a long distance in small boats. The day begins with mass in the chapel whose shrine was brought from France two hundred years ago by the Abbé Maillard, who first reduced the Micmac language to writing. Then follow the reciting of the catechism and confessions, and in the evening, ceremonial dances, dramatic and pantomimic, and games of shinny, hunt-the-button and deer-foot, of wheel-and-stick and hatchet-throwing. The July "pow-wow" is also the favoured season for weddings arranged during the preceding twelve months, for first communions, and for the settlement of disputes by the high chief of the "Migmaks," or "allies," whose seat is in Cape Breton.
One of the oldest festivals of this race "of the morning" or "eastern" land is the Thanksgiving service—the Green Corn Dance, celebrated by chants and slow steps while the corn roasts in the fire. Much less picturesque is the white man's observance of Thanskgiving Day, which in Canada falls in October.
On June third, the birth of the King is celebrated by salvos and bell-ringing, and by mighty bonfires set ablaze on the tops of hills.
