George Nelson

“ When any one is very sick, and that they be called upon, or perhaps, though rarely ordered in their dreams by their familiars, they sing, blow and suck alternately and with such violence that one would think they wanted to to blow them to the d——l, or swallow them down their throats. But no, it is to force in the medicine of which they have generally a mouthful masticated into a pulp, or something near salve, sometimes. The suction business is to draw out the Devil: the medicine, bone, stone, iron, brass, stick, or whatever they imagine it is, that occasions the disease. ”

“ See how beautifully serene the night is. If we succeed, the sky will change all of a sudden, and there will fall a very smart shower of snow attended with a terrible gust of wind. This will happen between daylight and sunrise and is his spirit, all that will remain in his power. He'll then return to his home.
The interpreter, though he laughed at all this and could not bring himself to credit it, yet swears that he heard the rumbling noise on their road and seemingly far off. The Indians gave implicit faith to all. And the conjurer did not know what to believe. ”

“ One of them, longer in the country than myself, denied it and enquired of his wife who had lived a long time with the Indians. She corroborated his denial. I perceived the cause, and 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, and I had almost a mind to credit the woman too myself, but by insinuation I find I am perfectly right.
Thus it happens in almost everything 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. ”

“ One would scarcely imagine the human mind capable of inventing such infamously diabolical actions as some do commit: murder, incest, and other things, if possible an hundredfold 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 and 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. ”

“ Now, if we consider how very precarious their mode of subsistance is, how devoted they are to superstition and prejudice, we—such of us as know more about them—we, I say, may wonder how they stand out so well. Very many instances I have known seem to be far beyond the power of human nature to stand. ”

“ There is no such thing in nature as cold. We must say an absence of heat! Why cannot we as well say there is no such thing as darkness, but merely an absence of light, or reverse either, and either will be as reasonable. ”

“ Suffice it to say that they are of uncommon size. Goliath is an unborn infant to them. And to add to their dread, they are represented as possessing much of the power of magicians. Their head reaching to the tops of the highest poplars (about seventy or eighty feet) , they are of proportionate size. Of course they must be very heavy. Their gait, though grand and majestic, at every step the earth shakes. They frequently pursue their prey (Indians of course) invisibly. Yet they cannot so completely divest themselves of all the incommodities of nature as to prevent their approach being known. ”

“ The second night, the rattler, songs, speeches, smoking, and medicine bags opened. "Tomorrow we will assuredly get something." But the same as the day before. The third night, the same, but everything conducted with a sort of awful silence and solemnity that surprised me a good deal. I was harassed with constant walking, weake through hunger, and tired with their bêtises as the French say. But the manner of their conduct kept me that time from growling.
"Oh! Now tomorrow indeed, we shall not fail. We shall certainly eat flesh for the old man is a great conjurer and well liked. ”

“ If an Indian has a spite against another and is induced to it for the preservation of his own life or from motives of revenge, he takes the following plan or method. He takes a piece of leather and cuts it into the shape of his enemy. And if he wants him to die speedily, he places a little powdered medicine opposite the heart, or upon it. This medicine is, I believe, a root and very inflammable. He holds a small spark of fire near it. It immediately explodes, and that part of the leather on which it was becomes burnt and shrivelled. ”

“ Let any one man, unless he be a headstrong brute who is determined beforehand not to be convinced, analyse their discourses, and I am confident he will believe as much as many, or have great doubts at least. To absolutely deny this, we must first deny that there is a Devil, and afterwards deny his pernicious power. ”

“ Yet, notwithstanding this dreadful privation lasts not for a few days, but even to weeks and months, during all of which time the men are out from star-light to star-light and have never anything more to eat than some bits of leather, moss, bark and such like, it is very rare they will kill a fellow to live upon him. This is not universal. There are unfortunately still too many exceptions, but these again would seem as denounciations from their gods. They appear so to me—I can scarcely doubt it! And the Indians themselves seem to think the same, though in another way. ”

“ Surely the inhabitants of such a land, at best, cannot look for more than mere present enjoyment. When I reflect seriously on all these things, as I sometimes do, revolving them in every different manner in my mind, it is beyond the power of words to express my feelings. ”

“ Nayhanimis was on his guard. Every soul able to wield a weapon had one in his hand, besides an infinite number of spears and sharp stakes stuck in the ground. The Hairy Breasts came, but not perceiving the trap on account of the snow that was brought over [the] ends of the stockades, they all fell in, one upon the other, and impaled themselves in their fall on these sticks. All of them but two or three met with instantaneous death. The few that were not injured were put to an excruciating but immediate death to satisfy the manes of the departed Indians. ”

“ This is a sign to thee that thou shalt one day become a cannibal and feed on the flesh of thy fellows. When thou shalt see children play with and eat ice (or snow) in thy tent, say, "My time is near." For then thou shalt soon eat Indian (human) flesh.
They have such dread and horror of this that it is constantly in their minds.
You white people! [You] who live at your ease, get your living out of your nets or from your Indians, and besides are not otherwise troubled as we, make light of these things. ”

“ Hence it is also that many, upon receiving a piece of information, there rest themselves as upon a rock of certainty. Now either of these I consider equally blameable as they lead to distrust, doubt, and sometimes to a complete refutation or assertion of facts that very oftentimes cast a stain or stigma, sometimes upon the whole people, and without any other foundation than, as might be said, that all powerful veto. ”

“ So also is the rapidity of each stream, some of them moving in a turbulent and awful manner, as the rapids and eddies at the foot of large falls, some moving in large majestic waves like the swells of a large deep lake agitated by the wind, and some in a beautiful smooth current, down which the canoes are scarcly perceived to move. ”

“ If they are to die young: "Thou shalt see the years of a young man."—and so on of the other ages, as well as the manner of life they shall have. The language is not very dissimilar to that of our version of the Bible. But that stile seems to me to be the language of nature which I always find the more charming the more retired the speaker is from the pompous bombastic walks of high life, which though they furnish us with more ideas, I do not think add much to the beauty of the language. ”

“ 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, bewichisms, or conceive themselves so, they make a vow that the first animal they 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 and kill. They do not touch the animal afterwards, as those beasts among the Crees and Sauteux do, but leave it lay as a sacrifice. ”

“ I have been informed that a young half-breed, abandoned with the Indians almost from his childhood, a few years back entered one of these conjuring huts at the solicitation of one of the North West gentlemen to see what retarded the people so long. Previous to his entering a great deal of conversation on the subject had been [taking place] . Matters were settled between them and the conjurer. Some time after his entrance, he began to cry (not weep) as a person uneasy. At first the voice was within, but it appeared as rising in the air, and at last was lost. ”

“ At last the word comes authoratatively and away he flies.
[Wee-suck-ā-jāāk]
The Indians are uncommonly fond of Wee-suck-ā-jāāk. He commonly speaks to this effect.
My Little (Grand) Children, I am very indulgent and kind. I am very charitable, and love you much, a great deal more than you imagine. You must not live ill, nor make a bad use of your power and knowledge, for I hate that. Hence it is I command Nick in that authoratative manner, because he is wickedly inclined. Mischief and destruction are in his nature; he grieves at any good he sees. ”

“ He is no liar, but you must take every thing he says as we do our dreams, the opposite. His nature is such that he durst not tell the truth but in this ambiguous manner, otherwise the conjurer would soon after die. ”

“ Some conjurers possessing sufficient power and influence take a soul if they want to destroy the body, (in the conjuring box or tent) , and wrapping it in a piece of leather, rub and bruise it between both hands 'til they destroy its subtility or subtilty. As soon as it comes within view of the conjuring tent, its agonies are terrible, as also those of the body, however distant that may be. But as soon as its motion is destroyed, the body dies likewise. ”

“ Finding this to be the case Nayhanimis, addressed his friends thus.
I see this is the doing of the North Wind. (Now by rights the North Wind ought to have been his maternal Grand Father—but what cannot envy do?) He is envious of us and 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, and make pounded meat of it. ”

“ A ceremony I shall compare to Free-masonry; but the initiations are public—every one that chuses comes to see them & many are invited. Here, in the course of initiation are ceremonies or deviltries performed that no man of his own mere dexterity or Power can do. The next principal one is conjuring. This is a principle I believe as natural to man as the air he breathes (tho' not so necessary) . Every one wishes to peep into futurity & there are few but who would not inquire into causes could they do it, or were it not forbidden them. ”

“ I must make them of a more weake and fragible substance so that they may live a reasonable time and behave as becomes human beings." Upon this he took up a handful of common earth and made the form of a man, and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.
The Moon formed the female as Wee-suck-ā-jāāk did the male, hence the reason of the periodical return of their sickness with that of the Moon, "as also among the sluts" (bitches) . Hence also all women are forbidden, when they go out from the calls of nature, and that one in particular, to look at the moon while thus employed. ”

“ When there are two or three on the outside who can speak French and address him together, merely to perplex and bother him, he laughs at their folly and says, "You may talk twenty or a hundred of you together if you chuse, yet are you not able to perplex me. Come as numerously as you chuse, yet are there many more of us Pike than you Frenchmen."
He is very familiar too.
[Buffaloe]
The Bull, or Buffaloe is understood only by the conjurer, his voice being hoarse, and rough, his language quite foreign. The conjurer must interpret when anything is wanted of him. ”

“ These people are still in a complete state of nature: their ideas of the true God are far from clear or correct: they acknowledge him indeed as the Supreme & absolute Master of all, but more or rather as a passive Deity than as he really is; but their notions of their other Deities come far more near the truth. Their wants indeed are also few, but they are arbitrary & cannot be dispensed with, at least for any time ”

“ As soon as she made her appearance, the Indians immediately conceived what was the matter. But through charity, as well as for safety and to find the truth, they gave her to eat, principally marrow-fat. Now these people pretend that cannibals cannot bear this fat or grease. Of course it was a kind of ordeal.
Everything she did and said, notwithstanding her great caution, betrayed her. She took up [one] of the children of her acquaintances to kiss, as is customary, but would have given it a bite had they not taken it from her. They watched her narrowly. All the men slept in one tent with her. ”

“ It is then, after they have made themselves completely known to their votaries, that they communicate their power and teach their songs which, though in their dreams, are so indelibly imprinted in their memories that they are never forgotten. For every one of these spirits, genii, demons, phantasies, or whatever you may please to term them, have each their song which they communicate to their votaries, as well as explain also their power. ”

“ If he is a real Windigo, it will only do him good by driving out the ice. But if he lies to you, indeed, then it certainly will injure him. But it will be good for him, and teach him for the future not to impose upon people to frighten them. ”