Like all the villages of Clare, Church Point consists of a single row of houses on either side of an unpaved street, with gardens and ploughed acres behind. The dwellings are not different in character from other Nova Scotia houses. Within they are invariably ornamented by religious pictures and images.
Nothing remains of the old costume but the shawl and the black headkerchief worn by the women. Little spinning or weaving is done in this day of near-by markets and good roads, but nearly every garret holds its flax-comber, distaff and wheel. But one man in the community is addressed as Monsieur, and he the priest. All others are called by their Christian names, or if strangers, by their family names. Un français de France is most esteemed and best welcomed. The language of the people is a corruption of the tongue of their Breton ancestors,[1] but students acquire from their teachers, most of whom are priests from the mother country, a pure accent and a knowledge of French traditions.
The men are occupied with logging, farming, boat-building and the catching and preparation of fish. Oxen are their draught animals. Carts with heavy wooden wheels are used in summer, crude sledges in the winter-time.
The Acadians of Clare are a serious and unromantic people, reverent in their church observances,
- ↑ See under "Language," Chapter I.
