A LIVING HISTORY BLOG.

18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Saturday 24 November 2012

Description of Woodland Indians in Canada.


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 1760
by
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

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