These savages are tall, well made
and robust, they have the same skin as us, but theirs is burnt by the strength
of the sun and which they spoil with the different colours they use to stain
themselves. When they come to council or leave for war, they pluck their
beards. In the summer they wear a shirt and breech cloth, which is a piece of
cloth which goes around the hips. In winter, the wear a capot, like a redingottes, and mitasses, which are a piece
of cloth wrapped round each leg. They like blankets which they wrap around them
when marching and to sleep in. The women are dressed in much the same with a
piece of cloth around them larger than the breech cloth, called maxtikote. The men wear their hair very short, and intertwine it
with pieces of bone or ivory, they split the ears, and put in small plates of
silver and bits of binding wire. The women wear their hair long and behind them
and enclose in sleeves made of leather and decorated with silver. Men go to war
and hunting. Women follow them to carry their things, take care of the cabins,
which are a type of tent made with tree bark, and to the chaudière which means getting the dinner, otherwise they remain in the villages to
cut the Indian corn that they love and watch over the well being of the family.
Journal of
the Campaigns in Canada from 1755 to 1760by
Count de Maures de Malartic
Lieutenant General of the Armies of the King
Governor of the Iles de France and of Bourbon
1730-1800
http://www.newfrancedocs.co.uk/newfrancedocs.co.uk/Malartics_Journal_Sample.html
No comments:
Post a Comment