“The master of the family was the master of the feast.  Still in the dark, he asked everyone, by turn, for his dish, and put into each two boiled ears of maize.  The whole being served, he began to speak.  In his discourse, which lasted half an hour, he called upon the manes of his deceased relations and friends, beseeching them to be present, to assist him in the chase, and to partake of the food which he had prepared for them.  When he had ended, we proceeded to eat our maize, which we did without other noise than what was occasioned by our teeth.  The maize was not half boiled, and it took me an hour to consume my share.  I was requested not to break the spikes,[7] as this would be displeasing to the departed spirits of their friends.

“When all was eaten, Wawatam made another speech, with which the ceremony ended.  A new fire was kindled, with fresh sparks, from flint and steel; and the pipes being smoked, the spikes were carefully buried, in a hole made in the ground for that purpose, within the lodge.  This done, the whole family began a dance, Wawatam singing, and beating a drum.  The dance continued the greater part of the night, to the great pleasure of the lodge.  The night of the feast was that of the first day of November.”

[Footnote 6:  Populus nigra, called by the French Canadians liard.]

[Footnote 7:  The grains of maize (Indian corn) grow in compact cells, round a pithy core.]

In the month of January, Henry happened to observe that the trunk of a very large pine tree was much torn by the claws of a bear, made both in going up and down.  On further examination he saw there was a large opening, in the upper part, near which the smaller branches were broken.  From these marks, and from the additional circumstances that there were no tracks on the snow, there was reason to believe that a bear lay concealed in the tree.

He communicated his discovery to his Indian friends, and it was agreed that all the family should go together in the morning to cut down the tree, the girth of which was not less than eighteen feet!  This task occupied them for one and a half days with their poor little axes, till about two o’clock in the second afternoon the tree fell to the ground.  For a few minutes everything remained quiet, and Henry feared that all his expectations would be disappointed; but, as he advanced to the opening, there came out a female bear of extraordinary size, which he had shot and killed before she had proceeded many yards.

“The bear being dead, all my assistants approached, and all, but more particularly my old mother, (as I was won’t to call her), took the bear’s head in their hands, stroking and kissing it several times; begging a thousand pardons for taking away her life; calling her their relation and grandmother; and requesting her not to lay the fault upon them, since it was truly an Englishman that had put her to death.

“This ceremony was not of long duration; and if it was I that killed their grandmother, they were not themselves behindhand in what remained to be performed.  The skin being taken off, we found the fat in several places six inches deep.  This, being divided into two parts, loaded two persons; and the flesh parts were as much as four persons could carry.  In all, the carcass must have exceeded five hundredweight.