altar,--very awkwardly at first, for the posture was new to them,--and
all received the sacrament together: a spectacle which, as the missionary
chronicler declares, repaid a hundred times all the labor of their
conversion. [ Lalemant, Relation des Hurons, 1639, 62. ]

Some of the principal methods of conversion are curiously illustrated in
a letter written by Garnier to a friend in France. "Send me," he says,
"a picture of Christ without a beard." Several Virgins are also
requested, together with a variety of souls in perdition--ames damnees--
most of them to be mounted in a portable form. Particular directions are
given with respect to the demons, dragons, flames, and other essentials
of these works of art. Of souls in bliss--ames bienheureuses--he thinks
that one will be enough. All the pictures must be in full face, not in
profile; and they must look directly at the beholder, with open eyes.
The colors should be bright; and there must be no flowers or animals,
as these distract the attention of the Indians.

[ Garnier, Lettre 17me, MS. These directions show an excellent knowledge
of Indian peculiarities. The Indian dislike of a beard is well known.
Catlin, the painter, once caused a fatal quarrel among a party of Sioux,
by representing one of them in profile, whereupon he was jibed by a rival
as being but half a man. ]

The first point with the priests was of course to bring the objects of
their zeal to an acceptance of the fundamental doctrines of the Roman
Church; but, as the mind of the savage was by no means that beautiful
blank which some have represented it, there was much to be erased as well
as to be written. They must renounce a host of superstitions, to which
they were attached with a strange tenacity, or which may rather be said
to have been ingrained in their very natures. Certain points of