But he shook his head and replied, “Oh, I told you, you don’t understand my sick. The Indian has power, and he is using it on me, and I shall die.”
Day by day I visited the poor boy and tried in every way to get him to arouse himself and to go out with the rest of the boys. But no, he lay there and sickened, and in about six weeks he died.
I do not believe anything was the matter, except his superstitious fear that the old witch-doctor had put his spell upon him and was killing him.
Retaliation for a Supposed Insult.
If there is a class that deserves severe treatment among the Indians it is these miserable reprobates, who still are busy preying upon the credulity of the people and working incalculable mischief.
At the present time there are several of these imposters among the bands in the Lower Fraser Valley. They have been for years a nuisance, the priests of paganism and the prophets of evil.
Their miserable pretensions we have ignored, and have left them out, as far as possible, in our social gatherings among the people.
Several years ago invitations to the wedding of two of our young people were sent to many of the Indians of the community, these witch doctors alone being purposely left out.
This enraged them so much that they announced that they would kill three persons who were at the gathering before a year was gone.