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any length of time, being obliged to assist the women in holding & preventing her from biting or eating
any of the children, & perhaps herself. They bethought of a sacrifice i.e. cropping her hair & short—
—she recovered & is now well. She says "I do not recollect any single one circumstance of all that
"is told me.—I thought I was always on the tops of the Trees." There is another one of my in-
dians thus affected too. The indians say it is a punishment (from some of their familiars of
course) for so lightly esteeming their ceremonies; nay indeed & ridiculing them often. This
fall he began: there were but 2 men of them together (with each his family)—Things
bore a most dismal aspect;—at last the wife of the other, who by-the-bye is said to
a little affected that way too, told him one day that he sprang forward to seize one of
his own children, to "keep quiet, for thou dog if a Gun hath no effect on thee, my
" axe shall—I shall chop thee up into slices:—thou hast then better be quiet."
This kept him indeed quiet for some time: how they are now I cannot say, not hav-
ing heard of them from the beginning of Decr (now Apl. 20th). They appear most
inclined to prey first upon their own family: & they also think that fire arms
are absolutely unable to injure them—"a ball cannot injure Ice: to destroy
"Ice, it must be chopped up: & the heart then is all Ice." They sometimes,
indeed frequently recover with the warm weather "for the sun then animatesall nature"!!!—There are many other instances of a like kind in their tendency
or consequences, but different in their proceedings that I cannot bring to mind at present: I men-
tion several of these to shew you the different manner they are infected—in the mean time
I shall relate you others not less entertaining. There are several Spirits of whom these
people are much afraid, but four principally, they being the most malignant & little
accepting of excuses however great & urgent they may be for the non performance of theirsacrifices. These are the North, Ice, Skeletons & the Crazy woman, or foolish,
mad, jealous, woman. "Not very many years ago an indian had entered his conjuring hut.
"She came among the rest; but being displeased with the conjuror on account of some
"sacrifice to other spirits, she seized & carried him off! Skeleton perceived it, &
"being of the conjuror pursued Jealousy: finding herself nearly overtaken she prefered
"her own safety to vengeance & let the indian fall in some place at a vast dis-
"tance from where he had been taken—Skeleton took him up & bro't him back
"to the great satisfaction of all parties"! "She frequently comes with the otherswhen they conjure, but on her appearance she is desired to be quiet "Pay-ah-tick"
i.e. gently, quietly, peaceably &c." Master Skeleton also is as much dreaded as
Folly, if-not more, because he shews himself at any time he pleases, it not being
necessary to conjure to call him to. There is an indian who before he married had his
Dress Shoes made by this Lady (Folly, or Jealousy)—She was of course extremely fond of him"—"The shoes
"were beautifully garnished, far superior to anything of the kind done by our women"! There are not

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wanting Ladies living with the white who confer full share of their favors on some of the in-
dians; & from one of these I fancy it is he got these shoes; but to hide the business imput-
ed them to Folly, which served him a double end. If I can see that Chap I shall be very
particular in my inquiries of him—I know him well. This brings to my mind the
White Stag or Hind, Sertorius had in his exile & during his wars with his country as
mentioned by Plutarch. Indeed—to be candid, I find a very great affinity between the
ideas & notions of these people & those of the Greeks & Romans &c. &c. And by these, much,
far much better, than by the incongruous hypothesis of the learned might be traced the
origin of these people; & I am far from taking the task to be difficult: would weonly divest ourselves of our own prejudices & take the proper plan this great Enigma,
if I may so explain myself, would be not perfectly cleared I allow, but a rational
clew afforded to the unravelling of it. I have read many of these hypo-
thesis but they are so filled with inconsistencies that I could scarcely believe men could
employ so much time in them ..... I could say something else instead of the conclusion
of this last sentence. A Gentleman, & an Englishman too, but I forget his name, would
wish to insinuate that these people are from a different origin with ourselves i.e.
Adam; & to prove his hypothesis he begins by an anatomising hogs! (See the Encyclopae-
dia, not by Rees, but Fitz-Patrick I believe) This puts me in mind of some of the
Newtonian Systems i.e. there is no such thing in nature a Cold—we must
say an absence of Heat! why cannot we as well say there is no such thing as dark-
ness, but merely an absence of light, or reverse either, & either will be as reasonable
—most strange reasoning is this indeed!
Confession. These People have a notion that confession saves them
from many accidents & also preserves the lives of the Sick, or rather restores them to
their wonted health &c. I have not learned the origin of this; when, why, or wherefore, but it
seems to be very remote, to have sprang with their mythology. I shall it make a point to enquire
very particularly into this; & for this, as well as other things, at different quarters, to find & detect
errors &c. but all, however, that I have written in these pages, tho' there may be some difference
in the recital & perhaps a few stragling circumstances, are, I have great reason to think
fundamentally the same throughout among these people....... When any one
of them is particularly affected with diseases out of the common course of nature here,
or, tho' the disease may be precisely the same as all others, yet from certain circumstan-
ces, individually, or a combination of them, they say he is Oh-gee-nay in Cree,
or On-gee-nay in Sauteux (the On- pronounced as in french & not English), by which
it would seem as if they meant he was afflicted or chastised for his own sins, or those of some
of his or her, near relatives, i.e. father, mother &c. if children: if grown up & married persons,
for their own. Whether they only imagine this, or are informed of it by conjuring, private infor-

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information from their Familiars, or from the Symptoms of the Sick person &c. &c. I cannot say,
but the thus afflicted person must confess his Sins publickly. Now in these confessions as in
all their other discourses or conversations (initiating & giving of medicines, excepted) they use no
circumlocution, no secret or enigmatical word or term, to screen themselves; but all is de-
livered in plain terms & before every one that chuses to hear: These confessions are ter-
rible things; & they seem far more sincere & complete than those of many catholics.
—They have wonderful retentive memories, & no scene, no crime from their earliest
years unto that day do they hide. But Great God! what abominations!—one would
scarcely imagine the human mind capable of inventing such infamously dia-
bolical actions as some do commit: murder, incest, & other things if possible an
hundred fold more debasing the human Soul. Whether they repent of these things neither
can I say, but it would appear as if they were the acts of a contrite & most humbly
penitant Soul. I have never had an opportunity of hearing these from their own mouths,
but other indians have told me of them, & tho' before their families sometimes, have never
omitted one single circumstance from the suggestions of the idea down to the very
last conclusion. When I heard of these things at first, I would not beleive them; but hearing
them come so circumstantially I trembled for the Land I sojourned in "lest it should
vomit me out as the land of Canaan did its inhabitants" "or be swallowed up in
its destruction as Sodom & Gomorrah"! It is true they are not all so; no, I
am told there are but few, & in charity I hope it is; otherwise what will be my
fate seeing I am in a certain degree partaker with them! Surely the inha-
bitants of such a land, at best, cannot look for more than mere present enjoy-
ment. When I reflect seriously on all these things as I sometimes do, revolv
ving them in every different manner in my mind it is beyond the power of
words to express my feelings. Poor unfortunate blind Creatures! That it is
from Blindness they commit these things. I am fully persuaded, because I am equally confi-
dent that they do not attach that same degree of criminality to them we, from the re-
vealing of the Scriptures to us, do: some, they consider in the light of trifles; some natural; some
weaknesses: but all tend to the gratification of most Bestial appetites, whatever may
have been the original cause, curiosity, or otherwise. However, I received a piece of infor-
mation in one of these, & it was circumstantially detailed, that has cleared a point to
me I could never solve: & Tho I enquired of both Wool & Bob, they were not wiser than my-
self. Indeed, without the trial or experiment, it seems impossible to say certainly
where the cause lies: now I know it, if ever an opportunity offers, or that it pleases God I
again revisit my own lands I shall be able to speak to a certainty. As I cannot write
Latin, I shall say no more of it at present.—
A few years back an indian at the next Post above this died: he had been a long time sick, &

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