CHAPTER VI
LOUISE'S PENITENTIAL SPIRIT: HER HORROR OF SIN, AND ZEAL TO PRESERVE OTHERS FROM IT.
OUR poor Indians have a very limited intelligence; their progress in religious instruction is very slow, retarded especially by the difficulty which the missionaries encounter in the language of the Indians, which is very rich to express whatever is material; but excessively poor in all that relates to the explanation of spiritual things. Hence, it happens that many of these poor people have not yet that salutary horror and shame for sin, which are so powerful a means to restrain men's passions. Thus a woman who has been unfaithful or rebellious to her husband will receive pardon the moment she shows sorrow for it. A man who has grossly insulted another, or done him a grievous wrong, will go and smoke the calumet of peace with the injured person, or enter his lodge, or give him an equivalent for the wrong committed. These reparations are generally received, and considered sufficient, and the offender recovers the good graces of the injured party. "The wound is covered," as they express it; that is to say, "All is forgotten." When any one commits a fault, secret or notorious, he goes of his own accord to present himself to the chief and ask to be whipped. "The whip has covered his fault," no one can then speak of it. The missionary has sometimes to instruct them in the confessional on this point; for the penitent would come, and not accuse himself of grievous faults known to the whole tribe. In vain will the confessor say: "You have been guilty of such or such a sin, you must accuse yourself of it before God." The penitent will reply: "Pardon, Father, I went to the chief, and the sin you mention was covered by the whip; the whip has covered my fault." I mention this usage of the Coeur-d'Alenes, because our good Louise sometimes presented herself to the chief to be publicly whipped. But here the case was different; she seized the opportunity in a spirit of profound humility, always regarding herself as a poor and enormous sinner, and at the same time from a desire to satisfy her devotion to imitate our Lord, by submitting to the cruel flagellation. Louise's faults were only of the nature of those of which the Book of Proverbs speaks, when he says that the "just man shall fall seven times and shall rise again."-Prov. xxiv. 16. Nevertheless, what she called her faults, caused her such regret and confusion, that the missionary often found her bathed in tears. At the least fault, her contrition was so lively, and, at the same time, her veneration for the Lodge of the Lord (the church) so profound, and her respect for the cabin of the priest so sincere, that she durst not enter either till she had approached the tribunal of penance. We admired in her, too, that faith and that love of God, which, in the real sins and faults of others, made her share in their sorrow and shame.
A certain member of the tribe, blinded by passion, in spite of all the obstacles in the way of his illicit desires, had resolved to unite himself with a near relative of Louise's, and who was at the same time nearly related to himself. Among the Indians there is no power to prevent evil in such a case but argument; when this fails there is no means to which they can have recourse. The wretched man, deaf to all the advice of the chief and of his own friends, obdurately closing his ears to the exhortations of the missionary, had united himself to the object of his desires. The traits which I have already given of the pure soul of Louise, will speak sufficiently the grief and bitterness which this depravity in a near kinswoman must have caused her. She had already employed all the means of persuasion in her power, to prevent the union of these two miserable people. They had turned a deaf ear to her wholesome advice and counsel, as to all that others had offered. One day the pastor showed himself more than ordinarily troubled and afflicted at the depravity and obstinacy of his two lost sheep and at the great scandal they gave the whole tribe. He said publicly and vehemently, "We must put a stop to this at once. Let each one then implore the divine assistance, and beg the Almighty, that with as little delay as possible, he will aid to remove this great scandal from among us." Louise was present and heard the missionary's words. She was ignorant of the guilty man's threats, for he had resolved to repel by brute force and by arms, whoever would dare to prevent his retaining the object of his guilty love. Invested with courage above her strength, like the strong woman in the Scriptures, and full of confidence in God, brave Sighouin immediately started from the village over woods and mountains, and marched for several days to the spot where the two culprits had hidden themselves to hide their crime and infamy. She entered the lodge to the great surprise of the guilty pair. One rushed at her, whip in hand, the other threatened to strike her; but Louise addressed them on the misfortune of their state, in words so resolute, so energetic, so overwhelming, that they stood silent and confounded before her, and without difficulty she rescued from his hands the woman whom sin alone had made his partner. She took her to her own house, and kept her there till a dispensation was obtained, on which they were lawfully married. The charity and zeal of Louise aided from on high, thus came forth triumphant from a struggle as heroic as it was delicate.
In another and nearly similar case, a wretched man drew his dagger to strike Louise, while loading her with insulting words and terrible threats; but the Christian heroine, with a calm and serene brow, portrayed to him the enormity of his conduct, his ingratitude to God, the scandal given to his neighbor. "I have come here," she said, "for the honor of God, and the salvation of your soul; I fear nothing." Here below, life is but a short passage. "The world passeth away," says the beloved Apostle, "and the concupiscence thereof. But he that doth the will of God abideth forever. "-1 John, ii. 17. Louise fully comprehended these maxims, she never shrunk from any danger when the glory of the Almightly was concerned.
Louise paid special attention to the young girls of her tribe. She took care of their religious instruction, and diligently watched over their behavior. In the absence of their parents she made them all lodge in her cabin of mats, and took the entire direction of them. To understand this, it will be necessary to make a little digression. An Indian lodge of mats is a pretty commodious, though not very attractive abode. It assumes all dimensions, according to the number of persons to be accommodated; a few more poles and mats are added, and the arrangements are completed. Thus Louise was able to make room for a considerable number of beds for the children, for each one has her blanket or buffalo-robe. Their tables are the bare ground. Their dishes, plates, and spoons, are pieces of bark or wood; their fingers serve for forks and their teeth for knives. It takes an Indian, at most, half an hour to change a lodge into a large hostelry, and furnish it to correspond. Thus Louise was able to see herself at the head of a numerous household who were her delight. How beautiful it was to comtemplate the good Indian Grandmother tenderly loved and respected, amid her cherished children!