[Footnote 4:  The real name for this remarkable people, the Eskimo, is, in Alaska and Arctic North America, Innuit, and in Labrador and Greenland, Karalit.  Eskimo (in French, Esquimaux) is said to be a corruption of the Montagnais-Indian word, Eskimantsik, meaning “eaters of raw flesh".]

The Montagnais Indians round about Tadoussac received Champlain with great protestations of friendship, and at the headquarters of their principal chief or “Sagamore” celebrated this new friendship and alliance with a feast in a very large hut.  The banquet, as usual, was preceded by a long address from the Sagamore in answer to the description of France, given by one of the Indian interpreters.  The address was accompanied by the solemn smoking of tobacco, and at every pause in this grave oration the natives present shouted with one voice:  “Ho! ho! ho!” The repast consisted of elk’s meat (which struck the Frenchmen as being like beef), also the flesh of bear, seal, beaver, and wild fowl.  There were eight or ten stone boilers or cauldrons full of meats in the middle of the great hut, separated each six feet from each other, and each one having its own fire.  Every native used a porringer or vessel made of birch bark.  When the meat was cooked a man in authority distributed it to each person.  But Champlain thought the Indians ate in a very filthy manner.  When their hands were covered with fat or grease they would rub them on their own heads or on the hair of their dogs.  Before the meat was cooked each guest arose, took a dog, and hopped round the boilers from one end of the great hut to the other.  Arriving in front of the chief, the Montagnais Indian feaster would throw his dog violently to the ground, exclaiming:  “Ho! ho! ho!” after which he returned to his place.

At the close of the banquet every one danced, with the skulls of their Iroquois enemies slung over their backs.  As they danced they slapped their knees with their hands, and shouted:  “Ho! ho! ho!” till they were out of breath.

The huts of these Indians were low and made like tents, being covered with the bark of the birch tree.  An opening about a foot of the top was left uncovered to admit light and to allow the smoke to escape.  Though low, the huts were sometimes quite large, and would accommodate ten families.  These slept higgledy-piggledy on skins, with their dogs amongst them.  The dogs in appearance were something like what we know as Eskimo dogs, and also rather resembled the Chinese chow, with broad heads and rather short muzzles, prick ears, and a tail inclined to curl over the back.  “All these people have a very cheerful disposition, laughing often, yet at the same time they are somewhat phlegmatic.  They talk very deliberately, as if desiring to make themselves well understood, and, stopping suddenly, they reflect for a long time, when they resume their discourse.”