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TERRITORIAL ROAD RECOLLECTIONS OF THE "OLD TERRITORIAL ROAD" AND ITS TAVERNS
The forest was untouched by them save to build their wigwams, canoes, or fires. The soil was undisturbed by them, save to plant patches of corn for food. They killed nothing in the woods save what game they needed for sustenance. They brought baskets, maple sugar, huckleberries and cranberries to the cke-mo-ko-man's cabin to "swap. " They were always friendly and saluted their pale faced neighbors, with their accustomed boo-shoo!—a word showing their association with the French, as it is a corruption of bon-jour, the French "good morning, " or "good day. " We also find that their mar-chee, is from the French marche, to march. Many other Indian words could be traced to French origin.
Another native of the woods was the blood-thirsty savages—the mosquitoes. They were the most troublesome of all the animals that infested the woods.
"They were so unacquainted with man, Their tame ness was shocking to us. "
They did not know what danger or fear was. They would light upon your nose and suffer you to kill them; while they died like martyrs at the stake Their attacks were heralded by a flourish of trumpets or long trombones, when they would come down upon you in squads or hordes, ad infinitum. A settler relates his attempt to go through a belt of heavy timbered land, but, ere he had advanced twenty rods, he was so beset by these blood-thirsty imps, that, after giving them battle with a bush for a while, he was compelled to beat a retreat, badly demoralized. We found no rats, mice, or house flies. They came, years later, with an advanced civilization.
Michigan
Page 18
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