HURON VILLAGE LIFE.--FESTIVITIES AND SORCERIES.--THE DREAM FEAST.--
THE PRIESTS ACCUSED OF MAGIC.--THE DROUGHT AND THE RED CROSS.


Where should the Fathers make their abode? Their first thought had been
to establish themselves at a place called by the French Rochelle, the
largest and most important town of the Huron confederacy; but Brebeuf now
resolved to remain at Ihonatiria. Here he was well known; and here, too,
he flattered himself, seeds of the Faith had been planted, which, with
good nurture, would in time yield fruit.

By the ancient Huron custom, when a man or a family wanted a house,
the whole village joined in building one. In the present case, not
Ihonatiria only, but the neighboring town of Wenrio also, took part in
the work,--though not without the expectation of such gifts as the
priests had to bestow. Before October, the task was finished. The house
was constructed after the Huron model. [ See Introduction. ] It was
thirty-six feet long and about twenty feet wide, framed with strong
sapling poles planted in the earth to form the sides, with the ends bent
into an arch for the roof,--the whole lashed firmly together, braced with
cross-poles, and closely covered with overlapping sheets of bark.
Without, the structure was strictly Indian; but within, the priests,
with the aid of their tools, made innovations which were the astonishment
of all the country. They divided their dwelling by transverse partitions
into three apartments, each with its wooden door,--a wondrous novelty in
the eyes of their visitors. The first served as a hall, an anteroom,
and a place of storage for corn, beans, and dried fish. The second--the
largest of the three--was at once kitchen, workshop, dining-room,
drawing-room, school-room, and bed-chamber. The third was the chapel.
Here they made their altar, and here were their images, pictures, and