur de la Forest was returning from
France and that the court had granted them the country of the Illinois with the
same prerogatives as the late Monsieur de la Salle. He said he was coming up
with a large number of engagés, and
that I should therefore sound the Illinois regarding the abandonment of their
village, for which they had shown a desire because their firewood was so remote
and because it was so difficult to get water upon
p. 327
the rock if they were attacked by the enemy. I assembled
the chiefs, and having learned that they had not changed their minds, I bade
them choose such place as suited them best. They chose
the end of Lake Pimitoui, which means Fat Lake, so
called on account of the abundance of game there. This is where the Illinois
are at present and where I was for seven years. Monsieur de Tonti
arrived in the winter [1691-1692] and started the building of a large fort to
which the savages might retire in case of an alarm. The following spring
Monsieur de la Forest arrived also with a considerable number of engagés and of soldiers, who completed the building
of it. It is four years ago this spring that I left the place. I left there
something over 260 cabins, which have from one to four fires. I put them at two
on the average, and thus calculate about 800 warriors between the ages of
twenty and forty. You can see no finer looking people. They are neither tall
nor short usually; there are some you could encompass with two hands. They have
legs that seem drawn with an artist's pen. They carry their load of wood
gracefully, with a proud gait as finely as the
p. 328
best dancer. They
have faces as beautiful as white milk, in so far as this is possible for
Indians of that country. They have the
most regular and the whitest teeth imaginable.
They are full of life, yet at the same time lazy. They are tattooed behind from the shoulders
to the heels, and as soon as they have reached the age of twenty-five, on the
front of the stomach, the sides, and the upper arms. There is here a certain Villeneuve,
who has half his back tattooed in the same manner. They are proud and vain and all call
themselves sons or relatives of chiefs; but in spite of this they are given to
begging, are cowardly, licentious, entirely given up to their senses. They always take advantage of the weakness of
those they deal with; they dress their best when they appear in public; they
are as jealous as Italians, thievish, gourmands, vindictive, hypocritical, and
perfidious. They would prostitute their
daughters or sisters a thousand times for a pair of stockings or other
trifle. I have got the men to agree a
hundred times that their fathers, their brothers, and their children were worse
than dogs, because they hoped that I would give them a little red paint or a
five-sol knife.
p. 329
The sin of sodomy prevails
more among them than in any other nation, although there are four women to one
man. It is true that the women, although
debauched, retain some moderation, which prevents the young men from satisfying
their passions as much as they would like.
There are men who are bred for this purpose from childhood. When they are seen frequently picking up the
spade, the spindle, the axe, but making no use of the bow and arrows, as all
the other small boys do, they are girt with a piece of leather or cloth which
envelopes them from the belt to the knees, a thing all the women wear. Their hair is allowed to grow, and is
fastened from behind the head. They wear
also a little skin like a shoulder strap passing under the arm on one side and
tied over the shoulder on the other.
They are tattooed on their cheeks like the women and also on the breast
and the arms, and they imitate their accent, which is different from that of
the men. They omit nothing that can make
them like the women. There are men
sufficiently imbruted to have dealings with them on the same footing. The women and the girls who prostitute
themselves to these wretches are
p. 330
dissolute creatures.
Formerly a man had to make
several attacks on the enemy before he could marry, a thing he did not do until
he was at least twenty-five, the period when a man begins to possess
resolution, so that they were really about thirty when they married. The girls also waited until they were
twenty-five. At present there are men
who do not wait until they are twenty, and girls marry under eighteen. The old men say that the French have
corrupted them.
When a young man has
succeeded in learning to hunt, he tells his father that he wishes to marry, and
names the girl he loves, to whom sometimes he has never spoken, for a chaste
girl among the Illinois, as well as among the Miami, ought not to hold any
conversation with the young men, nor even with the married men. When they first speak of marriage, she must
never speak to them first, nor cast her eyes upon them, for as soon as a young
man notices that a girl looks at him frequently and afterwards whispers to some
one of her companions, he conjectures that she is in love with him, and
ordinarily he is not mistaken. He there-
p. 331
fore neglects no opportunity to take advantage of this,
and spies out the time when she goes to the woods or to her field. He begs her to listen to him, and assures her
of his love. The girl half overcome already, does not
answer a word, which is an infallible sign among them that she loves him. He has a rendezvous with her and sometimes
obtains without delay all that he desires.
Accordingly a really well-conducted girl should avoid gatherings where
men are present, in order to be esteemed and married with ceremony. This is done in the following manner.
It is usually at the time
when the young man is absent either making war or hunting. His father, if he has one, or his uncle in
lieu of him, takes five or six kettles, two or three guns, some skins of stags,
bucks, or beavers, some flat sides of buffalo, some cloth, and sometimes a
slave, if he has one, in short something of all he has, according to his wealth
and the esteem in which the girl is held.
He has these presents delivered by women, his relatives, who deposit
them in the cabin of the girl, who goes out as soon as she is aware that it is
for her that they bring these presents, and
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he merely says to the father or her nearest relatives
that he asks his alliance and that he begs him to have pity on him and to
suffer him to warm himself at his fire.
They use this expression because it is always the women who supply the
cabins and the firewood. They also [say] that they come to seek moccasins, because it is the
women also who dress the skins.
The presents remain sometimes for four days in the cabin, without any
answer being given, on account of the objections made by the girl who does not
like the boy, or on account of her brother who is in favor of some other suitor
who has perhaps been seeking his good graces for a long time by means of little
presents, so that he may favor him in the same matter, which he has not yet
been able to arrange either through lack of merchandise, or because his
relatives are absent. In such a case the
presents are returned and nothing is said.
The father of the youth, knowing how much his son is bent on marrying
this girl, augments the presents and returns to the girl's home, saying that it
is at her fire only that he wishes to warm himself. I have seen presents carried back as many as
three times. This often produces
discouragement, and they address themselves to
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other girls for whom they have heard their sons express
esteem. In the end, therefore, the girl
and her brother consent on the account of the suasion of the father and mother
who extol the good qualities of the youth.
For this reason, in accordance with the means of the girl, they carry
back several things resembling those that were brought to them, and the girl
marches ahead well adorned with shoulder straps, glass beads, porcelain, and
bells, so that one who heard them marching would think they were mules. They spread a bearskin, or that of a buffalo
or stag, according to the season, in the middle of the cabin, on which they
seat the bride, and the relatives who followed her carrying the presents return
home.
In the evening the relatives
of the youth bring her back with some presents.
This is usually done as many as four successive days. The last day she remains. There are some who wait for the bridegroom's
return before going there for the last time.
They remain sometimes a whole week without approaching each other. It has happened that men, getting angry at
being too long rebuffed by their wives, have left them and gone off to the war
p. 334
without having known them, and have been killed. This happens sometimes because they do not
love their husbands, at other times to do themselves
honor, for when they have children immediately after nine months, it is a
matter of reproach when they quarrel, to say that they loved their husbands
before marrying them, since they had borne children so soon. I have known one woman who assured me that
she and her husband had been six months together without having intercourse. When such accidents occur, these women are to
be pitied, for the relatives of the man are always reproaching her with his
death. They dare not comb their hair,
nor be present at any dance, still less can they marry. They obliged to live very quietly in spite of
themselves, and often in shedding many tears, until the relatives are finally
inspired with pity. The sister is the
one who combs her, and who urges her to marry if she finds some suitor. To show them the regret that she feels and
her gratitude toward them, she must remain a year without marrying. If, unhappily for her, she were to do so
before it was allowed, the relatives of the deceased would take her scalp
p. 335
as if she were one of their enemies, would put it into
a hoop and hang it at the end of a pole at the top of their cabin. When they are faithless to their husbands the
same treatment is accorded them. The
husband or relatives do not wait for an opportune moment, but no matter where they
find the woman outside of her cabin, they take the law into their own hands.
The Miami cut off their
noses. Others inflict another
punishment; they post some thirty young men on a road by which they know that
their wives must pass in going to the woods.
As soon as they see her, the husband issues from the ambuscade and says
to his wife: As I know that you are fond of men, I offer you a feast of
them---take your fill. Her cries are
futile; several of them hold her, and they enjoy her one after the other. There are even some men who are always
present on such occasions. I had the
vexation of seeing this happen one day in our fort, where I was in command at
the time. A chief who was one of my
friends came to tell me that he knew that at the very moment he was talking
with me, his wife was locked up with my serving man in
p. 336
the house opposite mine, where he cooked for me. He added that but for the consideration which
he had for me he would do an ill turn to that Frenchman. He begged me to tell that latter to take care
lest this happen in the future, and added that all men would not show as much
regard for me. He asked me to come with
him to have the door opened, which had been kept closed in spite of much
knocking on his part and of the many invitations from him to open it. So I went there with him, and the Frenchman still
kept us waiting for so long that I scolded him for being so slow to answer my
calls. He finally opened the door, and
the woman came out holding in her hands a bit of paper containing some
vermilion. Her husband laid hold of her
and led her off to one of the bastions of our fort, where there were twenty
young men who did not spare her. Others,
who are braver, inflict wounds on the lover with knives or arrows, of which he
sometimes dies. When he is merely
wounded his relatives say nothing; but if he dies his brothers or his near
relatives take vengeance on the one who dealt the blow
p. 337
or his brothers, in spite of all the presents that are
given to appease them. Ordinarily
blankets, kettles, guns, and slaves are given for this purpose. There are some who say that the women are not
worth the price of the least resentment, and that when they prove faithless one
should be content to drive them away and take others. In spite of the severity shown toward them,
they are not held back from falling into this error, and their fate does not
serve as a warning to others. Since I
have been in this country more than a hundred women have been scalped. It is true that the young men are bound
easily to inspire love in them, for as I have already said, they are the
handsomest Indians that I know, good hunters, good runners, intelligent,
affecting generosity toward the brothers of the women they love, who incline
their sisters to return their love, although married women. When, in addition to all this, they are
warriors, there are few who do not succumb to them. The women are rather ugly than beautiful,
tolerably fair for savages, and quite cleanly.
They always bend one leg inward on which they sit when they are taking
on a load. Those
p. 338
who are slender and tall are the most beautiful. Thus when Madame Lesueur,
who is very tall, slender, very blonde, and who has a well-shaped face, came
among the Illinois, she was much admired and obliged to pass two entire days
outside the fort. Otherwise my house would
not have been left standing because of the number of people bent on seeing
her. In this connection, the wife of a
man of standing, the mother-in-law of one of our Frenchmen, made me an answer
which does not seem to me quite that of a savage. When I asked her one day if she had seen the
French woman and her children, she said:
"Yes, truly, I have seen her, and I wish that she had never come to
this county. I believed that our women could hold their own for beauty with
other natives, and we even see that those that are known to us are much
inferior to us; but now we know that we are only monsters compared with your
women---and still we are told that this is not a beautiful woman! Her little
children are like the little Jesus that Father Gravier
shows us every day."
p. 339
They are very industrious,
being rarely idle, especially when they are married. In spring when the nation returns from its
winter sojourn, which is at the end of March, or at the beginning of April,
they busy themselves gathering wood so as to be able to do their planting at
the beginning of May without interruption, for, although in this country the
snow is not over four fingers deep and does not lie on the ground a week, and
although the rivers are all open at the beginning of March, there are cold
spells in May as severe as those of winter.
They spin buffalo hair out of which they make sacks to keep their peltry
in, and of which they also make garters.
They also utilize wood rats and malodorous animals, whose hides they
color black, red, and yellow. They also
work very well with porcupine quills, with which they trim their gala
moccasins. The Potowatomi
and Ottawa furnish them these, for there are no animals of this sort among
them. When they wish to finish their
sowing early, they offer a feast of flat sides of beef mixed with corn inside
of it, and invite as many
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women as they need to spade up their fields. They do not refuse such invitations, and if
any of those invited fail to come, they come next day to offer their excuses
and to tell the reasons which prevented their coming.
At the beginning of June
they hill up their corn, and after that the village sets out on the buffalo
hunt. Someone always remains in each
cabin, someone of the women, I mean. I
have seen times when not six remained. Some days after this the women who
remain go off in canoes, of which they have as many as three in each cabin, to
cut reeds with which to cover their cabins.
These are a kind that grow in their
marshes. They procure bundles of them,
which, after removing a skin that encloses several blades conjointly, they dry
in the sun and tie together with twine which they make of white wood, with ten
or twelve bands at intervals of about six inches. They make these up to ten fathoms in length. They call them apacoya, a word which serves
not merely to designate these, but which is also a generic term for all sorts
of cov-
p. 341
erings. They use the same term for bark boards, and
two of these apacoyas,
one on top of the other, protect one from the rain as well as the best
blanket. These are the cabins which they
use in autumn and winter; even if they leave their canoes, the women carry
these on their backs.
I have forgotten to say that
before they set out for the chase, the men play at Lacrosse, a few women
mingling with them. They make the [racket] out of a stick of walnut,
about three feet long, which they bend half way, making the end come within a
foot of the other end which serves for them as a handle. To keep it in this shape they fasten a
buffalo sinew to the curved end, which, as I have already said, they fasten
about a foot from the end that serves as a handle. They lace the interior with more buffalo
sinew so that the ball, which is a knot of wood of the size of a tennis ball, cannot
pass through. This nation is composed of
eight villages, of which there are six at Pimitoui,
and two others which I have never seen with them. These last are built eight leagues beyond the
mouth of the Illinois River on the Mississippi, called Cahokia
p. 342
and Tamaroa, having, I
believe, more than sixty cabins.
The six of which I wish to
speak are the Kaskaskia, the Peoria, Moingwena, Coiracoentanon, Tamaroa, Tapouara. The Peoria
and the Coiracoentanon usually join against the four
other villages because they are as numerous as the four.
They place in the middle of
the prairie, on whose edge their village stands, two forks about ten paces
apart. An old man, who is neutral, rises
and utters a cry which signifies: It is time.
Everybody rises and utters cries similar to those they utter when they
attack the enemy. The old man throws the
ball into the air and pell-mell they all try to catch it. They strike their legs in such a manner that
they are crippled sometimes, especially when someone manages to get the ball in
hand so as to send it very far so that it has a reasonable distance for getting
an impetus and then strikes a player's legs in front. This makes them fall in such a manner that it
might be supposed that they would never get up again. I
p. 343
have seen men in this state who were thought to be
dead. The players pass over them without
paying any heed; only the women, their relatives, come and carry them off in a
deerskin. It is at times as much as two
months before they can make use of their legs, and often they break them.
I have seen a Bardache
(P.N.: biological males living as
females) who was standing aside like the women to send back the ball to his
party, in case it came his way, who was struck by the ball in the eye so hard
that the eye was knocked out of his head. It is necessary to go and return to
win the game.
To return to the occupations
of the women, at the end of July they begin to mix or dry the corn. They make two kinds. That which they roast gives them more trouble
than that which they boil, for they have to make large griddles and exercise
particular care to turn the ears from time to time to prevent their burning too
much on one side, and afterwards they have to shell off the kernels. They therefore make very little of this
kind. The kind which they boil they
gather just as tender as the corn for
p. 344
roasting, and with shells, which they find more convenient
than knives, they cut all the kernels, throwing away the cobs, until they have
about the quantity they wish to cook for that day. They never keep any for the next day because
of the excessive care needed to prevent it from turning sour. After this, as soon as it has boiled for a
few minutes, they spread it on reed mats, which they also make in the same
manner as those that serve for their cabins.
The drying process usually takes two days. They make a great store of this kind.
As regards the large ears
which are ripe at the end of August, after they have gathered it they husk the
ears and spread them into a heap and cover them well; when the sun has risen
they spread them again, and they keep this up for a week; then they thresh it
with big sticks six or seven feet long, in a place which they surround with
matting to prevent the flying kernels from getting lost. They harvest also a great
p. 345
many watermelons which are admirable. I have seen numbers of them as big as a water
bucket.
There are abundant and
excellent pumpkins. They have a mode of
drying them that is not common to all the nations of this region by which they
keep from one year to the next. They
scrape the rind well, and take out all the inside, and cut them into slices
full circle and an inch thick. They let
them wither for a day in the air, after which they tie them together, putting
as many as five pumpkins together in this way.
They expose them to the sun for several days, which dries them out to
such a degree that they break like a turnip.
They cook this with meat and Indian corn. It is a great treat among them. The French always make a liberal provision of
this.
There are also many roots
which the women gather. The one which
they esteem most is the macopine. It is a big root which they get in the
marshes. I have never tried to learn
what the flower is like, so I cannot speak of it, although I have seen the
women pull the roots up from the ground at the bottom of the water into which
they wade sometimes up to the waist, so that they
p. 346
often duck their heads under water to pluck them up. There are some as big as one's leg. The savages assert that they are poisonous
when raw, which I hardly believe. The
women have peculiar difficulty in cooking them.
Sometimes three or four cabins combine and dig a hole in the ground five
or six feet deep and ten or twelve square.
They throw a great deal of wood into it, which they set on fire, and
when it is aflame they throw in a number of rocks, which they take care to turn
over with big levers until they are all red; then they go in quest of a large
quantity of grass which they get at the bottom of the water and which they
spread as well as they can over these rocks to the thickness of about a foot,
after which they throw on many buckets of water, and then as fast as they can
each cabin puts its roots in its own place, covering them over with dry grass
and bark and finally earth. They leave
them thus for three days. They shrink to
half their former size.
They gather also in these
same marshes other roots which are as big as one's arm and which are all full
of holes. They give them no trouble to
prepare: they merely cut them into
pieces
p. 347
half as thick as one's wrist, string them, and hang them
to dry in the sun or in the smoke. This
root has larges leaves that spread out on the water, like what we call votels, but
they are much larger. Between two of
these leaves issues something shaped like the body of a drinking-glass in which
are the seeds, which are as big as hazelnuts.
They also store up onions, which are as big as Jerusalem artichokes,
which they find in the prairies, and which I find better than all the other
roots. They are sugary and pleasing to
the palate. They are cooked like the macopines.
There are a great many
others of which I make no mention whatever, which attests to the abundance of
all things in this country. In the
vicinity of the river some bits of red copper have been discovered, but up to
the present time no mine has been found.
We have only found below several lead mines which are very rich. The French and the Indians make use of no
others and even carry on a trade in lead with the Indians who come to trade
with them.
p. 348
There are blackberry bushes
here as large as those of France, and the berries are almost as big and as
good.
They are no doubt simples
also, since these savages sometimes cure themselves of wounds for which our
surgeons would require six weeks.
There are also trees which
in autumn have great pods in which there are black stones with a sort of green unguent
inside, of which the savages have no knowledge.
There is another tree which
is filled with thorns as long as one's fingers.
It also has pods which are not as big nor so long: they are full of little beans which are very
hard.
There is also found in this
pod a gummy substance of a sugary taste, which I was told the English utilize
to make punch.
There are Indian chestnuts
of admirable beauty full of nuts bigger and finer than those of Lyons. There is no one who on seeing them does not
believe them to be excellent. When we
first
p. 349
established this settlement, I went out on a hunting excursion
one day. As I wished to go farther into
the woods so as to shoot more easily at a flock of bustards which I had seen at
the water's edge, I advanced and found a quantity of these chestnuts at the
foot of the trees. I thought now only of
gathering them, and having collected a heap of the finest ones, I was unwilling
to leave so beautiful a spot until I had tasted this fruit. So I made a good fire and put a dozen of them
into it. I had taken care to open
them. They looked wonderfully inviting
when I drew them out of the fire. I bit
into one, believing I was going to eat the best chestnut in the world, but I
was well paid for my curiosity, for I was unable during more than a quarter of
an hour to get rid of the bitterness in my mouth. I felt none, however, because I had thus
missed shooting my bustards. It is a
game bird that is very common here, as well as swans, French ducks, musk ducks,
teals, and cranes, both white and gray.
I am now going to tell
something which will perhaps not be believed, though I am not the only one who
has witnessed it. The
p. 350
waters are sometimes low in
autumn so that all the sorts of birds that I have just mentioned leave the
marshes which are dry, and there is such a vast number of them in the river,
and especially in the lake (at the end of which the Illinois are settled on the
north shore), on account of the abundance of roots in it, when, if this game
remained on the water, one could not get through in a canoe without pushing
them aside with the paddle, and yet the lake is seven leagues long and more
than a quarter of a league wide in the broadest part.
This river also has a great
abundance of fish, and especially the lake, in which there are carp much better
than we have in France, two feet long and half a foot thick. A savage, in good weather, spears as many as
sixty of them in one day. There are
brills of monstrous size. I have seen
one whose two eyes were sixteen inches apart and whose body was a big as the
biggest man. The late Monsieur de Tonti assured me that he had seen one with an interval of
eighteen inches. I do not doubt that
there are
p. 351
some even bigger, for one
day a soldier of the garrison at that time among the Illinois, having gone
fishing one night in a canoe, and having put out a big rock to anchor it, one
of these brills, finding itself caught on the hook, made such powerful efforts
that it carried away the canoe, the rock, and the man. The soldier, seeing this, exerted all his
strength and was pulling it toward him when, unhappily, the line broke. It was of whitewood bark, twisted thicker
than one's thumb. While the women were
working, as I have already related, from morning till night, the men remain
under awnings which the women set up in front of their cabins to keep the heat
of the sun from entering. They surround
these with foliage. At night, most of
the men, seated like dogs on mats of round reeds, play with straws. For markers they use the little beans which I
have mentioned, which grow on the thorny trees.
The game is usually of 200 straws of the length of a foot. The one who can best deceive is the best
player; so they are always on the lookout against being deceived. They mark with their beans
p. 352
one or two, according to the
wish of the one whose turn it is to mark, then three, and so in regard to the
other players up to six, which is the game.
One of them takes the straws in both hands and forces his thumb into the
middle. The other, if he so desires,
does the same thing, and afterwards counts the straws by the sixes; if he happens to
have one left, and one bean is marked the first, he has the head; if the other
gets two which are marked next, it is what they call the neck which comes
after the head, so he loses; if he gets one like the other, they begin over
again. They have perhaps five or six
hundred of these beans, some of which they stake on each play, and when one
player has them all before him, they gain what they have staked. They are addicted to this game in a degree
that cannot be exceeded. Some of them
have staked their sisters after having lost all that they had of personal
property. They are very superstitious
about it, and if their wives are with child when they lose, they say it is they
who bring ill-luck; if they win, they say the contrary. They fear the women and girls when they have
the malady to which they are all subject.
Because of
p. 353
this, opposite every cabin there is another which offers
very close quarters for two persons and to which they retire during all the
time they are in this condition, with a kettle, a spoon, and a dish. No one enters except such as are in the same
condition. When they need anything they
come to the door to ask for it. When it
is the first time, they make themselves cabins in the wilderness at a distance
of no more than ten arpents from the village, and all the girls' relatives
advise them to abstain from eating and drinking as long as they are in this
condition, telling them that they see the devil, and that when he has spoken to
them they are always happy and achieve the gift of great power as regards the
future. I saw a young girl of sixteen
who was foolish enough to remain six days without eating or drinking and whom it
was necessary to carry back to her cabin, after thoroughly washing her of
course, because she was not able to stand up.
She made all her relatives believe that she had seen a buffalo, which
had spoken to her, and that her two brothers were leading a party on the
warpath against the Iroquois would make a successful attack without losing any
life. They did indeed make a successful
attack, as she had said,
p. 354
but one of the two brothers was killed. All the medicine men said she had been right,
because the attack had succeeded, but that apparently she had not fasted all
the time that was necessary, which was the reason why the devil had lied in
part of what he had said to her, since she had performed only a part of what
she ought to have seen.
The women also cannot be
delivered in the cabins of their husbands, but betake themselves to those of
which I have just spoken. When they have
a painful childbirth, forty or fifty young men make a descent upon the cabin in
the most unexpected manner, uttering cries like those they make when they attack
their enemies, shooting off guns, and striking heavy blows upon the cabin,
which brings about immediate delivery.
The women remain sometimes a fortnight, in cases of very difficult
childbirth, for although they are savages there are some who are just as sick
as our women. Afterwards the woman goes
off to bathe; when the water is too cold, she washes is the cabin. The day when she is to return to her
husband's cabin, he has everything cleaned, has his
p. 355
furs shaken, and the ashes in the fireplace removed, so
that not a speck remains, after which he kindles a new fire with his apparatus
and lights it himself. Then he sends
word to his wife to enter. I have seen
some women go to the woods the day after they had had a child and bring home as
heavy a load as ordinarily.
While the women are nursing,
their husbands do not ordinarily have commerce with them. As they have several wives, the abstinence is
easy for them. It is usually the sisters
and the aunts or nieces of their wives whom they marry. These they call Nirimoua. When a man is a good hunter, it is a very
easy matter for him to marry all who stand within this degree of
relationship. The women designate him in
the same manner.
When their husbands die,
they weep in a way that would lead one to believe that they are sincerely
grieved, in which they are like a majority of our women who weep only in
proportion to the loss they have sustained and the fear they entertain of not
finding new husbands, and not from the love they bore the deceased. They abstain for a very long time, as I have
already said, from combing
p. 356
themselves unless the sister of the dead man urges them
thereto. Often at daybreak you hear weeping
on all sides, which, however, far from raising pity, rather inspires laughter,
for one would say that they are singing. One invokes her brother, another
her father, another her sister, and others their children. She who has lost her husband and who has no
children names her brother in her funeral song, the purport of which is that
henceforth she will find no one to do her a good turn. All the married men have the custom of giving
some present to the brothers of their wives.
The women who have children name them in their songs, saying that they
will find nobody who will give them a dress with which to "clothe
themselves." The relatives, of whom
the savages have a great number, come to "clothe" them, bringing them
blankets, pelts, kettles, guns, hatchets, porcelain collars, belts,
knives. All that is given gives
pleasure, and now the people of the cabin say that the dead died opportunely
since the esteem in which he was held is shown by these presents from
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everybody. The next day
they simply reverse the process. If
someone has received a red blanket, he receives a blue one in return; if he has
given a yellow kettle, he receives a red one; if has given a small kettle, he
receives a hatchet, and so on. The only
advantage accruing to the relatives of the dead men is that they often keep
good articles for bad ones which they give away. They also pay four men for burying the dead.
They ordinarily cut two
forked sticks ten feet long with a crosspiece. They hollow out the earth to the
length of the body and a little wider.
They put in a board from one of their old boats or canoes and put the
dead body inside with another board on each side.
I forgot to say that they
paint his face and hair red, put on him a white shirt if they have one, and new
mittasses of cloth or of leather, and moccasins, and
cover him with the best robe they have.
They put in a little kettle or earthen pot, about a double handful of
corn, a calumet, a pinch of tobacco, a bow and arrows, and then they replant
one of these forked sticks a foot from his
p. 358
feet and the other at the
same distance from the head with the crosspiece above, after which they set
their stakes in d'anse on each side, taking care to
close up both ends well so that no animals may get in.
If the deceased has been a
chief of war parties that have brought in prisoners they plant a tree forty or
fifty feet long, which several men go to fetch at the request of the relatives,
who give a feast. From this tree they
peal back the bark and color it with shades of red and black and make pictures
of the chief and the prisoners he has taken, tie a bundle of small logs
representing as many persons as he has killed, which they also fasten to the
stake, and then they plant it beside the tomb.
They sometimes put some [articles] in the earth, observing always the
maxim of putting similar things with them in their graves. After this they take measures to procure for
them, so the old men say, passage over a great river,
on whose nearer shore they hear delights.
There, they say, they always dance, and they eat everything they
wish. The women there are always
beautiful, and it is never cold. All
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the souls of those who die always stand on the bank,
waiting to be conveyed to the other side, which never happens unless they have
been paid the last obsequies. For this
reason the Miami and the Illinois delay as little as possible in rendering them
to their relatives. If the dead man is a
warrior who has loved the dance very much, the relatives assemble in his cabin
to see what they can give. They count
how many villages they represent and agree on the thing as best they can in
order that none may be dissatisfied.
They plant for this purpose three or four forks, according to the amount
of merchandise there is to give, and fix crosspieces on which they hang several
kettles, guns, and hatchets. They send
word to the chiefs of each village to send their warriors to dance for such a
one who is dead in order that he may go to enjoy the bliss which all men will
one day enjoy.
Immediately the chief or the
leading men of each village go and exhort the young men to put on their best
array.
A large number of mats are
spread outside around those forks, the drummer is there nearby and the Chichicoirs. They
p. 360
seat themselves round about, usually stark naked, and tie
the skin of the virile member, sometimes fastening it at the belt. One of them begins his role with war whoops,
and they represent in dancing the tableau presented when they discover the
enemy, when they kill him, and when they take his scalp, or when they take him
prisoner, and they do all this without losing the cadence. They call this dance the discovery.
The women during this time
are weeping in his cabin. When the dance
is over, the nearest relative of the dead for whom they dance, pointing with a
wand says: This is for you, Peoria; this is for you Coiracoentanon,
and so on.
If the dead man liked the
game of lacrosse, the relatives have the villages play against each other, and similarly
if they liked gaming. Sometimes they
have races. And the common people have
dances.
When the women die, those of
their sex make their graves, dressing them as neatly as they can before
burial. If it be a girl, it is the girls
who do this. When it happens to be a
woman who
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loved her husband (this is
very rare among these women, as it is everywhere else) and if her husband
remarries a short time after his wife's death, taking a wife who does not
belong to the family of the dead woman, the feminine relatives invade the
husband's cabin and cut up all the skins and break the kettles, the man never
making a motion. They do the same thing
when the husbands, without sufficient reason, leave their wives and take others
of different families.
Although this nation is much
given to debauchery, especially the men, the reverend Jesuit fathers, who speak
their language perfectly, manage (if one may say so) to impose some check on
this by instructing a number of girls in Christianity, who often profit by
their teaching, and mock the superstitions of their nation. This often greatly incenses the old men and
daily exposes these fathers to ill-treatment, and even to being killed. I must say to their glory that they must be
saints indeed to take as much trouble as they do for these people. Every day as soon as the sun rises they go
into the cabins to find out if anyone is sick;
p. 362
they give them medicines, and if necessary bleed
them, and sometimes they even make broth for them, after which they have it
cried through the village that they are about to say mass. Then they teach the
catechism or they preach sermons; in the afternoon, after having applied
themselves to the language, they return to the village to hear the catechism,
which always takes two hours. The pieces of wood, husks of indian
corn, and even the stones which are sometimes thrown at them do not dismay
them; they continue their discourse, contenting themselves with saying that it
is the master of life who orders them to do what they are doing, and those that
do not wish to hear his word may stay away while those who wish to listen to it
may do so. In the evening they come again to call to prayer, which is followed
by a prayer service for the French. No
weather prevents them from going through with the same exercises. Sometimes they are sent for at night to come
to the edge of the village, which is more than an eighth of a league long, to
assist the dying. I have even had some
differences with
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some of these reverend fathers as to this matter, on
account of the dangers to which they exposed us in thus exposing themselves,
fearing as I did that some medicine men, jealous at finding themselves cut off
from what they might have gained by caring for the sick, might directly or
indirectly do them some mischief. But their great zeal always carried them
away, no matter what stipulations they made with me.
This nation as well as the Miami, has no religion.
Some have the buffalo, the bear, others the cat, the buck, the lynx for their
manitou. Almost all the old men are
medicine men and consequently healers, so that when a person is sick, the
relatives hang up in the cabin a kettle, or a couple of guns, or a blanket,
according to the severity of his disease and the amount of his property, after
which they send for one of these old men who inspires them with the most
confidence, and say to him: "Father" or "Brother" or
"Uncle", (according to the tie of kinship existent between them. It
should be stated that they almost all call each other relatives,
and such degrees of kinship as I have just enumerated are
p. 364
often claimed by persons whom we should not even call
cousins. I have seen men of eighty claim that young
girls were their mothers.) "I beg of you to take pity on us and heal
us. Here is what we had hung up for
this." The old man pretends not to notice what they show him, but
approaches the sick man and asks him in what way he is ailing, and where and
how long he has been ill. After a
thorough inspection, he returns home to get some of his medicine and his chichicoya, a little gourd from which
the inside has been removed and into which they put some grains of little glass
pearl, and they run a stick through it from the top to the bottom, letting one end project a
foot to hold it by. This
when shaken, makes a loud noise.
From a little bag in which he has a quantity of small packages, he takes
out some pieces of tanned skin in which are his medicaments. After spreading them out, he takes up his
gourd and shakes it, intoning at the top of his voice a song in which he says:
"The buffalo (or the buck, according to his manitou) has revealed this
remedy to me and has told me that it was good for such and such a malady"-
and he
p. 365
names the one by which the sick man is attacked -
"whoever has it administered to him will be healed." He reiterates this for sometimes half an
hour, though often the patient has not slept for a whole week. When the sickness is a desperate one, he
calls for water, which he has warmed, and puts it into a micoine,
mixing with it five or six kinds of powders which he takes from his
packages. This he has his patient
swallow, then he takes some into his own mouth, and having the place pointed
out to him which gives pain, he spouts this drug upon it, and then he bandages
it. He is careful to make two visits a
day and to treat his patient in the same fashion, save that he does not sing
unless the sick man is worse. When he
perceives an improvement, he brings his gourd and sings louder than the first
time, asserting in his song that his manitou is the true manitou, who has never
lied to him, wherefore thanks to the promise the latter has given him by night
in his dreams, he is about to heal his patient by extracting the cause of his
ill. Having had the place pointed out,
he fingers it carefully, and then all of a sudden throws himself mouth down upon
it, crying out as if he were mad. He bites his patient sometimes so hard
p. 366
as to draw blood, but the latter does not budge for
fear of manifesting lack of courage.
Meanwhile he inserts in his mouth the claw of a dog or an eagle, or the
hair of the beard of a Kinousaoueine or a Richion, which he says he has drawn out from the sore
spot. The savages say that it is animals
of this kind which send them these diseases because they have eaten their
prey. It sometimes happens that they
pass by places where such animals have strangled bucks, and they make no
scruple of appropriating and eating these if they have no meat, and they even
consider it very good. In spite of all
these medicine men say of the matter, they are themselves the first to do
so. Then in a long song he thanks his
manitou with his chichicoya for
making it possible for him frequently to obtain merchandise through his
favor. He takes his patient out for a
bath, or washes him in the cabin, according to the season. He takes what had been hung up for him in the
cabin and carries it off without saying anything. The relatives arise and pass their hands over
his head and his legs, as sign of profound
p. 367
gratitude. Most often
they do not cure the sick, although assuredly they have admirable drugs,
because they are ignorant of internal maladies.
It is only a mere chance when they succeed. Their medicines they use for purging have all
the effectiveness possible. There are
some who use coloquinte, with which the wilderness
abounds in autumn when they gather their seeds.
In the healing of wounds some of them are very skillful. I have seen them cure some surprising ones
and in a very short time. The sucking
process, which they all practice, has no doubt a large share in their
success. However full of pus a wound may
be, they clean it out entirely without inflicting much pain. They take the precaution of putting a little
powder in their mouths; but when they have drawn out the worst of it they no longer
do so, but continue to suck at the wound until it appears ruddy, after which
they chew up some medicine which they spit upon the wound merely wrapping up
the whole by day, while leaving the wound to suppurate. At night they wrap it also. When a man has been wounded by a gunshot or by
an
p. 368
arrow through the body, at the bottom of the neck
[or] opposite a rib, they open up his side, after taking care to raise the skin
a little so that being lowered again the opening will be between two
[ribs]. They pour into him a quantity of
warm water, in which they have diluted some of their drugs, after which they
have the patient make motions and inhale, and sometimes they even take hold of
him by the arms and legs, pushing him to and fro between them, and then make
him eject all this water through his wound, expelling along with it fragments
of clotted blood, which otherwise, doubtless, would suffocate him. Then they sprinkle him with some of their
powdered herbs, which they put into their mouths, as I have already said, and
they never close up the wound by day. I
have seen two men who were healed in this way.
As for those who have broken arms or legs, when they manage to get to
the village, they are healed in less than two months. They do not know what amputation is, as
practiced by our surgeons, and we therefore see no Indians with one arm or with
a wooden leg.
p. 369
Those who heal such wounds pass for manitous and
inspire fear in the young men, and especially in the young girls, whom they
often seduce, owing to their weakness in believing that these might cause their
death by blowing medicine upon them, because of which they dare not
refuse. They have also an extraordinary
and ridiculous manner of inspiring belief in the infallibility of their remedies,
which however, has quite the effect they wish on the minds of the young. Two or three times in the summer, in the most
attractive spot in their village, they plant some poles in the ground, forming
a sort of enclosure half an ardent square, which they furnish with mats. All of them, the medicine men and the
medicine women, remain for the time being in the cabin of their confrères,
waiting for all this to be arranged, and planning together what to do in order
to more easily hoodwink the young people and keep alive the faith in their
magical powers, both for the rewards which they get for attending to the sick
and also with a view of keeping the younger generation under their influence
when they wish them to do some-
p. 370
thing for the security of their village or the repose of
their wives and children. After these
preliminaries, they enter gravely into this enclosure, their dresses trailing,
having their chichicoya in
their hands and carrying bearskins in their arms. They all sit on mats which are spread for
them. One of them rises,
the chichicoya in his hand, and
speaks in a chant before the whole assembly: "My friends, today you must
manifest to men the power of our medicine so as to make them understand that
they live only as long as we wish."
Then they all rise and, waving the chichicoya, chant: "This buffalo has told me this, the
bear, the wolf, the buck, the big tail"-each one naming the beast he
particularly venerates. Then they sit
down again still shaking the gourd. Immediately three or four men get up as if possessed, among them
some who resemble men who are on the point of dying. Their eyes are convulsed, and they let
themselves fall prostrate and grow rigid as if they were expiring. Another falls also, and rises with an eagles
feather in his hand, the barbs of which are reddened and form a
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figure suggesting he has been wounded therewith, but has
been saved from the consequences by his medicines, and wishes to inject it into
the body of one of the band, who then falls to the ground and expels a quantity
of blood from his mouth. The medicine
men rush to give him help, tear away the feather which issues an inch out of
his mouth, spout medicine all over his body, and then have him carried off with
great solemnity to his cabin, where he is treated like men who have been
poisoned. They make him swallow a
quantity of drugs, and five or six of them lay hold of him and pull him by the
arms and legs, uttering loud yells. They
shake him for a long time in this manner without his coming to; finally he
vomits a quantity of water, and they at the same moment throw down a little
rattlesnake. A medicine man picks it up
and shows it to the spectators and chants: "Here is the manitou that
killed him, but my medicine has restored him to life." The whole assembly come
like people filled with amazement to see this serpent and chant: "Medicine
is the science of sciences."
p. 372
Rattlesnakes abound among them; not a summer
passes but some one is bitten; this troubles them but little since they have an
admirable root, which, as soon as it is applied to the wound, softens the
swelling so that by the next day one is cured. This root is found in the prairies
and is shaped like an onion. The stem grows two feet high; the leaves are very
narrow and somewhat resemble those of the sumac. It forms large buds in which
the seed is lodged. I have made a point of hunting for it in this country, but
have never been able to find any. I have been told that they had still another
kind, but I have not become acquainted with it.
As regards rattlesnakes, I had an amusing
experience one day when I visited the most famous medicine man in the village
of the Peoria, the evening before a great jugglery was to take place like the
one I have just spoken of. I found my man busy putting medicines into packages.
As it was summer, he was seated on a sort of scaffold. There was a heap of
skins of bears, cats, and bucks, which he pushed back, not so quickly, however,
but that I
p. 373
managed to sit down on it. After talking with him awhile, I
felt stirring under me, but paid no attention to it at first, until, feeling it
a second time, I asked him what it was. He began to laugh and begged me to have
no fear as these were rattlesnakes. This startled me, but I took care not to
let him see that it did. I asked him to show them to me. He showed me a buckskin which was tied in the middle and which enveloped
these snakes, hardly anything but their heads being apparent through it. He
told me that he had extracted their teeth. I had already heard of all this, but
had never believed it, so I asked him to let me see the snakes. He was
surprised at my courage, knowing that the French do not like to see animals of
this kind. He rubbed his hands with the grass of which I have spoken and we got
down. He untied the skins. The women and girls fled when they saw that we were
in earnest. I endured as well as I could the sight of these animals, which I
should not have done if I had not known that they had no teeth. They hardly
stirred as long as he kept his hand on them.
p. 374
He took up one and pressed his neck. The serpent
twisted itself about his wrist. He showed me that the snakes no longer had any
teeth, and added that he would make use of them next day in the jesting which
they were going to carry on- this is the name they give to these juggleries
when they speak of them with the French, because the latter protest against
them. He said that he would let the snakes run without fear of being bitten,
and that his confrères would pick them up in the
presence of the young men, who, looking on and not knowing that the teeth had
been extracted, would regard them as manitous. He said that we ought not to
blame this as we did, since it was done for a good purpose; it was necessary
that the young men should fear them when the medicine men remonstrated with
them for the robberies they sometimes committed among themselves and even among
the French, for stealing of each other's wives, which often caused the death of
some one of them, and even for the insults they offered to the Black Robe who
kept the young girls from coming to sleep with them. I replied that, if he
could prevent all this wickedness without offending God, it
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would be a very good thing, but that they ought to make
use of their medicines without saying that it is the buffalo or the bear who
has given them and that these beasts are manitous, since it is forbidden to
commit one sin in order to prevent another. To this he would not listen,
considering only the present advantage. Very few young men busy themselves with
sorcery. When there is one of them who does, it is a
sign that he lacks courage. Unless he excels in the profession, lie is
despised.
Besides the animals I have already mentioned
as manitous, they have also several birds which they use when they go to war
and as to which they cherish much superstition. They use the skins of stone
falcons, crows, carrion crows, turtledoves, ducks, swallows, martins, parrots,
and many others that I do not name.
Every young man has a little mat made of the
round reeds I have mentioned which grow in the marshes. The women dye them
black, yellow, and red, and make them three feet long and two feet wide. They
fold over one end about a foot in the form
p. 376
of a comb case and in which they put some of these
birds of which I have spoken. It is
ordinarily in February that they prepare to go to war. Before starting, that in each village there
are several chiefs of young men who dispose of thirty, forty, and sometimes as
many as fifty men. That is why, at the
time I have spoken of, they invite them to feast and tell them that the time is
approaching to go in search of men; so it is well to pay homage, according to
their custom, to their birds so that these may be favorable. They all answer with a loud "Ho!" and after
eating with great appetite they all go to get their mats and spread out their
birds on a skin stretched in the middle of the cabin and with the chichicoyas they
sing a whole night, saying: stone falcon, or crow, I pray to you that when I
pursue the enemy I may go in the same speed in running as you do in flying, in
order that I may be admired by my comrades and feared by our enemies. At break of day they bring back their
birds. When they wish
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to go to war, one of them, or the one who is their
chief, offers them a feast, usually of dog.
After all are placed, they observe a great silence and the host says:
"My comrades, you know that I have wept for a long time; I have not
laughed since the time that my brother, father, or uncle died. He was your relative as well as mine, since
we are all comrades. If my strength and
my courage equaled yours, I believe that I would go to avenge a relative as
brave and as good as he was, but being as feeble as I am, I cannot do better
than address myself to you. It is from
your arms, brothers, that I expect vengeance for our brother. The birds that we prayed to some days ago
have assured me of victory. Their protection, along with your courage, should
induce us to undertake anything."
Then he rises and, going up to each one, passes his hand over his head
and over his shoulders. Then the
assembled guests say: "Ho, ho! It is well.
We are ready to die: you have only to speak." They thank him, and then depart at night and
go about two leagues from the village to sleep. It is a
p. 378
maxim with them never to set out by day when they go in
small parties, because, they say, if they went by day, they would be discovered
before making their attack. Their band
does not ordinarily exceed twenty. The
youngest, who is always the one who has shared fewest ventures, carries the
kettle and has charge of the cooking and mends moccasins for all of them, which
is no slight task. Accordingly, he
hardly ever sleeps at night; but since this is the custom, they always do it
amicably. They take the precaution of
hiding in two or three places stores of bacon and flour and some small kettles,
to serve in case they should be pursued by the enemy, so as not to have to stop
to hunt in order to keep alive. They
also mark places for joining each other in case they are obliged to go by
several different routes, and in such cases those who
arrive first take a little of what they have left, if they need it, and leave
their marks, which they never mistake.
They paint a portrait of themselves for this purpose on the nearest
tree. Although several of them have
heads of hair that look just alike,
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the mark of their names identifies them. They all have significant ones; one, the
Buck, another the Buffalo, the Wolf, the Sun, the Earth, the Water, the Woman,
the Child, the Girl, or something formed from these names as, Buck Feet, Bear's
Head, Woman's Breast, Buffalo Hump, the Eclipsed Moon or Sun and so forth. Thus after painting themselves, as I have
related, they draw a line above the head, at the end of which they draw a
buffalo or it's hump, a buck or it's feet, the sun or a cloud above it, and so
forth. When they approach the enemy, the
one who leads the party sends out two of the most active a league ahead to
reconnoiter the places through which they must pass. If they see smoke or other traces that lead
them to believe that the enemy is not far off, they come to report to the
chief, who calls a halt.
I have forgotten to say that the commander carries his mat, into which all his men
have put their birds, along with a good stock of herbs for healing the
wounded. As soon as they stop the chief
takes out the birds and, after offering a short prayer to them, sends out three
or four of the most active and brave to
p. 380
reconnoiter for the enemy. If by chance they find but a man or
two, they attack these without warning their comrades. If the number is very
considerable they return to report, and after thoroughly examining the place
where they are to attack them, they invariably wait until morning when the day
is beginning to break, and they never fail to paint themselves and to give
attention to their footgear, as a precaution in case they should be obliged to
flee. Two or three of the youngest remain with the baggage in the most hidden
spot. At a couple of arpents' distance from the enemy they emit the most
astonishing yells in order to frighten him, running at him when he takes to
flight. In this they triumph, for they know that the enemy cannot run as well
as they- I speak of the Iroquois. They give the same cry as their birds in
running after them. If they are three in pursuit of one man and are in doubt
which of the two will lay hands on him, the first who can touch him with some
missile is the one to whom the prisoner belongs, even if another should lay
hands on him first. They then
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utter several cries to attract the attention of their
comrades who are fighting elsewhere, or who are in pursuit of others, who thus
learn what they have done. When they have bound their prisoners and have
reassembled, the leader makes a little harangue in which he exhorts his men to
thank the spirit for having favored them, and to make every effort to get
speedily away from the spot where they are. They march ordinarily for two days
and nights without stopping, resting only at their meals. If their captives are
women who cannot march, which happens very often, they smash their heads or
burn them on the spot, which they do only in extreme cases, as the man who
brings a prisoner to the village is more esteemed than the one who kills six
men among the enemy. If unhappily some of themselves have been killed, the
leader of the band paints himself with mud all along the road and weeps
frequently as he marches and, on reaching the village, is obliged to carry
presents to the relatives of those that have been killed to pay for their
death, and he is expected soon to go back to avenge the slain. If some one is
again killed of those with him, he has great
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difficulty in finding men willing to
accompany him a third time, which causes him to be hated by the kinsfolk of the
dead, unless by dint of presents he finds means (to use their language) to mend
their hearts.
To return to their manner of behaving when they return victorious to the village: two men go ahead, and when they are near enough to make themselves heard, they utter cries for as many persons as they have killed, and they name these. Many people run out to meet them, and the first to arrive take everything that the warriors carry, which they appropriate. Those who are unwilling to part with some arm or other object which they like, take care to hide it the day before their arrival; but they are taxed with avarice. As I have said, if someone of them has been killed, the leader of the party carries in his hand some broken bows and arrows, and those who precede the party utter cries saying: "We are dead!" whereupon the women utter terrible howls until it is learned who the dead are, and then it is only the relatives who redouble their outcries.
p. 383
As soon as the news has become known, a man of
consideration makes preparations to regale the warriors, who are invited to
enter. When they have arrived in the cabin which has been prepared for them,
oil is immediately brought to them in dishes, with which they lubricate their
legs. The one who gives the feast goes weeping to pass his hands over their
heads to make known to them that some of his relatives have been killed by
warriors of the nation from which they bring back prisoners, and that they
would give him pleasure in killing them. During this time the prisoners are
outside the cabin (for it is a maxim with them never to admit slaves into their
cabins unless they have been granted their lives.) These sing their death song,
holding in one hand a stick ten or twelve feet long, filled with feathers from
all the kinds of birds that the warriors killed on the road. This is after
having them sing at the doors of the cabins of all those who have most recently
had relatives killed.
p. 384
The old men and party leaders assemble and decide to
whom these slaves shall be given. This settled, they lead one of them opposite
the door of the cabin of the one to whom they give him, and bringing along some
merchandise, they enter and say that they are delighted that the young men have
brought back some men to replace, if they desire it, those whom the fate of war
has taken away. For this offer great thanks are returned. A little later these
people assemble and decide what they will do with the prisoner who has been
given to them, and whether they wish to give him his life, a thing rarely done
among the Illinois. When he is a man, they admit him and send for the principal
men of the village who have brought them the prisoners. They thank these and
give them some merchandise. When they want him put to death, they bring him
back to the cabin of the most considerable of those who have offered him,
giving the captive to them, with a kettle and a hatchet which they have colored
red to represent blood. From there he is taken to others, and according to
their decision he dies or lives. When he is condemned to die, it is always by
fire. I have never seen any other kind of torment used by this nation.
p. 385
They plant a little tree in the earth, which they
make him clasp; they tie his two wrists, and with torches of straw or
firebrands they burn him, sometimes for six hours. When they find his strength
far gone, they unfasten him and cut his thumbs off, after which they let him,
if he wishes, run after those who are throwing stones at him, or who wish to
burn him. They even give him sticks which he holds with great difficulty. If he
tries to run after anybody, they push him and he falls on his face, at which
they hoot. He sometimes furnishes a whole hour's diversion to these barbarians.
Finally he succumbs under the strain of his torments, and sometimes drops down
motionless. The rabble run to get firebrands, which they poke into the most
sensitive parts of his body; they trail him over hot embers,
which brings him back to life, at which they renew their hooting, as if
they had performed some fine exploit. When they are tired of their sport, an
old rascal cuts his flesh from the top of the nose to the chin and leaves it
hanging, which gives him a horrible appearance. In this state they play a thousand
tricks on him, and finally stone him or
p. 386
cut open his stomach. Some drink his blood. Women bring
their male children still at the breast and place their feet in his body and
wash them with his blood. They eat his heart raw.
There are men and women that might be called
cannibals, and who are called man-eaters because they never fail to eat of all
those who are put to death in their villages. When evening has come, everybody,
big and little, knocks loudly with big sticks on the cabins and on their
scaffolds in order, so they say, to drive away from
their village the soul of the one whom they have killed.
When they go to war among the Pawnee or Quapaw, who are established on the river of the Missouri,
almost all the village marches, and even many women accompany them. Thus they
take along whole villages. When they are ready to leave, several young men go
about dancing at the doors of all the cabins, one of whom has a drum on his
back. They usually use an earthen pot, which they half fill with water and
cover with a buckskin, which they stretch as tight as they can, and they turn
the pot upside down
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from time to time to moisten the skin, which gives it a
better sound. A man stands behind and beats it. Everybody dances round them and
each one gives them something. When the women see that they are preparing for
this dance, they lead away all their dogs to a distance, for any of them that
they find they kill and feast on.
They always spare the lives of the women and
children unless they have lost many of their own people. In that case they
sacrifice some to the names of their dead, throwing them suddenly into the fire
to consume the bodies of their slain ones.
This Missouri River, of which I have just
spoken, has many nations along its banks, and there are still more inland. It
comes from the west. It is very beautiful and very wide. It empties into the
Mississippi eight leagues from the mouth of the Illinois River. Several Indians
of the nations that live there who often come to trade
among the Illinois, have assured me that it comes
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from a great lake, which has still another outlet on the
other side, which would lead one to believe from their report that it falls
into the Western Sea. The Pawnee and Wichita, who live in the territory and the
neighborhood of this river, have relations with the Spaniards, from whom they
get horses of which they make use sometimes to pursue the buffalo in the hunt.
Those which they get from the Spaniards are all differently marked on the
buttocks with letters. They call them, so I have heard, Canatis, having
no other special name for them in their languages. These two nations have an
abundance of turquoises, looking like our little glass beads. They make use of
them as ornaments hung from their noses and ears, spinning out the beads to the
length of a finger with [buffalo] sinew, afterwards joining the two ends
together, at the bottom of which they hang a turquoise, triangular shaped, of
the thickness of about two crowns and not quite as big as a half franc piece.
They call them their pendants and esteem them, according to their beauty, of
the value of a slave, who in those regions is worth sometimes a hundred francs.
Prisoners from these nations have
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told us that they traded these turquoises with Europeans,
who probably can only be Spaniards. From some leagues above its mouth, the
river is very rapid, and the soil is so loose that in spring, when the water is
high, it carries off this soil in such great quantity that it renders the
Mississippi turbid for more than 200 leagues. The Indians of whom I have spoken
who come to trade among the Illinois are the Osage and Missouri, who not long
ago had war with them, and who, aside from their need of hatchets, knives, and
awls, and other necessary things, are very glad to keep on the good side of
this nation, which is much more warlike than theirs. They never fail every year
to come among them and to bring them the calumet, which is the symbol of peace
among all the nations of the south.
I believe I shall do well to tell in detail
how they proceed when they wish to sing the calumet to some nations. Two
leagues from the village to which they are going they send ahead some of their
best known people to announce their arrival, how many they are,
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and to whom they come to sing the calumet. Messengers
are sent back to them with orders to tell them how many men are to lodge at the
village of the Peoria, how many at that of the Kaskaskia, and so on, and
whether the one to whom these strangers have the intention of giving the
calumet is in condition to receive it; for, boastful as these savages are, they
are not ashamed to confess when they are poverty-stricken and to designate a
proper person to whom to sing the calumet. Good cheer is not lacking on their
arrival, and later in the same evening they go off to the cabin of the one to
whom they are to give the calumet and sing until day. They do this four nights
consecutively, after which they make scaffolds outside if it is fine weather
and go in search of the man or of his wives to whom they sing the calumet, and
they take him up on this scaffold and all place themselves beside him and beat
drums and shake their chichicoya and sing all day long. Two of them push
him gently to and fro between them as a still more significant mark of the
honor they do him. During all this time
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everybody
comes to knock at a post, which has been planted purposely, to recite his
exploits, and afterwards they give gifts in such degree as each one can and in
accordance with the honor deserved by the one to whom they sing the calumet and
the esteem in which they hold him. I should have said that this calumet is made
in the form of a hatchet, of a red stone that is found in the direction of the
Sioux. It has a very long handle, from which are hung several feathers painted
red, yellow, and black, brought together in the form of a fan. This handle is
moreover covered with the skins of ducks' necks. During the whole time consumed
by the singing, one of them holds the calumet, which he shakes continually
before the one to whom it is given. They cease to sing when they see that no
one comes any longer to strike the post. They then escort their chief to his
cabin and leave him the calumet and several beaver skins or skins of bears,
bucks, or cats. The ones who accompany him sometimes receive a load of
merchandise. When they return this compliment it gives pleasure to the
Illinois, and it even makes them exultant to see strangers come to recognize
some of their people as chiefs.
During four consecutive years that I
remained with the Wea at Chicago, which is the most
considerable village of the Miami, who have been settled there for ten or
twelve years, I have found no difference between their manners and those of the
Illinois, nor in their language either. The only difference is that they remain
settled in one place only a very short time.
The year that I first came from France, they
were settled on this side of the old fort. A year later they separated, part to
go to the upper Mississippi, and the others to the St. Joseph River and to the
mouth of the Root River, which empties into Lake Michigan, twenty
leagues on this side of Chicago toward the north. These latter remained only a
very short time, as well as those who went to the Mississippi. They went to
form a village at the river Grand Calumet, which also empties into this lake
twelve leagues from the Chicago toward the south and at the fork of the
Kankakee River. Three years later part of them left to go to
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the banks of the Wabash, where they still remained when
I came down in obedience to the orders which Monsieur the Marquis de Vaudreuil had sent me. Those who went to the St. Joseph
River remained there up to the time when Monsieur de la Mothe
invited them to come nearer to the Strait. This nation was not useless to us at
the time when we had war with the Iroquois. This is especially true of those on
the St. Joseph River, owing to the frequency with which parties of these Indians
went among them, who rarely returned without making a successful attack.
This nation, I believe, is as populous as the
Illinois. It is composed of six villages which are the Chachakingoya,
Aouciatenons, Anghichia,
formerly Marineoueia, Kiratikas,
Minghakokias, and Pepikokia;
they are better beaver hunters than the Illinois, and esteem the beaver more
highly also.
The Wabash River, of which I have just spoken, on
which part of the Miami are settled, is a very beautiful river, and all the
savages call it such. I do not know where it has its source, but I know that it
is not very far from the Iroquois country. It flows
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continuously southwest and empties into the Mississippi sixty
leagues from the mouth of the Illinois River. It is wider than the Mississippi.
The late Monsieur de Juchereau had made his fort two
leagues within the country. From the village of the Illinois there is an
overland distance of sixty leagues to cross southward in order to get there. It
is the most beautiful country in the world as regards soil. We begin to see
here those reeds which serve instead of canes and which shoot up to a height of
fifteen feet. On the other side there are no more prairies. The woods which
grow on the banks are mostly made up of those fruit trees of which I have
spoken, the rest are whitewood, hard walnut, chestnuts, some ash, Norway
maples, and hardwood trees. All these varieties of trees attest the fertility
of these lands. Spring arrives a month earlier than among the Illinois. At most
there are never more than two inches of snow, which disappears in two days.
Although I have been there only in summer, I can speak authoritatively owing to
the knowledge which I have got from the Illinois, most of whom go there every
year to hunt.
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I had forgotten to say, in the place where I talked
of war, that the Illinois as well as the Miami have the maxim when they are on
the march to go among the enemy in small parties never to make more than one
fire, a fairly long one so that all the warriors may profit by it. They always
lie down with their feet to the fire, and never put anything on themselves.
Those who are designated to serve the rest are those of the band who have seen
least of war. These circulate about the fire. They never unload their packs
from their backs to make water, or for any other necessities, and never when
going toward the enemy. When they are returning home they unload, but never do
they sit down on their pack. Nor do they ever make use of knives when their
meat is cooked, a thing they do not observe when they make general marches,
believing that no one can resist them, in which they are often mistaken.
I desire with all my heart, Monsieur, that this
memorial may give you pleasure, and prove worthy of your curiosity.
MONTREAL, CANADA, October 20, 1721.
Signed: DE GANNES