were next placed in the middle, [ 1 ] and then ensued a scene of hideous
confusion. The bodies which had been left entire were brought to the
edge of the grave, flung in, and arranged in order at the bottom by ten
or twelve Indians stationed there for the purpose, amid the wildest
excitement and the uproar of many hundred mingled voices. [ 2 ] When
this part of the work was done, night was fast closing in. The concourse
bivouacked around the clearing, and lighted their camp-fires under the
brows of the forest which hedged in the scene of the dismal solemnity.
Brebeuf and his companions withdrew to the village, where, an hour before
dawn, they were roused by a clamor which might have wakened the dead.
One of the bundles of bones, tied to a pole on the scaffold, had chanced
to fall into the grave. This accident had precipitated the closing act,
and perhaps increased its frenzy. Guided by the unearthly din, and the
broad glare of flames fed with heaps of fat pine logs, the priests soon
reached the spot, and saw what seemed, in their eyes, an image of Hell.
All around blazed countless fires, and the air resounded with discordant
outcries. [ 3 ] The naked multitude, on, under, and around the scaffold,
were flinging the remains of their dead, discharged from their
envelopments of skins, pell-mell into the pit, where Brebeuf discerned
men who, as the ghastly shower fell around them, arranged the bones in
their places with long poles. All was soon over; earth, logs, and stones
were cast upon the grave, and the clamor subsided into a funereal
chant,--so dreary and lugubrious, that it seemed to the Jesuits the wail
of despairing souls from the abyss of perdition. [ 4 ]

[ 1 In some of these graves, recently discovered, five or six large
copper kettles have been found, in a position corresponding with the
account of Brebeuf. In one, there were no less than twenty-six kettles. ]

[ 2 "Iamais rien ce m'a mieux figure la confusion qui est parmy les