& from this conceived himself ongenay & accordingly prepared for his Confession.
Having received the details at 2 & 3d hand I shall endeavour to give part of them to you as near theirStile as I can; but really I find myself very inadequate to the task: there is a certain
Poetic Sublimity in their language on such like occasions as will not easily meet with credit
from those (the better informed) of the civilized world unacquainted with these people. Even
amongst ourselves there are but few; for few can judge of the beauties of a language & most of
those few have too hi a notion of their own mighty superiority to stoop to regular conver-
sation with them: But to return: after having revealed all, or most part of his Sins to
the company in general he thus addressed his family in particular—"You see my Chil-
"dren my distressed state: I cannot move nor stir without assistance, & I feel strengthened
"in my lungs (breast, heart) merely as it were by Permission of my Dreamed (some parti-
"cular one he meant) "to divulge my offenses to the Gods (or God) publicly, before you
"you all, to deter you from the same vices (wickednesses). I was once a young man also, the
"same as you are now, healthy & vigorous; nothing appeared difficult nor dangerous to me—
"I lived as became a man, & prospered accordingly; but I thought that this proceeded from my
"own Power only: had I so continued, all had been well! but no, I unfortunately heard
"speake of Such indians (meaning this place, as my informants tell me), how powerful
"they were in their medicines, the extraordinary feats they performed. I envied them, &
"thought that I required but that knowledge more to render me perfect (immortal) &
"happy:—I undertook a voyage to that place: I found that the bare truth had been
"scarcely told me—I burned with anxiety to becoming as knowing as themselves & I
"was gratified. Had I rested here, all had yet been well; but in learning their me-
"decines I also learned of them those vices, those sins, that by their practice have
"reduced me to this wretched situation. My Sons! take example from your father!
"be good, charitable, & peaceable indians as I was at the first set off of my life, & employ the
"same means, indulge use the same anxiety to avoid, that I did to procure, that information
"that hath reduced me so far below the level even of a dog. Never forget this, never in-
"dulge even the least desire of such acquisitions; for if you once begin you will be
"deluded by their flattery to that destruction I have found. But you are young men! &
"unless you find grace you also will be deluded & lost as I am"! I have heard a good
deal said of this indian's confession & exhortations to his Sons—they were not lost. He
himself lived but a short time & seemed much comforted by it.
There is a tribe of Athabasca that go by the name of Beaver Indians. From
the tenets of their religion I am told that when laying under any malediction, be-
wichisms, &c. or conceive themselves so, they make a vow that the first animal the shall
kill they will do So—they do not fail, but immediately proceed in quest of another which by this
diabolical action they think they will soon find & kill. They do not touch the animal afterwards as

[...] [(54)] [...]

as those Beasts among the Crees & Sauteux do, but leave it lay as a sacrifice: they consider it as a
duty imposed upon them; but the others do it from mere beastiality. "Such a one did so, bro't home
"part of the meat, & we all of us eat it—O! the Dog!" said an indian not long ago to me.
Lest I may not soon have another opportunity of writing on these Subjects to you I shall
add a few more fragments. An indian here, passing for a great Doctor was applied to
(& is still) by many to attend upon them. "Several of these he retrieved from death: One
"of his dreamed, I beleive the North, was not pleased & told the Doctor 'never to administer
"'his medecines to those he had doomed to death.' The Dr replied it was hard & unchari-
"table seeing he could prolong their days a little. ' Well! for every one that thou dost
"'deprive me of, I shall take one of thy children'; & the Dr lost 8 or 9. (I cannot
"now remember well); but he is now grown more cautious". But this Dr is himself a
beast. "Being unable to stand from sickness he told 2 of his wives 'Take ye me one
"'under each arm to my sweat-heart.—I feel myself dying & dont chuse thus to
"'go': & he actually did. Remember, I am told this; but I have reasons to beleive it.
—He is an incestuous beast: otherwise I find him a good indian & what is most
strange, sensible beyond many of his equals.—
I have got a caracature here of the Devil carrying off a Taylor. I asked one
of my indians if any of their familiars resembled him & how they were,—the reply was "Yes,
"he resides in the North (at the Pole I suppose) & has a vast number of young men: The
"indians report of some finding their tracks that are very numerous & exactly resemble the
"tracks of the Grey Deer (carriboeuf); but neither him nor his young men are very wick-
"ed: North, Ice, Skeleton, & Folly are the most wicked & ill inclined of all those
we dream of, or enter the conjuring box"!—
Of their Feasts, I cannot say more than any common observer—I have been in-
vited, & partaken of many of them, but I never thought of enquiring into their origin, the
causes &c. of them. But from the little I could learn or rather understand from the
speeches made at all of them, & what I have learnt in regard to other things, I think
may say without dreading contradiction, that as there are songs, ceremonies &c.
appropriate to every one of their Gods or Familiars or Devils, there also feasts made for
each according to the whim, dream, or some other circumstance of the one who makes them.
We denominate these Feasts, & from their own Term it would seem they so mean;
but I consider this again as a premature interpretation which I have not leisure to
explain: I consider them rather as sacrifices—indeed they may perhaps rather
be esteemed as partaking of both. I have somewhere above said that they are obligedto make an annual sacrifice to some of their Gods as the non-performance passes not
off with impunity—these therefore are obligatory, or compulsory sacrifices; but besides these
they also have Free-will sacrifices. These Feasts or sacrifices are not universally of

[...] [(55)] [...]

of Flesh:—they have them of Flesh, Grease, dried berries, rum, &c. &c. and few of these
Feasts are made without the one who makes it offers a certain (very small, only a few mouths-
ful) to him whom it is in honor of, or intended for, which he most commonly puts into
the fire, in or on, the Ground. Some of them are very grand & ceremonius:—the titbits of the animal only, as the head, heart, & liver, tongue, & paws when of a Bear: It is
only the Great men that are allowed to eat of these: Others again, besides the above, the
brisket, rump & ribbs; & very seldom a woman is allowed to partake of them, parti-
cularly if it is un festin à tout manger, i. e. to eat the whole; tho' there may be
sufficient for 2 or 3 times the number of Guests, all must be eaten before day; tho' in
certain cases the Feaster is obliged, & commonly does, take part back, providing a
knife, a bit of tobacco, or something else attend with the dish. In these great
Feasts the feaster makes one or several Speeches before we begin to eat, & one again
after all is done, & sometimes sings, beats the drum & speeches during the whole
time of the feast, never partaking of a morsel himself. At Some of them there is
dancing to be performed: I happened to be called to one of these many years ago
—it was the principal parts of a bear; & the Paunch had been filled with the
liver, heart & fat with blood, minced, & much resembling that dish the Scotch
term haggish: we were all very hungry & tho' we gormandized (it cannot be
called eating) there yet remained full 2/3ds. The Feaster was uneasy & said he would
have been proud had we eaten all, for in that case his Dreamed would have been
propitious: we were obliged to dance also; but when I could stow no more I gave him
my knife & a bit of Tobacco & walked off leaving him to settle with his God as well
as he could; but indeed I was not very scrupulous then, otherwise I had most
certainly avoided many of them, tho' it is oftentimes dangerous if there be not
method or qualification in the refusal. Their feasts of rum are often to some
one of the 4 wicked ones, praying them to be propitious & not allow themselves to be
influenced by the wicked sollicitations of envious indians. Many years ago I
happened to be out a hunting a few miles from the house & came unexpectedly
upon the lodge of a few indians I had that day given rum to. I heard one of
them harangue, & drew up cautiously to listen—He entreated the rain, snow &
frost to have pity upon their young ones (that they might kill) &c. I commu-
nicated this a few years after to a couple of Gentlemen—one of them longer
in the country than myself denied it & enquired of his wife who had lived a
long time with the indians—she corroborated his denial—I perceived the
cause, & told him that it was because they do not chuse that we become too well
informed of all their ceremonies: it was to no effect, & I had almost a mind to credit
the woman too myself, but by insinuation I find I am perfectly right. Thus it

[...] [(56)] [...]

it happens in almost every thing else: a thing that does not meet with our approbation, or be a
little beyond the Sphere of our limited information, we immediately deny or condemn; whereas by
taking proper measures to enquire or inform ourselves not only those things themselves but others
far more interesting, & sometimes too of the greatest moment, whether to ourselves or others, are rendered
probable, reasonable, certain. Hence it is also that many upon receiving a piece of informa-
tion there rest themselves as upon a Rock of certainty. Now either of these I consider
equally blameable as they lead to distrust, doubt, & sometimes to a complete refutation or asser-
tion of facts that very oftentimes cast a stain or stigma sometimes upon a whole people.
& without any other foundation than as might be said that all Powerful Veto.—
They have feasts for the dead, most commonly berries,—or in countries where it is made,
Sugar: generally yearly a bark box of perhaps 2 or 3 Gallons is placed in the grave, upon
it , or well hid in some private nook, if they are afraid, or do not chuse, it be taken
—I ought rather to have said these are sacrifices; but independent of these they have Feasts
also, & feasts of Baptism. Feasts inshort for almost every occasion. Besides these
they have smoking feasts: these are to deliberate.—I shall, should it please God I live,
make it a point to enquire particularly into the origin of all these.—
June 5th. These last 3 days have been busy & turbulent ones for me—it is now
considerably past midnight (& of course the 6th June) but my indians are drinking
& I cannot think of going to bed Till they do I shall employ my few remaining
leisure moments ('till next year, please god I live so long) in giving you an
account of a conjuring bout I with some difficulty got an indian to make
last night (June 4th).—In the evening the hut was prepared at some dis-
tance from the houses on account of the stink as the Spirits cannot, or will
not endure any pollution—The hut consisted of 10 poles about 7 feet out
of Ground, well stuck in, & somewhat better than 3 feet diameter—the
Poles were secured with 2 hoops: they were covered with 2 Parchment skins
(of Moose) well bound with many rounds of strong leather line: thetop was covered with a dressed skin & secured also, to prevent its being
carried off (by the wind)—About 10P.M. (still broad day light with
us) we drew up with the conjuror, smoked & chatted some time. after
this he took his drum (much resembling a tambourine) & with a
stick gently struck it all the time he made a speech: I was almost
touching him (all seated) but from the noise of the drum & his low voice,
for the man has a dreadful complaint on his lungs, I could only gather
"Take pity upon me; take pity upon me; hear & come: let me not
speake in vain, nor become abashed—show me charity" &c. &c.—it was
a moderate & decent prayer. After this they (for there were several men) began