THE SMUDGE-FIRE

But enough of the cooking-fire.  Let us turn now to the subject of
the smudge, known in Lower Canada as LA BOUCANE.  The smudge owes
its existence to the pungent mosquito, the sanguinary black-fly, and
the peppery midge,--LE MARINGOUIN, LA MOUSTIQUE, ET LE BRULOT.  To
what it owes its English name I do not know; but its French name
means simply a thick, nauseating, intolerable smoke.

The smudge is called into being for the express purpose of creating
a smoke of this kind, which is as disagreeable to the mosquito, the
black-fly, and the midge as it is to the man whom they are
devouring.  But the man survives the smoke, while the insects
succumb to it, being destroyed or driven away.  Therefore the
smudge, dark and bitter in itself, frequently becomes, like
adversity, sweet in its uses.  It must be regarded as a form of fire
with which man has made friends under the pressure of a cruel
necessity.

It would seem as if it ought to be the simplest affair in the world
to light up a smudge.  And so it is--if you are not trying.