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Updated: June 13, 2025
Arrived among the sauvages, for so the Canadian habitant invariably calls his Indian brother, who is often as like him as one pea is like another, you will there see the little old Huron church decked out in humble imitation of its younger, but bigger brothers in the city.
Brandy and wine came from France in shiploads, but brandy was largely used in the Indian trade, and wine appeared only on the tables of the well-to-do; the ordinary habitant could not afford it save on state occasions. Cheap beer, brewed in the colony, was within easier range of his purse.
The habitant had a profound belief in the supernatural, and was prone to associate miraculous handiwork with every unusual event. He peopled the earth and the air, the woods and the rivulets, with spirits of diverse forms and varied motives. The red man's abounding superstition, likewise, had some influence upon the habitant's highstrung temperament.
As she handed the parcel, Charley's eyes scanned her face quickly. How did this habitant girl come by this perfect French accent, this refined manner? He did not know the handwriting on the parcel; he hastily tore it open. Inside were a few dozen small packets. Here also was a sheet of paper. He opened and read it quickly.
And I remember how Gabriel, the habitant, and François, the half-breed, cut his throat, and how the hot blood rushed out in a torrent over the snowy soil; and I recall the snow cabane that Gabriel built, where we all three slept so warmly; and the great fire that glowed at our feet, painting all kinds of demoniac shapes on the black screen of forest that lay without; and the deer-steaks that we roasted for our breakfast; and the savage drunkenness of Gabriel in the morning, he having been privately drinking out of my brandy-flask all the night long.
Of these, the first and the last were closely connected with the seigneurial system. On Michaelmas the habitant came to pay the annual rental for his lands; on May Day he rendered the Maypole homage which, has been already described. Christmas and Easter were the great festivals of the Church and as such were celebrated with religious fervor and solemnity.
But as all slept, a figure in the dress of a habitant moved through the passages of the house stealthily, yet with an assurance unusual in the thief or housebreaker. In the darkest passages his step was sure, and his hand fastened on latch or door-knob with perfect precision. He came at last into a large hallway flooded by the moon, pale, watchful, his beard frosted by the light.
But the most curious French evidence respecting the siege is the Lettre d'un Habitant de Louisbourg contenant une Relation exacte & circonstanciee de la Prise de l'Isle-Royale par les Anglois. A Quebec, chez Guillaume le Sincere, a l'Image de la Verite, 1745. This little work, of eighty-one printed pages, is extremely rare.
The Church was a great deal to the habitant; it was his school, his hospital, his newspaper, his philosopher telling of things present and things to come. From a religious point of view the whole colony was a unit. 'Thank God, wrote one governor, 'there are no heretics here. The Church, needing to spend no time or thought in crushing its enemies, could give all its attention to its friends.
"You'll resume them as soon as you get back." "Shall I ever get back?" The girl moved to the door. Her figure swayed forward yieldingly as if she would give herself into the keeping of the sun-drenched, pine-soaked air. "Enchantment!" she murmured. "It is a healing place," said the habitant of it, low, as if to herself. A sudden and beautiful pity softened and sobered Io's face.
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