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BY PATH AND TEAIL. 105 prevail upon them to procure the necessaries of life by tilling their own lands; their inconstancy and want of resolution is heart- breaking." And now it may interest my readers to be informed of the methods and the discipline of reclamation fol lowed by the missionary fathers when dealing with sav ages either in northern Canada or on the shores of the Pacific. Religious and moral teaching naturally under laid their system. They attached supreme importance to oral teaching and explanations of the doctrines of the church, iterating, reiterating and repeating till they were satisfied their instructions had penetrated into the obtuse brains of their swarthy hearers, lodged there and were partially, at least, understood. In the begin ning and to attract them to the divine offices and instruc tions they fed them after the services were over. They were dealing with " bearded children, " as one of the fathers wrote and as there was only a child ' s brain in a man's body they were compelled to appeal to their imagination, their emotions and affections rather than to their intellects. Having in a measure won their good will they began to teach the children, singing, reading and writing. They composed catechisms in the native dialects, insisted on the children memorizing the chap ters which the fathers with heroic patience explained and unfolded. They now established a children's choir, introduced into the services lights, incense, processions, genuflex ions, beautiful vestments, the use of banners and flowers for the purpose of decoration. They brought from Mex^ ico, sacred paintings and the stations of the cross which they used not alone as incentives to devotion but as ob ject lessons in religion. The rude and simple chapels |
