xii INTRODUCTION

language had grown up to meet the needs of civilisation and the writing of books, and to fail to see how rich and varied was the life in the primitive forest, and how ancient and deep were its thoughts. This was before the day of Darwin.

The Indian who moves through these stories we must think of as dressed in skins, painted of body, decorated with brightly coloured shells and feathers. His weapons were the bow and arrows with heads of stone. His days were spent in hunting and fishing and in warfare. His home was the Wigwam, and one has but to hear his stories to know how great a part this place of shelter played in his daily life and in all his thoughts. The Micmac’s land was cold in the winter; his lodge was firmly framed of strong trunks of trees, and made tight with rows of bark, and lined with boughs of spruce against the winter winds. Smaller branches he used for carpets, cushions and beds, and springing boughs closed the doorway. Mall has many terms for that which is nearest his heart. The Micmac called the minutest paTt of his lodge by its name. Each post, bar and fastening, every tier of bark and every ar- pendage had its specific designation; and eVClY part of the Wigwam had its precise use, fixed by inviolable custom and law.

The Wigwam was the centre of all the social