The Huron Noël, or “Jesous Ahatonhia”

22 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music, Sharing

Tags

Canada, Gabriel Sagard, Huron, Jesuit, John Steckley, Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France, Society of Jesus, Wyandot people

Ojibwa Camp Northern Shore of Lake Huron by Frederick A. Verner (1873)

Indian encampment on Lake Huron by Paul Kane (1848–50)

Missionaries to New France had to adapt Christianity so their converts could understand it. Amerindian languages were simple languages that did not provide “black robes” with ways of expressing abstract notions. To befriend Amerindians they therefore chose to sing with their congregation.

“Jesous Ahatonhia”

The best-known piece composed for Amerindians is the Huron carol entitled: “Jesous Ahatonhia.” It was composed in 1643 for the Hurons at Ste Marie, in all likelihood, by Jean de Brébeuf, a Jesuit missionary, who was tortured to death by Iroquois Amerindians and has become a mythic figure. The Huron Noël belongs to Canada‘s répertoire of Christmas carols. The melody was borrowed from a French song entitled: Une jeune pucelle (A Young Maid).

Jesous was translated into French by Paul Picard, an Amerindian notary at Quebec City and, into English, by Jesse Edgar Middleton. It was then adapted for voice and piano by Healey Willan (ca 1927), an Anglo-Canadian organist and composer (12 October 1880 in Balham, London – 16 February 1968 in Toronto, Ontario).

I have written down two stanzas of the Huron carol and two stanzas of its French translation, and a full English translation. To access the lyrics, please click on Jesous Ahatonhia.

Huron lyrics

Ehstehn yayau deh tsaun we yisus ahattonnia/ O na wateh wado:kwi nonnwa ‘ndasqua entai / ehnau sherskwa trivota nonnwa ‘ndi yaun rashata / Iesus Ahattonnia, Ahattonnia, Iesus Ahattonnia /

Asheh kaunnta horraskwa deh ha tirri gwames / Tishyaun ayau ha’ndeh ta aun hwa ashya a ha trreh / aundata:kwa Tishyaun yayaun yaun n-dehta / Iesus Ahattonnia, Ahattonnia, Iesus Ahattonnia /

French lyrics

Chrétiens, prenez courage, / Jésus Sauveur est né! / Du malin les ouvrages / À jamais sont ruinés. / Quand il chante merveille, / À ces troublants appas / Ne prêtez plus l’oreille: / Jésus est né: In excelsis gloria!

Oyez cette nouvelle, /Dont un ange est porteur! /Oyez! âmes fidèles, / Et dilatez vos cœurs. / La Vierge dans l’étable / Entoure de ses bras / L’Enfant-Dieu adorable. / Jésus est né: In excelsis gloria!

English lyrics (Huron Noël) 🎶

‘Twas in the moon of wintertime when all the birds had fled
That mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel choirs instead;
Before their light the stars grew dim and wondering hunters heard the hymn,
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

Within a lodge of broken bark the tender babe was found;
A ragged robe of rabbit skin enwrapped his beauty round
But as the hunter braves drew nigh the angel song rang loud and high
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

The earliest moon of wintertime is not so round and fair
As was the ring of glory on the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt with gifts of fox and beaver pelt.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

O children of the forest free, O seed of Manitou
The holy Child of earth and heaven is born today for you.
Come kneel before the radiant boy who brings you beauty peace and joy.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born, in excelsis gloria.

RELATED ARTICLES

The Jesuit Relations: an Invaluable Legacy (15 March 2012)
More on the Jesuit Relations (16 March 2012)
Missionaries and the Noble Savage: Père Marquette and Gabriel Sagard (17 November 2012)

Sources

Timothy J. McGee, The Music of Canada (New York, London: W.W. Norton, 1985), p. 12.
‘Jesous Ahatonhia,’ The Canadian Encyclopedia

22 November 2012

WordPress

Missionaries and the Noble Savage: Père Marquette & Gabriel Sagard

17 Saturday Nov 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Black Robe, Brian Moore, Gabriel Sagard, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Jacques Marquette, Jesuit, Mississippi River, New France, Noble savage, Récollets

Père Marquette and the Indians [at the Mississippi River], oil painting (1869) by Wilhelm Lamprecht (1838–1906), at Marquette University

The Noble Savage

This post’s main feature could be the above depiction, by Wilhelm Lamprecht (1838-1906), of Father Jacques Marquette or Père Marquette, S.J. pointing to the Mississippi River, surrounded by Métis or Amerindians. I have used this painting in one of two posts on The Jesuit Relations, a yearly account, by Jesuit missionaries, of events in New France. In these posts, I indicated that the Jesuit Relations were the birthplace of the Noble Savage.

In the Jesuit Relations and in the accounts of other missionaries, the Amerindian is often described as morally superior to Europeans and, especially, to the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) inhabiting New France: Canada and Acadie. Therefore, before we discuss the nineteenth-century sentimentalist portrait of the Noble Savage or bon sauvage, we should remember the missionaries to New France: the Récollets, and the Jesuits.

The Récollets or Recollects

The Récollets were the first missionaries to travel to New France. Brother Gabriel Sagard (fl. 1614–1636) arrived in New France 28 June 1623 and was sent to accompany Father Viel. They traveled to Lake Huron to join Récollets who had come to New France in 1615. Sagard wrote Le grand voyage au pays des Hurons (Paris, 1632), an Histoire du Canada (1636), in which Le grand voyage is retold, and a Dictionary of the Huron Language.

An English translation of Le grand voyage by historian George M. Wrong was published by the Champlain Society in 1939 as Sagard’s Long journey to the country of the Hurons. It can be read online at the Champlain Society website [click on Long journey… ]. In 2009, John Steckley edited and published an authoritative edition of [Sagard’s] Dictionary of the Huron language. (Gabriel Sagard, Wikipedia)

Teyoninhokarawen (John Norton)

John Norton (Teyoninhokarawen) (b.c. 1760s Scotland (?)- d.after 1826, likely born and educated in Scotland, had a Scottish mother and a father who was born Cherokee in Tennessee, but raised from boyhood with the English.

John Norton was adopted as Mohawk. He distinguished himself as the leader of Iroquois warriors who faught on behalf of Great Britain against the United States in the War of 1812. Commissioned as a major, he was the military leader of warriors from the Six Nations of the Grand River who faught against American invaders at Queenston Heights, Stoney Creek, and Chippawa.

As we know, “savages” were not always “noble savages.” The Iroquois tribes (SENECA, CAYUGA, ONEIDA, ONONDAGA and MOHAWK) were enemies of French-speaking settlers. I should note therefore that the five Amerindians who took Jolliet and Marquette down the Mississippi were bons sauvages. In fact, they were French Amerindians, or Métis.

So it would appear that métissage occurred from the earliest days of New France and that it may have occurred because Amerindians were bons sauvages. They were the voyageur‘s guides. How would the voyageurs have succeeded in their mission had the Amerindians not been “Noble Savages” who actually prepared their food: sagamité? Such were the Amerindians Jacques Marquette and Gabriel Sagard attempted to convert to Roman Catholicism.

Métissage itself provides proof of affinities not only between Canadiens and Amerindians, but also between British settlers and Amerindians. Although métissage was less frequent between the British and Amerindians, it happened. John Norton, a Métis born in Scotland to an Amerindian father, a Cherokee, and a Scottish mother became a Mohawk Chief.

Conclusion

In the accounts of missionaries, the Amerindian is not always a bon sauvage. On the contrary. Amerindians tortured and killed several missionaries, but missionaries were sometimes filled with doubts concerning their role. Converting Amerindians could become a moral dilemma. Why convert a people whose behavior was different, but morally acceptable? The ambivalence of missionaries towards Amerindians and that of Amerindians towards the missionaries is central to Black Robe, a film mentioned below.

I admire the many “Black Robes” who learned Amerindian languages or otherwise expressed true devotion towards members of their little flock. I also admire such men as François de Laval (30 April 1623 – 6 May 1708), the first Roman Catholic bishop of Quebec and a member of the distinguished Montmorency family, who threatened to excommunicate and probably did excommunicate French fur-traders who gave alcohol to Amerindians in exchange for precious pelts.

One may read The Jesuit Relations Online (just click on the title).

The Jesuit Relations: an Invaluable Legacy, 15 March 2012
More on the Jesuit Relations, 16 March 2012

Black Robe, a novel and a film, was discussed by one of my WordPress colleagues. But I cannot find the relevant blog. Black Robe is a 1991 film directed by Australian Bruce Beresford. The screenplay was written by Irish-Canadian author Brian Moore, who adapted it from his novel of the same name. The film stars Lothaire Bluteau and can be watched online. It was produced by an Autralian team and a Canadian team and filmed in Quebec. I used to show it to my students. Below is part of the film. It is not the video I used previously. It featured French composer Georges Delerue (12 March 1925 – 20 March 1992) and it was exquisite, but it was removed.

17 November 2012

WordPress

Cartier, Champlain & Missionaries: a Chronology

16 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, History

≈ 159 Comments

Tags

Canada, Jacques Cartier, Jesuit, Louis Jolliet, Mississippi River, Montreal, Quebec, Quebec City

Jacques Cartier
by Théophile-Abraham Hamel (1817–1870)

I have developed a passion for the material I am putting online. So here I am re-examining the history of Canada, finding links with what is happening in France, and giving dates that allow me to follow the settlers and the missionaries in a systematic manner. One detail I omitted to provede is that Père Marquette and Louis Jolliet entered the Mississippi River at Prairie-du-Chien or Dog’s Prairie, which means that our coureurs de bois and voyageurs had already travelled that far. After Marquette and Jolliet mapped out the Mississippi, the Jesuits sent missionaries to these newly discovered areas.

The Jesuit Relations: on the internet

I have just discovered that the Jesuit Relations or Relations des Jésuites can be read online. For me, this is a Godsend. It is now possible to include a link to these sites: Jesuit Relations or Les Relations des Jésuites. Would that I were still teaching!

As for information about the authors of the Relations, I have provided links with Wikipedia, The Catholic Encyclopedia and the Encyclopædia Britannica.

The Standard Anthology

The excerpts my students had access to were published in the following anthology: Gilles Marcotte, rédacteur, Anthologie de la littérature québécoise (L’Hexagone, 1994). The Relations my students read were included in book 1 (tome 1) of the Anthologie entitled Écrits de la Nouvelle-France and edited by Léopold LeBlanc. My students read several complete texts, but the Anthologie was our organizer and browser. Two “tomes” have since been added to the original four. This Anthologie is considered the standard reference anthology on Quebec or French-Canadian literature.

Although the Anthologie is entitled Anthologie de la littérature québécoise, it includes texts written by other French-speaking authors and notably Gabrielle Roy (from Manitoba) and Marguerite Maillet, an Acadian writer and winner of the Prix Goncourt, the most prestigious literary award for works written in French.

Jacques Cartier

I will search the internet for texts by Jacques Cartier, who claimed Nouvelle-France for France in 1534 and made a second trip in 1534-1536 (mentioned below), and Samuel de Champlain who is considered the father of Nouvelle-France. Champlain established a settlement first in Acadie (1604) and second in what the Amerindians called Canada. Québec city (1608) was in Canada and located near an Iroquoian village called Stadacona.

Jacques Cartier sailed up to Montreal or Hochelaga

Jacques Cartier (31 December 1491 – 1st September 1557) went up the Saint-Lawrence River, in search of China (la Chine), but could not proceed further than the Lachine Rapids. So Montreal (Hochelaga) was settled by Maisonneuve, in 1642.

Chronology

Jacques Cartier discovers what will be Canada in 1534;
Acadie is settled by Du Gua de Monts & Samuel de Champlain in 1604;
Quebec city is settled by Champlain in 1608;
The Jesuits start arriving in 1609, when Quebec city was settled;
The Jesuits arrived at Port Royal, in Acadie, the current Nova Scotia, on 22 May 1611;
Récollets (Recollect) missionaries sail with Champlain from Rouen to Quebec City, arriving on 2 June 1615;
The Jesuit missions “would gain a strong foothold in North America in 1632, with the arrival of the Jesuit Paul Le Jeune. Between 1632 and 1650, 46 French Jesuits arrived to preach among the Indians” (Wikipedia);
Montréal is founded by Maisonneuve in 1642;
Eight Jesuits, killed between 1642 and 1649, became known as the North American Martyrs.

The First three settlements: Port-Royal; Québec (city) and Montréal

Port-Royal, established in 1604 in Acadie, by Champlain, is the first French settlement in North America. The Second is Quebec City, settled in 1608, by Champlain, The Third was Montréal, settled by Maisonneuve in 1642.

Postage stamp 1908

16 March 2012
WordPress

More on the Jesuit Relations

16 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, History, Uncategorized

≈ 33 Comments

Tags

Amerindian, François de Laval, Jesuit, New France, Paul Le Jeune, Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France, Society of Jesus, St. Francis Xavier University

A Jesuit preaching to the Indians © Charles William Jefferys / BIBLIOTHÈQUE et ARCHIVES Canada / C-005855

A Jesuit preaching to the Indians by Charles William Jefferys, 1745 (learnimage.ca)

Les Relations des Jésuites

It would be my opinion the Jesuit Relations do not belong to a discourse or speech that I would call indirect or an “indirection.” What is said by an animal (fables, beast epics, Orwell’s Animal Farm, etc.), a “bon sauvage,” a Turk, a Persian (Montesquieu‘s Lettres persanes), Pascal in his Provinciales or Voltaire in Candide is said and not said, or a dire-sans-dire. However, the Jesuit Relations are not the discours oblique that eighteenth-century Encyclopédistes cultivated to avoid being thrown into the Bastille, jail.

Le Bon Sauvage

However, the Relations occasionally depict the Amerindians in a manner that makes Amerindians seem morally superior to Europeans. So, as I suggested in my last post, the concept of the “bon sauvage” or “noble sauvage” may well find its birthplace in the Relations. Pierre Biard (1567-1622), who worked in Acadie, the eastern province of Nouvelle-France, has nothing but praise for Amerindians, except that they are “pagans,” a matter he and other missionaries are in Nouvelle-France to correct.

The “Bon Sauvage” becomes a barbarian

However, when François Le Mercier (1604-1690) describes the torture and very slow death of an Iroquois captured by Hurons, he cannot understand that torture could be so slow and so cruel. The missionaries are so horrified than a superior among them speaks to one of the Amerindians. He wants to know why they are killing their captive so painfully and so slowly. The missionary says to the Amerindian that they may indeed kill an enemy, but need they do so in such an atrocious manner. The Amerindian he is addressing is prompt to answer that the French do the same to their own people.

I must say that this particularly relation, included in the Anthology we used, was difficult to present to students. These missionaries were speaking as Jesus of Nazareth would have spoken. But there was truth to what the Amerindian was saying, if indeed the Amerindian said what he was reported to have said. This, we will never know, but what we know for certain is that the Jesuit who wrote that relation, François Le Mercier, was a compassionate man. As for his superior, he was very brave. He himself could have been subjected to the same death. Several missionaries were indeed tortured and killed, not to mention settlers. They constitute our martyrs and saints.

* * *

So, as depicted in the Jesuit Relations, the Amerindians were not always “bon sauvages” or “nobles sauvages,” but the Amerindian who pointed out to an appalled missionary that the French were no better than the Amerindians was making a valid point. What could the Jesuit answer? Suddenly, he could only speak for himself and express a point of view that would have been Christ’s point of view. He could not speak for the French. Marguerite de Valois, Dumas’s Queen Margot, could not prevent her mother, Catherine de’ Medici, from having La Môle, who was probably innocent, tortured and beheaded.

Unlikely ‘Casuistes’ & Francois de Laval

These missionaries were not our casuists taking sinfulness out of sin. The casuistes were in Europe sleeping in comfortable beds. They were not missionaries fighting their way through black flies to go and convert Amerindians that fur traders turned into alcoholics. Paul Le Jeune (1591-1664) so reprimanded fur traders who were ruining the lives of Amerindians. As for Monseigneur Laval, François de Laval (1623-1708), Nouvelle-France’s famous bishop, he threatened with excommunication fur traders who stooped to exchanging pelts for alcohol. As well, the Jesuits considered Huguenots as greater ‘pagans’ than Amerindians.

When the Amerindian told the Jesuit that the French also burned people, he did pull the rug from under the missionary’s feet, but that relation was not meant to be a criticism of France. They were not speaking obliquely. In other words, the Jesuits who compiled the Relations were not in America to find ways of indicting France. It may have happened occasionally, but I believe it would have been inadvertent and unintentional criticism.

An Avocet

N. B. By the way, in yesterday’s post, I forgot to mention that St. Francis Xavier University, not a Jesuit university, has the complete Relations, edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites. They can also be read online at Jesuit Relations or Les Relations des Jésuites.

À la claire fontaine (Université de Moncton Male Choir)

(please click on the title to hear the song)

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