THE MOST SOLEMN MOMENT OF THE MASS HAS
come, the moment of the elevation of the host. The church is
crowded with neighbours and townsmen, intent on the ancient
rite, with its assertion of the continuing existence of French-
men and Catholics in the new environment, this harsh new
world where so many old ways of life have to yield to necessity.

Two hands go up, clasped together, a man's and a woman's.
Eyes stray from the altar at the sacred moment and stare at
them. Everyone knows to whom the hands belong and what
their being raised at such a moment signifies. For a marriage
has just taken place, irregular and frowned on by the clergy,
but a marriage nevertheless, the well-known folk ceremony of
the mariage au gaumine. There has been a church full of wit-
nesses, but two friends close by are ready formally to attest the
act. The marriage will endure. And irate parent, jilted fiancé
or the bishop himself will not be able to break it. For the
people hold it to be a marriage 'in the sight of God' and girls
resort to it when obstacles present themselves to the regular
ceremony.

By the turn of the century, 1700, New France, as the folk
marriage indicates, was working out its way of life. While still
very much of a colony it could consider itself there to stay.

Of one phase, very specific in nature, of the people's accom-
modation to the new environment, a unique account exists in
the almost yearly census tabulations. These provide a record
such as no other country possesses, for they begin practically
at the beginning, 1666, and go on almost year by year until
the last great wars. They give the population (by localities,
by age, sex, and occupation) and the agricultural situation
(acres cleared, amounts of the various crops, numbers of
domestic animals). ¹ A continuous picture emerges, complete
for nearly three centuries.

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