Over The Gate, And In Many Other Parts Of The Wall, There Are
Scaffolds Having Ladders Up To Them, And
On these scaffolds there are
large heaps of stones, ready for defending the place against an enemy.
The town consisted
Of about fifty large houses, each of them about fifty
paces long and twelve broad, all built of wood and covered with broad
strips of bark, like boards, nicely joined. These houses are divided
within into many rooms, and in the middle of each there is a court or
hall, in which they make their fire. Thus they live in communities, each
separate family having a chamber to which the husband, wife, and
children retire to sleep. On the tops of their houses they have garrets
or granaries, in which they store up the maize of which their bread is
made, which they call caracouny, and which is made in this manner.
They have blocks of wood hollowed out, like those on which we beat hemp,
and in these they beat their corn to powder with wooden beetles. The
meal is kneaded into cakes, which they lay on a broad hot stone,
covering it up with other heated stones, which thus serve instead of
ovens. Besides these cakes, they make several kinds of pottage from
their maize, and also of beans and pease, both of which they have in
abundance. They have also a variety of fruits, such as musk-melons and
very large cucumbers. They have likewise large vessels in all their
houses, as big as butts or large hogsheads, in which they store up their
fish for winter provision, having dried them in the sun during summer
for that purpose, and of these they lay up large stores for their
provision during winter. All their victuals, however, are without the
smallest taste of salt. They sleep on beds made of the bark of trees
spread on the ground, and covered over with the skins of wild beasts;
with which likewise their garments are made.
[Footnote 50: This description of the manner in which the ramparts of
Hochelega were constructed, taken literally from Hakluyt, is by no means
obvious or intelligible. Besides it seems rather ridiculous to dignify
the village of a horde of savages with the name of city. - E.]
That which they hold in highest estimation among all their possessions,
is a substance which they call esurgny or cornibotz, which is as
white as snow, and which is procured in the following manner. When any
one is adjudged to death for a crime, or when they have taken any of
their enemies during war, having first slain the person, they make many
deep gashes on the buttocks, flanks, thighs, and shoulders of the dead
body, which is then sunk to the bottom of the river, in a certain place
where the esurgny abounds. After remaining 10 or 12 hours, the body is
drawn up, and the esurgny or cornibotz is found in the gashes. Of
this they make beads, which they wear about their necks as we do chains
of gold and silver, accounting it their most precious riches. These
ornaments, as we have proved by experience, have the power to staunch
bleeding at the nose[51]. This nation devotes itself entirely to
husbandry and fishing for subsistence, having no care for any other
wealth or commodity, of which they have indeed no knowledge, as they
never travel from their own country, as is done by the natives of Canada
and Saguenay; yet the Canadians and the inhabitants of eight or ten
other villages on the river, are subject to the people of Hochelega.
[Footnote 51: It is impossible to give any explanation of this
ridiculous account of the esurgny, any farther than that the Frenchmen
were either imposed upon by the natives, or misunderstood them from not
knowing their language. In a subsequent part of the voyages of Cartier,
this substance is called Esnoguy. - E.]
When we came near the town, a vast number of the inhabitants came out to
meet us, and received us in the most cordial manner, while the guides
led us to the middle of the town, in which there is a large open square,
a good stones throw from side to side, in which they desired us by signs
to remain. Then all the women and girls of the place gathered together
in the square, many of whom carried young children in their arms; as
many of them as could get forwards came up and rubbed our faces, arms,
and bodies, giving every token of joy and gladness for having seen us,
and requiring us by signs to touch their children. After this, the men
caused the women to withdraw, and all sat down on the ground round about
us, as if they meant to represent some comedy or shew. The women came
back, each of them carrying a square matt like a carpet, which they
spread out on the ground and caused us to sit down on them. When this
was done, Agouhanna, the king or lord of the town, was brought into
the square on the shoulders of nine or ten men. He sat upon a large deer
skin, and was set down on one of the matts near our captain, all the
people signifying to us by signs that this was their king. Agouhanna was
apparently about fifty years old, and no way better clothed than any of
the rest, except that he had a kind of red wreath round his head instead
of a crown, which was made of the skins of hedgehogs. He was full of
palsy, and all his limbs were shrunk and withered. After he had saluted
our captain and all the company, welcoming us all to his town by signs
and gestures, he shewed his shrunk legs and arms to the captain,
desiring him to touch them, which he did accordingly, rubbing them with
his hands. Then Agouhanna took the crown or fillet from his own head,
and gave it to our captain; after which several diseased men were
brought before the captain, some blind and others cripple, lame or
impotent of their limbs, that he might touch them, as they seemed to
think that God had come down from heaven to heal them.
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