[24] (p. [87]).—This "MS. dictionary" was probably the work of Massé or Brébeuf, while engaged upon the first Canadian mission (1625-29); some of their translations into Montagnais are mentioned in vol. [iv.], note [30]. In acquiring the native dialects, they were greatly aided by the Récollet missionaries. Le Clercq states that the latter had prepared Huron, Montagnais, and Algonkin dictionaries, and that he himself had seen fragments of these, in their hand-writing. He also says that copies of these dictionaries were presented to Louis XIII., in 1625; but Shea remarks that "no trace of these has ever been found."—Shea's Le Clercq, vol. i., pp. 248, 249.
Dictionaries and other MSS. in Algonkin, the work of Jesuit missionaries, are still extant, in the archives of the mission of Lac des Deux Montagnes (Oka), Quebec; one of these is dated 1661.—See Pilling's Bibliog. Algon. Lang., pp. 6, 7. Several MSS. of this character are also in the archives of St. Mary's College, Montreal.
[25] (p. [87]).—Hakluyt's account of Cartier's third voyage (1540) thus mentions the "diamonds" of this locality: "And vpon that high cliff wee found a faire fountaine very neere the sayd Fort: adioyning whereunto we found good store of stones, which we esteemed to be Diamants.... the most faire, pollished, and excellently cut that it is possible for a man to see, when the Sunne shineth vpon them, they glister as it were sparkles of fire." Afterwards, meeting Roberval at St. John's Bay, Cartier "tolde him that hee had brought certaine Diamonts, and a quantitie of Golde ore, which was found in the Countrey. Which ore the Sunday next ensuing was tryed in a Furnace, and found to be good."—Goldsmid's Hakluyt, vol. xiii., pp. 150, 151, 164. On p. 155 of the same volume is a letter from Jacques Noel, a grandnephew of Cartier, in which Noel declares that he has seen a map of Canada, drawn by his uncle, on which the latter had written these words: "By the people of Canada and Hochelaga it was said, That here is the land of Saguenay, which is rich and wealthy in precious stones."
Champlain says, in Voyages (Prince ed.), vol. i., p. 253: "Along the shore of Quebec, there are diamonds in some slate rocks, which are better than those of Alençon." Kalm describes the black limeslate of this region, in his Travels into North America (Forster's trans., London, 1772), vol. ii., p. 371, and adds: "The large cracks are almost filled up with transparent quartz crystals, of different sizes. One part of the mountain contains vast quantities of these crystals, from which the corner of the mountain which lies to the S. S. E. of the palace has got the name of Pointe de Diamante or Diamond Point."
[26] (p. [93]).—La Nasse: Champlain mentions this savage as warning the French of Kirk's approach to Quebec (1629). Le Jeune describes (Relation, 1634, post) the baptism of La Nasse, under the name of Joseph, and his pious death some months later.
[27] (p. [95]).—Cf. Jouvency's account of a similar occurrence (vol. [i.] of this series, p. [269]).
[28] (p. [97]).—Sagamité: a word derived by Maurault (Hist. Abenakis, p. 13) from sôgmôipi, "the repast of chiefs." The most common form in which the Indians prepared maize as food; termed "samp," or "hominy," by the English. The corn, usually pounded into meal, was boiled in water, with the addition of meat, fish, or oil, when they had such, to enrich and flavor it. Various kinds of vegetables, in their season,—beans, peas, pumpkins,—were boiled with the corn, especially when the latter was still green: a survival of this usage remains in our modern "succotash," of corn and beans. Sagard describes, in Grand Voyage (Tross ed., 1865), pp. 94-98, this and various other methods of cooking maize. Creuxius gives (Hist. Canad., p. 23), a picture of Indian women preparing corn; and Lafitau describes at length the cultivation of maize, its use as food, and the preparation of sagamite, in his Mœurs des Sauvages Ameriquains (Paris, 1724), t. ii., pp. 63-89. Cf. Carr's Food of Amer. Ind., pp. 178-182.
[29] (p. [103]).—The bulbs were those of the yellow lily (Lilium Canadense), which have been, from the earliest historic times, used as food by the Indians.—Pickering's Chronological History of Plants (Boston, 1879), p. 641; and Thoreau's Maine Woods, p. 194, 284, 326. Trumbull says (Conn. Hist. Colls., vol. ii., p. 26) that "sheep'nak is the modern Abnaki name for the bulbous roots of the yellow lily,"—possibly the Micmac sgabun or shuben (see our vol. ii., note 77). Cf. Josselyn's New England's Rarities Discovered (London, 1672), reprinted, with introduction and valuable annotations by Tuckerman, in Trans. Amer. Antiq. Soc., vol. iv., (Boston, 1860), pp. 105-238; on p. 176, he says of the water lily (Nuphar advena): "The Indians eat the roots, which are long a-boiling. They tast like the liver of a sheep. The moose-deer feed much upon them; at which time the Indians kill them, when their heads are under water."
Cf. also Brunet's note on Nelumbium luteum, in Tailhan's ed. of Nicolas Perrot's Memoire sur les Sauvages (Leipzig and Paris, 1864), p. 194. Nuttall says of the Nelumbium (which he calls Cyamus luteus): "The Osages and other Western natives employ the roots of this plant for food, preparing them by boiling. When fully ripe, after a considerable boiling, they become as farinaceous, agreeable, and wholesome a diet as the potato. This species is everywhere made use of by the natives, who collect both the nuts and the roots."—"Flora of Arkansas Territory," in Trans. of Am. Philos. Soc., new series, vol. v. (Phila., 1837), p. 160.
[30] (p. [103]).—Cf. the legend of Gougon (vol. [ii.], note [44]).