DCHP-1 Online

travail [< Cdn F; cf. travois] Hist.

• 1 n. a large, wheel-less conveyance drawn by a horse or pony, the shafts often being teepee poles. [See picture at travois.]

  See also: travois (def. 2 and picture)  

  • 1801  (1897)  Chamanau arrived from the hills, bringing his deceased wife on a travaille to be buried here.
  • 1880  When the last and only cart breaks down the usual resource is to make a "travail."
  • 1921  At the rear of any band of Indians on the march there was likely to be a number of these travailles, drawn usually by old, broken-down ponies.

• 2 n. a simple wheel-less conveyance originally used by the Indians and made of two poles on which was a platform or net for holding a load, the contrivance being pulled by a dog. [See picture at travois.]

  See also: travois (def. 1)  

  • 1863  I have got Indian "travails" for the dogs, consisting of two poles joined together at an acute angle, which rests on the dog's neck, while the ends trail on the ground ten feet behind him, and kept apart by a few cross bars close behind his tail, on which the load is strapped.
  • 1879  The vehicles to which dogs are harnessed in, the Fur Land are of three kinds--the passenger sledge or dog-cariole, the freight-sledge, and the travaille.