"they did too. For the women both giving suck at that time, thought it was their children
"that were handling them, as they used but one finger, & gently." The other story is thus:
—A man that I have with me at present in consequence of some slips of his Rib had fre-
"quent, & some severe quarrels with her—she began to hate him & wanted to go with her
"Par-amour: the husband tho' vexed & confused did not want to lose her: he began by
"soothing, coaxing, & caressing her, but she always bawled out as loud as she could that
"every body might hear, tho' it were at midnight 'thou white dog, leave me alone
"'why art thou fumbling at me?" The more she became averse the more he coaxed
"& she bawling out 'dont slabber me' every time he attempted to kiss her,—&
"she was watching a fair opportunity to slip off to her lover (an indian). At last he lodged
"his complaints to me, & asked if I could not assist him. I gave him some of this mede-
"cine with the usual directions & told him as soon as he had executed all properly
"to come away & leave her, & not return to her for a couple of days so that in her
"turn she might suffer. He had not long left her 'till she called for him as if want-
"ing something & like a Goose he went immediately, tho' I done all I could to make
"him pay her in her own coin.—Since that time they live as you see them.
"But if you doubt of this also, you can easily make the experiment—chuse any
"one you please, & let her be ever so coy, & shy, you will bring her as you want"!!!
—Shortly after this I made some general enquiries of the man latterly in question,
but he would not avow, tho' from his confusion & precipitancy with which he an-
swered, I beleive there is something in the business. "It is with this medecine con-
"tinued the half breed, that the young men do completely & universally succeed
"with all the women that please them." With this also, principally, they
succeed in bewitching any one they are averse to, & prevent them from killing such
animals as they please. They draw the likeness of the animal or animals, they do
not chuse the others to kill, put of this medicine (tho' most commonly mixed with
some others in this latter case) upon the hearts & desire that they may become shy
& fly off upon any the least appearance or approach of them. Or, they will conjure& desire some of their familiars, one, or several, to haunt such a one in all his
motions & scare & frighten off, & render wise any such & such animals; & let
the distance be hundreds of miles off—their familiars that are spirits residing
in the air, & transport themselves in an instant to any place they place, & who see all
that is going on below, keep all away accordingly. To evade this is a task that but
few can succeed in. They must first Conjure to learn who it is that has bewitched them,
then they inquire what is to be done: but here lies the difficulty.—Sometimes they are
told they must leave the appointed time run out: at others, such & such ceremonies, which is
tantamount to the first answer; but at others again, it is easily dispelled—This depends

[...] [(34)] [...]

depends entirely upon the precautions the bewitcher has taken, the Power, influence, or number
of his Dreamed: as also on the other hand of the Dreamed, their, power, influence &c. of the be-
witched. But sometimes on a very slight or trivial cause depends the whole.— —
I shall tell you another story. An old Canadian I have now with me has been in the
habit of living-free for many years back. In the beginning of a winter he was
tenting with some indians, & one of them an impertinent, bombastic sort of character
was boasting to him of the great power & effect of some medicines & a drum he had
lately received from a Sauteux &c. &c. "for some time I did not mind him, but
"finding he became at last troublesome, & insinuating as plainly as he durst that
"he was now invulnerable, or rather immortal & that we were helpless, a quarrel
"ensued 'till at last I fxxt. upon your medicines & drum & the one also who gave
"them to you said I. We seperated in no good freindship. At night he mad a feast &
"invited me amongst the rest with the design of poisoning me; but his freinds remonstrated so ef-
"fectually that he put this off & intended shooting me going out of the lodge; but this also
"the others would not allow: he was vexed—I kept my eye upon him, determined I should
"give the first blow on the least motion he might make. Finding himself prevented
"in these he said that I indeed should kill 2 moose, but that the rest of the year I
"should starve as a dog. I seperated next day with my wife & children—they were
"under great apprehensions, but I mocked all their conjurings—I very shortly
"killed 2 moose; but these indeed were the last. I walked & hunted every day—
"& seldom one day passed but I fired at the Buffaloe, moose, or some other animal,
"but never got anything anything—I & my family were near dying with hunger, I
"tried every thing in my power, never giving myself the least trouble about the indians
"menaces. At last the spring arrived—Ducks & Geese came; but no better suc-
"ess. At last one day prowling in my Canoe I met 2 other free-men, who, after mutual
"inquiries &c. told me "the same thing had happened him & that an indian told him to file
"off a small piece of the muzzle of his Gun & wash it well with water in which Sweet-
"flag had been boiled, & killed after that as before." I laughed at the idea, but re-
"flecting that it was an innocent experiment & I could not offend the almighty, I
"tried, & the first animals I saw I immediately killed.—This Sir, continued
"he, I assure you is a positive fact"!!!—I find that the indians have recourse
to this method also. But you must observe: as is the disease::so is the remedy. Another story just
now occurs to me which I shall relate, not so much to multiply these pretended
proofs as to shew that our Iroquois, Algonquins &c. &c. are not such complete converts
to the Christian faith as most people may complacently imagine, but rather have
a mongrel religion like those whom the King of Babylon sent to inhabit Samaria
when he carried Reuben & Ephraim captives (In the Bible). This winter an Iroquois

[...] [(35)] [...]

told me that one winter he was out a Beaver hunting with many of his friends.—The
oldest man of their party proposed one day that a certain number of them should go out a
hunting Moose or Buffaloe, & the others Beaver. This one says "I returned at night after
"a good success—the old man nothing—he became envious—a quarrel ensued; & after
"this many others. One day I fired at a moose as he was running past me, he fell—I
"went to him; & just as I was for beginning to skin he rose up, but with my
"axe I bro't him down—it was very far from home—I merely opened him &
"returned light, trusting to the others of our party; for I had no desire of partaking of the dry
"provisions the old fellow had, of his own. Imediately on entering the lodge we had a-
"nother severe quarrel, & he told me I should not any more exult in my prowess
"as he should take care I should not kill any more animals for some time. As we
"were coming to knife work, I ordered my wife to bundle up all our things & my
"lodge, & pitch off—it was then late, & I had not yet eaten. As none of my
"friends knew that I had killed, I did not chuse to tell them, but merely said
"as I was going off 'Let those who are fond of me, or who chuse, follow me'; but none came,
"& I encamped upon my moose. Every day I went a hunting—scarcely a week
"passed but I fired 20, 30, & sometimes upward of 50 Shot, upon Buffaloe or Moose,
"but could never kill—I would miss, or the ball twisting in the hair would"fall by the animal without doing further injury. I starved for a long time—
"& became so weake that I could hardly walk. At last my wife (a woman of
"this country) one day that I had been out as usual had prepared some good
"strong lye, & on my return washed my Gun with it; filled it, & stopping
"both the orifices put it over the smoke where it remained all night. She
"also took a number of the balls & boiled them likewise in the lye, telling me she had
"seen her uncle do so many years before when he too had been bewitched.—I thought at
"all events it could do no harm; & besides I could have done anything, I was so hungry.—
"The next day I went out again,—found another flock or herd of near 20 Buffaloe,
"I drew nigh & took all my usual precautions—I fired, one dropped; fired again,
"another dropped:—I killed 14 out of that herd; & ever after missed not once"!
I asked him how the old fellow had done?-- he said "I suppose it was as they
"frequently do—i.e. bury a piece of my meat in the Ground & pray the Devil
"to prevent my killing: for the Iroquois, when they take it in their head,
"are very wicked, & do not want power"!—A few days ago a half-breed, abandoned
with the indians, came in; & amongst his other wantages asked me for a small piece of (red) sealing-
wax "because my brother cannot draw blood from the animals he fires at: by heating his Gun & ap-
"plying this wax the blood will flow profusely from the wounds". He expressed himself afraid that
his brother might have been bewitched & by retarding this operation he might enter dans sa mal chance!"

[...] [(36)] [...]

These few examples will suffice to shew you that they have different methods of bewitching& also different ways of clearing themselves. And the faith, & dread, they have of this, is scarcely
credible; & the consequences are often too uncommonly distressing.—I shall now give you of the
Story of the Hairy Breasts. Near the days of Noah, nations were few & small.
Weesuckajock (noah, I shall call him for abbreviation sake) had a son as I told you before
whose name was Nay-hân-nee-mis. Being straitned for provisions he went out to angle
with some of the Hairy-Breasts. They came to a Lake, pierced several holes, but the
North (or North wind, as you chuse) being envious of Nayhanemis, froze the water down
to the very ground; so that in the deepest parts they found but Earth & after much
digging at last reached the bottom; but behold that also was frozen! & who knows
to what depth in the Earth? Finding this to be the case Nays, addressed his freinds
thus—"I see this is the doings of the N. Wind (now by rights the N. Wind ought to have been his
maternal Gnd Father—but what cannot envy do?) "he is envious of us, & wants to make
"us die of hunger—but he shall not!—I have to propose to you to cut off my head—rip
"up my body, beginning at the throat—You must not hurt nor break any single
"one of my bones; but carefully take off all the flesh, dry it, & make Pounded meat of it.
"of this you must sprinkle a little in every one of the holes; you must also chop up
"my Heart into very small pieces & throw a few of these pieces also into each hole: then put in
"your lines, & you'll take as many fish as you please. But my bones you must put in a
"heap, carefully by themselves. Mind! upon your faithful observance of all these commands
"depends our mutual safety. The North thinks himself sole master, & would wish to
"crush us because we begin to have a little knowledge: but he shall know me!"
They done accordingly, & accordingly also they took abundance of fish. North per-
ceived this: he came to see, & finding himself thus frustrated inquired how it came
about?—they told: He challenged Nays. who by this time had revived; & besides
a beautiful large feather he had sticking in his cap or head, which none durst wear
but such as have given incontestible proofs of their Manhood, bravery &c. he like-
wise had a smoking bag, of the Skin of a badger. Nayhanimis accepted the
challenge. "It seems Nahanimis you are a great man, a man of extraordinary power & abilities!—
"—let us have a trial, & see which of us has the most; for I also have some Knowledge"—Nahani-
mis answered "No! I have but little power, but that little I employ as much as I can
"to the General benefit of my fellows: let us see what you can do, which if I cannot,
then you will certainly be superior to me." Here they performed one or two wonderful feats
but in which Nayhanimis had the advantage most confessedly.—The North pierced his body
through, & done another extraordinary thing I cannot well recollect; but the other done more
& recovered not only more suddenly but more perfectly. At last the North put a bet & said "Let
"us see for this last act: I will cut off my head & if I cannot replace & recover perfectly