University of Virginia Library

41. The Ladies in French Canada
BY PETER KALM (1749)

ALL the women in the country, without exception, wear caps of some kind or other. Their jackets are short, and so are their petticoats, and they have a silver cross hanging down on the breast.[103] In general they are very industrious; however, I saw some, who, like the English women in the colonies, did nothing but chatter all the day.

When they have any thing to do within doors, they (especially the girls) commonly sing songs, in which the words amour[104] and cœur[105] are very frequent. In the country, it is usual, that when the husband receives a visit from persons of rank, and dines with them, his wife stands behind and serves him.

In the towns, the ladies are more distinguished, and would willingly assume an equal, if not a superior, power to their husbands. When they go out of doors they wear long cloaks, which cover all their other clothes, and are either grey, brown, or blue. The men sometimes make use of them, when they are obliged to go in the rain. The women have the advantage of wearing old clothes under these cloaks, without any body's perceiving it.

We sometimes saw wind-mills near the farms. They were generally built of stone, with a roof of

boards, which, together with its flyers, could be turned to the wind occasionally.

The difference between the manners and customs of the French in Montreal and Canada, and those of the English in the American colonies, is as great as that between the manners of those two nations in Europe. The women in general are handsome here; they are well bred, and virtuous, with an innocent and becoming freedom. They dress out very fine on Sundays. On the other days they do not take much pains with other parts of their dress, yet they are very fond of adorning their heads, the hair of which is always curled and powdered, and ornamented with glittering bodkins and aigrettes.

Every day but Sunday, they wear a little neat jacket, and a short petticoat which hardly reaches the knee, and in this particular they seem to imitate the Indian women. The heels of their shoes are high, and very narrow, and it is surprising how they walk on them. In their knowledge of economy, they greatly surpass the English women in the plantations, who indeed have taken the liberty of throwing all the burden of house-keeping upon their husbands, and sit in their chairs all day with folded arms.

The women in Canada on the contrary do not spare themselves, especially among the common people, where they are always in the fields, meadows, or stables, and do not dislike any work whatsoever. However, they seem rather remiss in regard to the cleaning of the utensils, and apartments; sometimes the floors, both in the town and country, were hardly cleaned once in six months. This is a disagreeable sight to one who comes from among the Dutch and English, where the constant scouring and scrubbing

of the floors, is reckoned as important as the exercise of religion itself.

To prevent the thick dust, which is thus left on the floor, from being bad for the health, the women wet it several times a day, which renders it more solid, repeating the process as often as the dust is dry and rises again. Upon the whole, however, they are not averse to taking a part in all the business of housekeeping. I have with pleasure seen the daughters of the better sort of people, and of the governor himself, hot too finely dressed, and going into kitchens and cellars, to look that every thing be done as it ought.

The men are extremely civil, and take, their hats off to every person whom they meet in the streets. It is customary to return a visit the day after you have received one, even though one should have some scores of calls to pay in one day.

The manners of the inhabitants here are more refined than those of the Dutch and English, in the settlements belonging to Great Britain. The latter, on the other hand, do not idle their time away in dressing, as the French do here. The ladies, especially, dress and powder their hair every day, and put their locks in papers every night; which idle custom was not introduced in the English settlements.

The gentlemen wear generally their own hair; but some have wigs. People of rank are used to wearing lace-trimmed clothes, and all the crown-officers wear swords. All the gentlemen, even those of rank, the governor-general excepted, when they go into town on a day that looks like rain, carry their cloaks on their left arm.

Acquaintances of either sex, who have not seen each other for some time, on meeting again salute with mutual kisses.