Heathcote, in Tennis (London, 1890), says: "It is probable that the Italians, when playing la paume, found that a glove was a useful protection to the hand; and, when balls were made harder and heavier, that a thicker glove was required. The transition from the thick glove to a network of strings, and the adoption of the leverage afforded by the use of a handle, may have suggested to an ingenious inventor the prototype of the implement we now use." The racket was introduced into France, probably in the fourteenth century.
To apply the name of this instrument to the snowshoe, so similar in shape to the former, was an obvious and easy transition. The use of netted snowshoes was universal among the North American tribes, from whom it has been adopted by the white inhabitants of Canada and the mountainous regions of the United States. Lafitau describes snowshoes and their use, in his Mœurs des Sauvages, tome ii., pp. 220-223; as does Schoolcraft, in Ind. Tribes, vol. iii., p. 68,—several illustrations being given, of specimens from Minnesota, Utah, and Oregon. Among the different tribes, they are of various sizes and shapes; their length varies from fifteen inches to six feet, and the width from thirteen to twenty inches; those used by the Western tribes turn upward at the front end. The snowshoes worn by the women are shorter, often painted and otherwise ornamented.
[40] (p. [133]).—Concerning the division of labor between men and women, see vol. [ii.], note [33]. Cf. the references given by Carr, in Mounds of Mississippi Valley; this paper has also been published separately (Cincinnati, 1883); see pp. 7-35, in that edition. Cf. also Tailhan's Perrot, pp. 29, 30, 181.
[41] (p. [157]).—The aborigines of North America had but vague and uncertain ideas of a Supreme Being or Creator. They believed in certain supernatural Beings, called Manitous (Algonkin), or Okis (Huron-Iroquois), which they conceived under the forms of beasts, birds, or reptiles,—occasionally in human form, or even that of stones. Another class of beings embodied the polytheistic tendencies of the savage mind,—the manitous of the sun and the moon, of the water, of the winds, etc.; and the progenitors or "Kings" of various animals,—of which Michabou, Messou, or Manabozho ("the Great Hare") was the chief. The Huron deity Jouskeha and the Huron-Iroquois Areskoui are apparently personifications of the Sun. Sometimes, too, are found deifications of heroes, as the Iroquois Taounyawatha, or Hiawatha, the Northern counterpart of the Peruvian Viracocha, the Carib Tamu, or the Aztec Quetzalcoatl,—all suggestive, in personal characteristics, and in their influence upon their respective peoples, of the Greek Prometheus.
Charlevoix, in Journal Historique (Paris, 1744), pp. 344-347, gives an account of Michabou, Areskoui, and other deities, and of the tutelary genius that each Indian adopts. Lafitau (Mœurs des Sauvages, tome i., pp. 126, 127, 145) says that Areskoui is the Supreme Being, in the belief of the Hurons; and he cites the saying of a Huron convert that Areskoui was such as the missionaries described their God to be. Lafitau tries to prove, by arguments more ingenious than convincing, that Areskoui was the same as the Ares (or Mars) of the Thracians. Perrot relates the legends of the Great Hare, in his Mémoire (Tailhan's ed.), pp. 3-7. Many legends of Manabozho and Manitou are collected by Schoolcraft in his Algic Researches (N. Y., 1839); cf. Ind. Tribes, vol. i, p. 317. Parkman (Jesuits, pp. lxxii.-lxxv.) outlines the whole subject as connectedly as is possible, giving many references to other authors. Brinton has just issued (1896) a third and revised edition of his Myths of the New World, which fully treats these legends; he regards Manabozho as an impersonation of Light, and belonging to the world-wide cycle of Sun-myths. Cf. A. F. Chamberlain's "Nanibozhu among the Algonkian Tribes," in Jour. Am. Folk-Lore, vol. iv. (1891), pp. 193-213.
[42] (p. [183]).—The mountains here referred to are the Laurentian; they extend along the north shore of the St. Lawrence from Belle Isle Straits to Quebec, and thence N. W. to the Arctic Ocean,—a distance of about 3,500 miles. They form the watershed between the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay, and also between that bay and the region of the Mackenzie River. The general elevation of the Laurentian range is 1,500 to 2,000 feet, although some peaks in the neighborhood of the Saguenay reach a height of 4,000 feet. The valleys are often worn into deep pits, containing ponds and lakes; and some of the streams are formed by a succession of these lakes, united by short outlets. These mountains are generally thickly wooded; the rocks are eozoic; and the region is rich in minerals,—graphite, asbestos, phosphates, mica, iron, etc.—See Annual Reports of Canadian Geological Survey.
[43] (p. [187]).—Consulter of Manitou; diviner or soothsayer, often called "sorcerer" by the French; the aoutmoin or pilotois described by Lescarbot (Nouv. France, pp. 678-681, 683), Biard (vol. [ii.], of our series, pp. [75], [77]), and Champlain (Laverdière's ed.), pp. 335. 336—See note [41], ante; cf. Rochemonteix's Jésuites, vol. i., pp. 110, 111.
[44] (p. [193]).—Eschom: more correctly written Echon, since, according to Brébeuf (Relation 1636, part 2, chap, iv.), the sound of M is unknown in the Huron dialect. A name given to Brébeuf by the Hurons, during his first stay among them (see vol. [iv.], note [30]). After his death, they similarly named Chaumonot, in accordance with their custom of bestowing a dead man's name upon one of his relatives, or upon some person adopted by the tribe, who thus became the representative and successor of the deceased. The word echon is the Huron name of a certain tree, valued by the natives for its medicinal properties,—according to Suite de la vie du Chaumonot (1693), pp. 13, 14.
[45] (p. [197]).—This negro lad is mentioned by Le Jeune in the Relation of 1632, p. 63, ante. Ker is one of the numerous variants of Kirk's name. "The estimable family living" at Quebec was that of Madame Hébert and her son-in-law, Guillaume Couillard (vol. [ii.], note [80]; vol. [iv.], note [38]); see note [13], ante. For value of écu, see vol. [i.], note [34].
Le Baillif, a native of Amiens, had come with De Caen, in 1622, as a clerk. Champlain says (Laverdière's ed., pp. 1228-1231) that this man was discharged by his employer, as being extremely vicious; that he deserted to the English, in 1629; that Kirk gave him the keys of the company's buildings; that Le Baillif availed himself of this opportunity to plunder the stores of all their contents, including 3,500 to 4,000 beaver skins belonging to De Caen; that his scandalous conduct displeased even the English; and that he illtreated the French who remained at Quebec. Le Clercq says that Le Baillif tried to induce the English to plunder the Jesuit residence.