Had There Been Any Survivors, Nails Being
Much Prized By These People, They Never Having Held Intercourse With
Europeans, Such An Article Would Most Likely Have Been Taken Out For
Use Again.
All the birch trees in the vicinity of the lake had been
rinded, and many of them and of the spruce fir or var (Pinus
balsamifera, Canadian balsam tree) had the bark taken off, to use the
inner part of it for food, as noticed before.
Their wooden repositories for the dead are what are in the most
perfect state of preservation. These are of different constructions,
it would appear, according to the character or rank of the persons
entombed. In one of them, which resembled a hut, ten feet by eight or
nine, and four or five feet high in the centre, floored with squared
poles, the roof covered with rinds of trees, and in every way well
secured against the weather inside and the intrusion of wild beasts,
there were two grown persons laid out at full length on the floor, the
bodies wrapped round with deer-skins. One of these bodies appeared to
have been placed here not longer ago than five or six years. We
thought there were children laid in here also. On first opening this
building, by removing the posts which formed the ends, our curiosity
was raised to the highest pitch; but what added to our surprise, was
the discovery of a white deal coffin, containing a skeleton neatly
shrouded in white muslin. After a long pause of conjecture how such a
thing existed here, the idea of Mary March occurred to one of the
party, and the whole mystery was at once explained[B].
In this cemetery were deposited a variety of articles, in some
instances the property, in others the representations of the property
and utensils, and of the achievements, of the deceased. There were two
small wooden images of a man and woman, no doubt meant to represent
husband and wife; a small doll, which we supposed to represent a child
(for Mary March had to leave her only child here, which died two
days after she was taken): several small models of their canoes; two
small models of boats; an iron axe; a bow and quiver of arrows were
placed by the side of Mary March's husband; and two fire-stones
(radiated iron pyrites, from which they produce fire, by striking them
together) lay at his head; there were also various kinds of culinary
utensils, neatly made, of birch-rind, and ornamented; and many other
things, of some of which we did not know the use or meaning.
Another mode of sepulture which we saw here was, where the body of the
deceased had been wrapped in birch rind, and with his property, placed
on a sort of scaffold about four feet and a-half from the ground. The
scaffold was formed of four posts, about seven feet high, fixed
perpendicularly in the ground, to sustain a kind of crib, five feet
and a-half in length by four in breadth, with a floor made of small
squared beams, laid close together horizontally, and on which the body
and property rested.
A third mode was, when the body, bent together, and wrapped in
birch-rind, was enclosed in a kind of box on the ground. The box was
made of small squared posts, laid on each other horizontally, and
notched at the corners, to make them meet close; it was about four
feet by three, and two and a-half feet deep, and well lined with
birch-rind, to exclude the weather from the inside. The body lay on
its right side.
A fourth, and the most common mode of burying among these people, has
been, to wrap the body in birch-rind, and cover it over with a heap of
stones, on the surface of the earth, in some retired spot; sometimes
the body, thus wrapped up, is put a foot or two under the surface, and
the spot covered with stones; in one place, where the ground was sandy
and soft, they appeared to have been buried deeper, and no stones
placed over the graves.
These people appear to have always shewn great respect for their dead;
and the most remarkable remains of them commonly observed by
Europeans, at the sea-coast, are their burying-places. These are at
particular chosen spots; and it is well known that they have been in
the habit of bringing their dead from a distance to them. With their
women, they bury only their clothes.
On the north side of the lake, opposite the River Exploits, are the
extremities of two deer fences, about half a mile apart, where they
lead to the water. It is understood that they diverge many miles in
north-westerly directions. The Red Indians make these fences to lead
and scare the deer to the lake, during the periodical migration of
these animals; the Indians being stationed looking out, when the deer
get into the water to swim across, the lake being narrow at this end,
they attack and kill the animals with spears out of their canoes. In
this way they secure their winter provisions before the severity of
that season sets in.
There were other old remains of different kinds peculiar to these
people met with about the lake.
One night we encamped on the foundation of an old Red Indian wigwam,
on the extremity of a point of land which juts out into the lake, and
exposed to the view of the whole country around. A large fire at night
is the life and soul of such a party as ours, and when it blazed up at
times, I could not help observing, that two of my Indians evinced
uneasiness and want of confidence in things around, as if they thought
themselves usurpers on the Red Indian territory. From time immemorial
none of the Indians of the other tribes had ever encamped near this
lake fearlessly, and, as we had now done, in the very centre of such a
country; the lake and territory adjacent having been always considered
to belong exclusively to the Red Indians, and to have been occupied by
them.
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