[The Devil and the Tailor Caricature]
I have got a caricature here of the Devil carrying off a tailor. I asked one of my Indians if any of their familiars resembled him and how they were. The reply was:
Yes, he resides in the North (at the Pole I suppose) and has a vast number of young men. The Indians report of some finding their tracks that are very numerous and exactly resemble the tracks of the grey deer (carriboeuf). But neither [he] nor his young men are very wicked. North, Ice, Skeleton and Folly are the most wicked and ill inclined of all those we dream of or enter the conjuring box!
[Feasts]
Of their feasts I cannot say more than any common observer. I have been invited and partaken of many of them, but I never thought of enquiring into their origin [and] the causes of them. But from the little I could learn, or rather understand from the speeches made at all of them, and what I have learnt in regard to other things, I think [I] may say, without dreading contradiction, that as there are songs [and] ceremonies appropriate to every one of their gods or familiars or devils, there [are] also feasts made for each according to the whim, dream or some other circumstance of the one who makes them.
We denominate these 'feasts', and from their own term it would seem they so mean. But I consider this again as a premature interpretation which I have not leisure to explain. I consider them rather as sacrifices. Indeed they may perhaps rather be esteemed as partaking of both. I have somewhere above said that they are obliged to make an annual sacrifice to some of their gods as the non-performance passes not off with impunity. These therefore are obligatory or compulsory sacrifices. But besides these they also have free-will sacrifices.
These feasts or sacrifices are not universally of flesh. They have them of flesh, grease, dried berries [and] rum. And few of these feasts are made without the one who makes it [offering] a certain [part] (very small, only a few mouthsful) to him whom it is in honor of or intended for. [This] he most commonly puts into the fire, in or on the ground. Some of them are very grand and ceremonius, the titbits of the animal only, as the head, heart, and liver, tongue, and paws when of a bear.
It is only the great men that are allowed to eat of these. Others again, besides the above, [eat] the brisket, rump and ribbs. And very seldom a woman is allowed to partake of them, particularly if it is un festin à tout manger—to eat the whole.
Though there may be sufficient for two or three times the number of guests, all must be eaten before day. Though, in certain cases, the feaster is obliged, and commonly does, take part back, providing a knife, a bit of tobacco, or something else attend with the dish.
In these great feasts, the feaster makes one or several speeches before we begin to eat, and one again after all is done. And [he] sometimes sings, beats the drum and [makes] speeches during the whole time of the feast, never partaking of a morsel himself. At some of them there is dancing to be performed.