Note 59 — Chapter III

"Si tost qu'on l'apperceut toutes les femmes et les enfans s'enfuïrent, voyant vn homme porter le tonnerre en ses deux mains (c'est ainsi qu'ils nommoient deux pistolets qu'il tenoit)."—Vimont, Relation, 1643, p. 3.

Du Creux (Hist. Canada, p. 360) has this rendering of Vimont's language: "He [Nicolet] carried in each hand a small pistol. When he had discharged these (for he must have done this, though the French author does not mention the fact), the more timid persons, boys and women, betook themselves to flight, to escape as quickly as possible from a man who (they said) carried the thunder in both his hands." And thus Parkman ("Discovery of the Great West," p. xx.): "[Nicolet] advanced to meet the expectant crowd with a pistol in each hand. The squaws and children fled, screaming that it was a manito, or spirit, armed with thunder and lightning."