pleasure was joined with matter of grave import, and which at times
gathered nearly all the nation into one great and harmonious concourse.
Warlike expeditions, too, were always preceded by feasting, at which the
warriors vaunted the fame of their ancestors, and their own past and
prospective exploits. A hideous scene of feasting followed the torture
of a prisoner. Like the torture itself, it was, among the Hurons,
partly an act of vengeance, and partly a religious rite. If the victim
had shown courage, the heart was first roasted, cut into small pieces,
and given to the young men and boys, who devoured it to increase their
own courage. The body was then divided, thrown into the kettles, and
eaten by the assembly, the head being the portion of the chief. Many of
the Hurons joined in the feast with reluctance and horror, while others
took pleasure in it. [ 1 ] This was the only form of cannibalism among
them, since, unlike the wandering Algonquins, they were rarely under the
desperation of extreme famine.

[ 1 "Il y en a qui en mangent auec plaisir."--Brebeuf, Relation des
Hurons, 1636, 121.--Le Mercier gives a description of one of these scenes,
at which he was present. (Ibid., 1637, 118.) The same horrible practice
prevailed to a greater extent among the Iroquois. One of the most
remarkable instances of Indian cannibalism is that furnished by a Western
tribe, the Miamis, among whom there was a clan, or family, whose
hereditary duty and privilege it was to devour the bodies of prisoners
burned to death. The act had somewhat of a religious character, was
attended with ceremonial observances, and was restricted to the family in
question.--See Hon. Lewis Cass, in the appendix to Colonel Whiting's poem,
"Ontwa." ]

A great knowledge of simples for the cure of disease is popularly
ascribed to the Indian. Here, however, as elsewhere, his knowledge is in