Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/568

 MONTAGNAIS

512

MONTAIGNE

BcRCKHAnDT. Ci"«<Tont, Fr. ed. (Paris, IS92); Mohelli, Italian Painters, tr. (2ndcd., London, 1900); Berenson. Venetian Paint- ers of the Renaissanec (3rd cd„ London and New York, 19015).

Louis Gillet.

Montagnais Indians, (iueboc, Fronrh for "Moun- taineers", llic collect ivc designation of a number of bands speaking dialects of a common language of Algonquian stock, and ranging along the shores of the St. Lawrence River and Gulf, from about tlie St. Mam-ice River to below Cape Whittle, and inland to about the main divide at the heads of the rivers. They are closely allied and considerably intermixed with the cognate Nascapee (q. v.), who wander generally farther inland in the interior of the Labrador Penin- sula, but frequent the same trading and mission sta- tions along the St. Lawrence. Among the Montagn- ais bands or tribes, when Champlain first met them at the mouth of the Saguenay, in 1603, were the Atti- kamegue, or "Whitefish", about the head of the St. Maurice; the Kakouchac, or "Porcupine", on Lake St. .lohn ; the Tadousac about the mouth of the Sague- nay; the Bersamite, farther east; the Papinachois, north of the last-named; the Oumamiwek, farther east, along the St. Lawrence; the Chisedec, about the Bay of Seven Islands. They were without agricul- ture or pottery, subsisting entirely by hunting and fishing. Polygamy was common, with divorce at will, descent being held in the female line. Their dwelhngs, as well as their canoes, were of birch bark or brushwood. They were good tempered, patient, peaceable, honest, and musical under instruction.

The Montagnais obtained their first knowledge of Christianity at Tadousac, a French trading po.st. Regular missionary work was begun among them by the Recollet, Fr. Jean d'Albeau, in 1615. Ten years later the Jesuits were invited to help. Fr. Jean du Quen, S.J., established the mission at Tadousac in 1640; later, stations were erected by the Jesuits at Gasp6 and Trois-Rivieres. The Iroquois raids drove them from the St. Lawrence, and a smallpox epidemic, in 1670, greatly reduced them, practically destroying the Attikamegue. In consequence, the Montagnais began to resort to the mission at Sillery, near Quebec. The whole tribe is now civilized and Catholic, with the exception of forty-eight officially reported (1909) as Anghcan. They still depend mainly on the fur trade for subsistence, but also work at lumbering and the making of canoes, snow-shoes, and moccasins. A few of them are successful farmers. Apart from drunken- ness, they are moral, devout, industrious, and said to be " improving every year ". Their largest settlements are at Pointe Bleue, on the west shore of Lake St. John, Bersimis, Seven Islands, Romaine, and Mingan. Their total number is probably at least 2.500. Father Pierre Laure, S.J. (d. 1738), compiled a grammar, dictionary, and other works in the Montagnais lan- guage, most of which are still in manuscript.

Dept, Ind. Affairs, Canada, annual repts, (Ottawa) ; Hind, Labrador Peninsula, II (London, 1863); Pilling, Bibliog. of the Algonquian Languages (Washington, 1891); Speck, The Mon- tagnais Indians in Southern Workman, XXXVIII (Hampton, Va., March, 1909); Jes. Relations: Thwaites ed. (Cleveland, 189G-1901).

James Mooney.

Montagnais Indians, a name given in error to the Chifpkw AYANS, owiug to a fancied resemblance to the above. The Chippewayans are really a Dene tribe, and derive their name from the Cree words chipwaw (pointed) and iveyan (.skin or blanket), alluding to the original form of the main article of their dress. Their habitat is Lakes Cold, Ile-a-la- Cros.se, Heart, and Caribou, and the elevated land in the vicinity of Methy Portage and the Eng- lish River. To the natives frequenting these locali- ties may be added the Athabascans, who have for habitat Lake .Athabasca, the ba-sin of Slave River, and the outlying lands to the east of Great Slave

Lake. The total population of the two divisions is .about 4000, the majority of whom are nomadic hunt- ers, though not a few have of late tiiken to a more settled life, and cultivate ]iot at oes The tribe eagerly welcomed the first Catholic missionaries in 1845, and ever since they have been noted for their attachment to the Faith. They are practically :ill C:il holies.

The Chippewayans, or Montagn;iis. ;ire in re;ility the )ii'ototype of the entire Dene family, in that sense that they have given it their own nanic ('/kic, "men"). They were the first of the norllicrn Denes to come undiT the notice of the whites, thiough the travels and jouriKil of Samuel Hearne. At the present day, the flourishing mission of He a La Cros.se, where about one thousand Montagnais live happy and contented under the irgis of religion, is one of the best evi- dences of the civilizing power of the Catholic Church.

Heahne, .-1 Journey from Prince of Wales Fort to the Northern Ocean (Dublin, 1796); Richardsox, Arctic Searching Expedition (London, 1851). See also Father Petitot'3 works enumerated after the article on the D^N^s.

A. G. MoRicE.

Montaigne, Michel-Eyquen de, writer, b. at the chateau of Montaigne, in Pdrigord, France, on 28 Feb., 1533; d. there, 13 Sept., 1592. His great- grandfather had been a Bordeaux merchant of wines, salt fish, etc., and it was he who purchased the estate of Montaigne. His father entered the army and married Antoinette de Louppes or Lopes, of Jewish origin, .and for two years was mayor of Bordeaux. At an e:irly ;igc Michel had a German tutor, who was obliged to spc:ik to him in Latin only. At the age of six and a half he was sent to the College of Guyenne at Bordeaux, where he remained seven years. Little is known of the ensuing years. It is believed that he studied logic and dialectics for two years at the Bordeaux Faculty of Arts, with Marc-Antoine de Muret as tutor. He afterwards studied law, possibly at Bordeaux, more probably at Toulouse. Having become counsellor at the Cour des Aides of Perigord. he was soon incorporated like his col- leagues in the Parlement of Bordeaux. But the new counsellor hud no liking for his profession, and he was often absent from the Parlement. From 1561 to 1563 he attended the court. From 1559 he knew La Boetie, his chosen friend, and like himself a counsellor in the Parlement of Perigord and his elder by six years; but death soon separated them (1563).

Two years later Montaigne married Frangoise de la Chassaigne, the daughter of a parliamentary ad- vocate. They had five daughters, only one of whom survived him. In 1570 at the age of thirty-seven he sold his post of counsellor, and in the following year retired to the chateau de Montaigne. There, from 1571 to 1580, he wrote his "Essays". The first edition of this work contained only two books. He then set out on a journey which lasted a year and a half, of which he has written in his "Journal". He went to Lorraine and Alsace, started for Switzerland, crossed Bavaria and came down to the Tyrol, saw Venice and reached Rome, the end of his journey, where he received letters of citizenship. During his absence he had been made mayor of Bordeaux, which office he held for four years (1581-85), his duties com- ing to an end when the pest broke out. Montaigne being absent from the town did not feel obliged to re- turn to it. In 1588 he published a new edition of his "Es.says", corrected and augmented by a third book. He continued to revise his work until his death. In 1595 Mile de Gournay, the young woman who at the age of twenty-two became his enthusiastic ad- mirer, and whom he called his daughter, issued a new edition, in which she inserted the revisions and ad- ditions which he h:id indicated in a copy in 1588.

It is im)K).ssible to analyse the "Essays". They are a long conversation in which the author sets forth in haphazard fashion his memories and his reflections.