an accepted candidate has paid his fee, and then only after necessary preparation by fasting and offerings of tobacco.

Plate III. Red Lake And Leech Lake Records (key).

[Complete Plate]

During the year 1887, while at Red Lake, Minnesota, I had the good fortune to discover the existence of an old birch-bark chart, which, according to the assurances of the chief and assistant Midē´ priests, had never before been exhibited to a white man, nor even to an Indian unless he had become a regular candidate. This chart measures 7 feet 1½ inches in length and 18 inches in width, and is made of five pieces of birch bark neatly and securely stitched together by means of thin, flat strands of bass wood. At each end are two thin strips of wood, secured transversely by wrapping and stitching with thin strands of bark, so as to prevent splitting and fraying of the ends of the record. [Pl. III A], is a reproduction of the design referred to.

It had been in the keeping of Skwēkŏ´mĭk, to whom it was intrusted at the death of his father-in-law, the latter, in turn, having received it in 1825 from Badâ´san, the Grand Shaman and chief of the Winnibē´goshish Ojibwa.

It is affirmed that Badâ´san had received the original from the Grand Midē´ priest at La Pointe, Wisconsin, where, it is said, the Midē´wiwin was at that time held annually and the ceremonies conducted in strict accordance with ancient and traditional usage.

The present owner of this record has for many years used it in the preliminary instruction of candidates. Its value in this respect is very great, as it presents to the Indian a pictorial résumé of the traditional history of the origin of the Midē´wiwin, the positions occupied by the various guardian man´idos in the several degrees, and the order of procedure in study and progress of the candidate. On account of the isolation of the Red Lake Indians and their long continued, independent ceremonial observances, changes have gradually occurred so that there is considerable variation, both in the pictorial representation and the initiation, as compared with the records and ceremonials preserved at other reservations. The reason of this has already been given.

A detailed description of the above mentioned record, will be presented further on in connection with two interesting variants which were subsequently obtained at White Earth, Minnesota. On account of the widely separated location of many of the different bands of the Ojibwa, and the establishment of independent Midē´ societies, portions of the ritual which have been forgotten by one set may be found to survive at some other locality, though at the expense of some other fragments of tradition or ceremonial. No satisfactory account of the tradition of the origin of the Indians has been obtained, but such information as it was possible to procure will be submitted.