'Notre
Dame Des Neiges,' In The Former, With Its Gaudily Painted Inside And
Unpretending Outside, Its Wooden Roof And
Tin-covered steeple, would
recall to you the wooded districts of France; and the houses in both
quarters, the people
With their 'bonnets rouges' (as distinguished from
the 'bonnets bleus' and 'bonnets gris' of the Quebec district), and
innocence of English and English ways of living, working, farming, and
thinking, are even more French than the French themselves. Indeed, so
little have they changed since the settlement of the country two
hundred years ago, that they speak the French of that time without the
alloy since introduced into the language. Their old modes of farming
are still in vogue; and they despise all change, satisfied to live in
quiet and simple comfort, without the worry of improvements. In the
Quebec district the farmers singe their pigs when they have killed
them, and despise the use of hot water. Just as farmers do in Normandy,
and in some parts of the south of England. This pig-singeing is a great
event; and on one occasion during the Rebellion, the singeing of two or
three pigs on a hill-side at night, caused the Quebec garrison and the
country volunteers to turn out, under the belief that the light seen
was that of a beacon fire, and that the enemy were at hand.
"Montreal, and Quebec also, abound in fine Catholic churches, and the
streets swarm with comfortable-looking priests, dressed in black
cassocks and bands, and wearing big-buckled shoes and broad-brimmed
hats.
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