corner of the world, where, notwithstanding their poverty, the Indians all seemed contented and happy. It is really affecting to hear them speak of the darkness in which they had been buried; and to see them now exulting in the light of the gospel and the knowledge of the Christian virtues, which they cherish, and by which their hearts seem to be inflamed. Their whole ambition consists in listening with docility to the word of God, and in being able thoroughly to understand and recite their prayers. Piety is what a young man seeks in her who is to be his future wife -and what a young woman desires to find in him who is to become her husband. In their leisure hours they surround and, if I may be allowed the expression, besiege their missionary. To the day they would add the night, if he could bear the fatigue, in speaking of heavenly things. Pride and human respect are absolutely unknown to them. How often have we not seen gray-headed old men and even chiefs sit down by the side of children ten or eleven years old, who would teach them their prayers, and explain to them the figures of the Catholic Ladder,"' with all the gravity becoming a teacher; and give to the explanation, for one or two hours, all the attention of obedient pupils. In seasons of scarcity, when the fishing or hunting has failed, or in other misfortunes, they manifest no signs of impatience. They are quiet and resigned, receiving them as punishments for their sins; while their success they attribute to the bounty of God and render to him all the glory of it. One day the Black-robe was prais
ing a young hunter for his skill. He blushed, and replied, smiling, " I am no hunter at all. I pray, and when the Great Spirit sends a deer my way, I let fly at him and he is dead."
The usual place of residence of the Kalispels - that in
14 A chart, invented by F. N. Blanchet in 1839, for the mcTe convenient instruction of the Indians, " representing on paper the various truths and mysteries of religion in their chronological order."