BCASHOMAIiAHD
769
MABOLIHO
quoiB and Sioux. The Algonquian name by which they
are ^nerally known aj^nifies "people of the littfe
praine ". In the earlier French records they are known
as the ** Fire Nation " (Gens de Feu)y from the Huron
name Asistaxeronon (people at the nreplace), properly
a rendering of the tribal name of the Potawatomir The
mistake arose from the fact of the close proximity of
the two tribes, and the further fact of the resemblance
of the Algonouian roots for fire {ishkoU) and prairie
(mashkott^. It is certain, as shown by Hewitt, that
the Fire Nation of some of the earliest notices are the
Potawatomi. The confusion persisted until the West-
em tribes had become better known. The Mascoutens
were first visited by Champlain's venturesome inter-
preter, Jean Nicolet, in 1634, at their town on upper
Fox River. In 1654--55 the explorers, Radisson and
Groseilliers, also stopped at the same town, which, as
later, the Miascoutens occupied jointly with the Miami.
The location of this town is a matter of dispute, but
it is i^enerally agreed to have been near Fox River,
within the present limits of Green Lake County or
the northern part of Columbia county.
In 1669, the pioneer Jesuit explorer. Father Claude Alloues, established the mission of Saint-Frangois- Xavier at the rapids of Fox River, about the present Depere, Wisconsin, as a central station for the evan- gelization of the tribes between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi. In the spring of the next year, 1670, with two French companions, he visited the ** Mahou- tensak, partly to compose some differences which the tribe already had with the French traders. He was received as an actual manitou, with ceremonial feasts, anointing of the limbs of himself and his com- panions, and *' a veritable sacrifice like that which they made to their false gods", being invoked at the same time to give them victory against their enemies, abun- dant crops, and immunity from disease and famine. The missionary at once let them know that he was not a god, but a servant of the True God, proceeding with an explanation of the Christian doctrine, to which they listened with reverence. In September of the same vear, in company with the Jesuit Father Claude Da- blon, he made a second missionary visit to the town, preaching to the Indians, who crowded to hear them Both day and night, with the greatest eagerness and attention. The teaching was given in the Miami language.
Tne town was a frequent rendezvous for several tribes, and on some occasions must have had several thousand Indians assembled in its neighbourhood. Its regular occupants were the Mascoutens, and a part of the Miami, estimated by Dablon. in 1670, at about four hundred warriors each, or, as ne says, over three thousand souls. The Mascoutens may have num- bered fifteen hundred souls. ' He describes the town as beautifully situated on a small hill in the midst of extensive prairies, interspersed with eroves and abounding in herds of buffalo. It was pfuisaded for defence against the Iroquois, who earned their de- structive raids even to the Mississippi. Besides the buf- falo, there were fields of com, squashes, and tobacco, with an abundance of wild grapes, and plums, and probably also stores of wild rice. Notwithstanding all this, their natural improvidence made life an alterna- tion of feasting and famine. Of the two tribes the Miami were the more polished. The houses were liffht structures covered with mats of woven rushes. The people were given to heathenism, offering almost daily sacrifices to uie sun, the thunder, the buffalo, the bear, and to the special manitou which came to them in dreams. Sickness was attributed to evil spirits or witchcraft, to be exorcised by their medicine-men. In their cabins they kept buffalo skulls to which they made sacrifice, and sometimes the stuffed skin of a bear erected upon a pole. Like the other tribes of the ranon, they sometimes ate prisoners of war.
u 1672, Allouez established in the town a regular IX.— 49
mission which he named Saint-Jacques, building a
special cabin for a chapel, and setting up two large
crosses, which the Indians decorated with offering of
dressed skins and beaded belts. For lack of mission-
aries, however, he was only able to serve it through
occasional visits from Saint-Ftancois-Xavier near
Green Bay, in consequence of which its growth was
slow. In the next year Marquette and JoEet stopped
there and procured guides for their vovage of discov-
ery. In 1678, Allouez was transferred to the Ulinois
mission, while his assistant, Father Antoine SHvy, was
lecalled to Canada, his place being filled by Father
Andr^ Bonnault. Up to this time there had been
over five himdred baptisms of various tribes at the
Mascoutens mission. In 1692, the heroic Father Se-
bastien Rasles also stopped there on his way to ihe
Illinois station, and reported the mission as still de-
pendent on occasional visits from Green ^ay. This is
apparently the last notice of the Mascoutens mission,
which seems to have dwindled out from neglect, and
from the growing hostility manifested towara tiie
French by uie Sauk, Foxes, and Kickapoo, with whom
the Mascoutens were so closely connected. In 1702, a
band of the tribe had drifted down into Southern
Illinois, and had their village on the Ohio near to the
French post of Fort Massac. Here Father Jean Mer-
met, stationed at the post, attempted to minister to
them, but found them entirely under the influence of
their medicine men and opposed to Christianity. In
the meantime an epidemic visited the village, idlling
many daily. The missionary did what he could to
relieve the sick, even baptizing some of the dying at
their own request, his only reward being abuse and
attempts upon his life. To appease the disease-spirit
the Indians organized dances at which they sacrinced
some forty dogs, carrying them at the ends of poles
while dancing. They were finally driven to ask the
aid and prayers of the priest, but in spite of idl more
than halt the band perisned.
In 1712, the Mascoutens, with the Kickapoo and Sauk, joined the Foxes in the war which the latter in- augurated against the French, and continued in desul- tory fashion for some thirty years. In 1728 Father Michel (orLouis-Ignace) Gmgnas, while descending the Mississippi, was taken near the mouth of the Wiscon- sin by a party of Mascoutens and Kickapoo, held for sevend months, and finally condemned to be burnt, but rescued by being adopted by an old man. Through his mediation they made peace with the French, and afterwards took him to spend the winter of 1729^-30 with them (Le Petit). It is evident that by this time the Mascoutens were near their end, reduced puily by wars, but more by the gr^t epidemics which wiped out the tribes of the Illinois country. In 1736 they are officially reported by Chauvignerie as eighty war- riors, about thiee hundred souls, still on Fox River, in connexion with the Kickapoo and Foxes, with whom they were probably finally incorporated. They are not named in Sir William Johnson's list of Western tribes in 1763, and are last mentioned by Hutchins in 1778, as living then on the Wabash in company with ihe Kickapoo, Miami, and Piankishaw.
Jea uit R datioiu, Thwaitbs ed., eopeoialhr voto. I, V, Vin. XXVni, XLIV. LIV UUoua), LVTpaWon}. lViII (AUtmet), IJDC iManwUe and AUoua), LX, LXI. LXVI (fiarut, Mermei). IJCVUl (U PetU) (Cleveland, 1896-1901); CBAinnoiffnus's list in ScnooLCRArr. Jnd. Tribett in (Flul- adelphis. 1863); HuTCBniin,Topogmph%ealDeacnptum (London. 177$; Sua. Catholie huLMiMianalSew York, 1855).
James Mooxet.
MashonaUnd» Ruins of. See Soix>mon.
MasoUno dft Panicala, son of Cristoforo Fioi; b. in the suburb of Panioale di Valdeee, near Florence, 138S; d. 0. 1440. It is said that he was a pupil of Stamina, several of whose frescoes in charming taste heralding the Renaissance are in the Cathedral of Prato. Es* tablished at Florence Masolino was received in 1423 a member of the corporation of druggists or grocers
