A late edition to my Postcards from a Conquistador series, this one perhaps from a Jesuit missionary to the Hurons.
Dave Bonta (bio) often suffers from imposter syndrome, but not in a bad way — more like some kind of flower-breathing dragon, pot-bellied and igneous. Be that as it may, all of his writing here is available for reuse and creative remix under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. For attribution in printed material, his name (Dave Bonta) will suffice, but for web use, please link back to the original. Contact him for permission to waive the “share alike” provision (e.g. for use in a conventionally copyrighted work).
Learned this spring that what we call “moccasin flower” is called “dog’s balls” in Korean (kae-bul-al-ggot; Cypripedium macranthum); where we went romantic, they went biologic.
That’s awesome! And hey, welcome back to the blogosphere. Your photoblog looks very promising.
This is a good one, Dave, glad to see the series revived. And thanks for the link to the Jesuits-in-New-France book. From what I’ve learned of the demise of several Brother So-and-sos up here, the Hurons made their displeasure known in pretty dramatic ways.
Most of what we know about Huron/Iroquois culture at the tiem comes from the Jusuit Relations, though — they were good observers and writers, at any rate. And in their own paternalistic way, Jesuits were champions of native peoples throughout the hemisphere, including in what is now NW Mexico and Paraguay, in both of which areas they fought to keep colonists out.
I’m surprised no one has admonished me not to mock a sin.