sacred vessels. Their fire was on the ground, in the middle of the
second apartment, the smoke escaping by a hole in the roof. At the sides
were placed two wide platforms, after the Huron fashion, four feet from
the earthen floor. On these were chests in which they kept their
clothing and vestments, and beneath them they slept, reclining on sheets
of bark, and covered with skins and the garments they wore by day.
Rude stools, a hand-mill, a large Indian mortar of wood for crushing corn,
and a clock, completed the furniture of the room.

There was no lack of visitors, for the house of the black-robes contained
marvels [ 1 ] the fame of which was noised abroad to the uttermost
confines of the Huron nation. Chief among them was the clock. The
guests would sit in expectant silence by the hour, squatted on the ground,
waiting to hear it strike. They thought it was alive, and asked what it
ate. As the last stroke sounded, one of the Frenchmen would cry
"Stop!"--and, to the admiration of the company, the obedient clock was
silent. The mill was another wonder, and they were never tired of
turning it. Besides these, there was a prism and a magnet; also a
magnifying-glass, wherein a flea was transformed to a frightful monster,
and a multiplying lens, which showed them the same object eleven times
repeated. "All this," says Brebeuf, "serves to gain their affection,
and make them more docile in respect to the admirable and
incomprehensible mysteries of our Faith; for the opinion they have of our
genius and capacity makes them believe whatever we tell them." [ Brebeuf,
Relation des Hurons, 1636, 33. ]

[ 1 "Ils ont pense qu'elle entendoit, principalement quand, pour rire,
quelqu'vn de nos Francois s'escrioit au dernier coup de marteau, c'est
assez sonne, et que tout aussi tost elle se taisoit. Ils l'appellent le
Capitaine du iour. Quand elle sonne, ils disent qu'elle parle, et