it
was the mosquitoes. Was it the goblins?

A simpler and touching faith is common. Every one has noticed in the
Province of Quebec the numerous crosses by the way side. These Calvaires
are of rough wood, usually eight or ten feet high; sometimes with the
cross are the dread implements of Christ's pain--the crown of thorns,
the hammer and nails, the executioner's ladder, the Roman soldier's
spear. Often at the foot is a box for alms to help the forgotten dead
who are in purgatory. As the habitant passes them he usually lifts his
hat. The Calvaires are a kind of domestic altar to which the people
come. In the summer evenings one may see a family grouped about them in
prayer. When there is need for special prayers, several families will
come across the fields to meet at the Calvaire. Dr. Henry, of whom more
later, tells how at Malbaie some eighty years ago he found in the
cottages social family worship night and morning. It is to be feared
that the present generation at Malbaie is less devout, corrupted it may
be by the heretic visitors' bad influence and example. But still the
guide with whom one goes camping rarely neglects his evening devotions.
In some families prayer sanctifies all the actions of the day. There is
prayer at rising, prayer at going to bed. Though here, as in France,
women are spoken of as only _creatures_, the mother is usually better
educated than the father and often leads these devotions, the others
joining in the responses. Before meals is recited a prayer, usually the
_Benedicite_. There is often a family oratory and here at the
appropriate seasons, in the month consecrated to the special family
saint and guardian, in May, the Virgin's month, in June, that of the
Sacred Heart, in November, "the month of the dead," special prayers are
said. On Sunday evenings the family chant the Canticles. The Church's
feasts are marked by festal signs such as the laying of the best rugs
on the floor. If there is drought groups gather frequently at the
Calvaires to pray for rain. Occasionally such supplications have a
curiously commercial basis in frugal minds. A habitant's wife, learning
that a near neighbour had made an offering to the cure for prayers for
rain, declared that she would give nothing, since if rain fell on the
neighbour's farm it would not stop there: "_S'il mouille chez les
Pierrot Benjamin, il mouillera ben icitte_."[32]

In each year, if he chooses, the habitant has a good many chances to
ca