iety of fruits, such as musk-melons and
very large cucumbers. They have likewise large vessels in all their
houses, as big as butts or large hogsheads, in which they store up their
fish for winter provision, having dried them in the sun during summer
for that purpose, and of these they lay up large stores for their
provision during winter. All their victuals, however, are without the
smallest taste of salt. They sleep on beds made of the bark of trees
spread on the ground, and covered over with the skins of wild beasts;
with which likewise their garments are made.

[Footnote 50: This description of the manner in which the ramparts of
Hochelega were constructed, taken literally from Hakluyt, is by no means
obvious or intelligible. Besides it seems rather ridiculous to dignify
the village of a horde of savages with the name of city.--E.]

That which they hold in highest estimation among all their possessions,
is a substance which they call _esurgny_ or _cornibotz_, which is as
white as snow, and which is procured in the following manner. When any
one is adjudged to death for a crime, or when they have taken any of
their enemies during war, having first slain the person, they make many
deep gashes on the buttocks, flanks, thighs, and shoulders of the dead
body, which is then sunk to the bottom of the river, in a certain place
where the _esurgny_ abounds. After remaining 10 or 12 hours, the body is
drawn up, and the _esurgny_ or _cornibotz_ is found in the gashes. Of
this they make beads, which they wear about their necks as we do chains
of gold and silver, accounting it their most precious riches. These
ornaments, as we have proved by experience, have the power to staunch
bleeding at the nose[51]. This nation devotes itself entirely to
husbandry and fishing for subsistence, having no care for any other
wealth or commodity, of which they have indeed no knowledge, as they
never travel from their own country, as is done by the natives of Canada
and Saguenay; yet the Canadians and the inhabitants of eight or ten
other villages on the river, are subject to the people of Hochelega.

[Footnote 51: It is impossible to give any explanation of this
ridiculous account of the _esurgny_, any farther than that the Frenchmen
were either imposed upon by the natives, or misunderstood them from not
knowing their language. In a subsequent part of the voyages of Cartier,
this substance is called _Esnoguy_.--E.]

When we came near the town,