CHAP. XXI. INDIAN SUPEESTITIONS. 13 



deities, wliom they called Kichi-koiiai, consisted simply 

 of a small quantity of fat thrown into the fire before they 

 tasted the food procm^ed by their assistance. The 

 Manitou, or ' Spirit of Evil,' was supposed to exercise a 

 malignant influence upon their fortune or on themselves, 

 not on his own account, but owing to the hatred borne by 

 his wife towards mankind. Tliis Manitou, while presiding 

 over their wars, was thought to hurt those only who 

 were killed or taken prisoners, but his wife was declared 

 to be the origin of all their domestic troubles, and she was 

 spitefully represented as clothed in garments made from 

 the hair of men and women who had been killed 

 through her instrumentality. The Montagnais believed 

 not only in their own life after death, but in the spiritual 

 existence of every material thing. They supposed that 

 the spirit or soul of every object was hke its shadow, and 

 in this belief they cast a small portion of whatever they 

 ate into the fire, for the sustenance of the soul of the 

 thing destroyed. These souls were thought to reside in 

 a country situated near the setting sun, the happy 

 hunting grounds of Indian mythology. On their journey 

 to this far-distant country, they travelled during the 

 night, sustaining themselves by hunting the spirits of the 

 beaver, the porcupine, and the caribou. They walked 

 on the shadow of snow-shoes in winter, and killed their 

 game with the shadows of the arms they had been ac- 

 customed to use in life. Paul le Jeune asked the 

 conjurors what became of the souls of the beaver, &c., 

 that were killed by the souls of Indians traveUing to 

 the settmg sun ; the conjuror replied, ' Be stiU ; you 

 are talking about things which you do not imderstand. 



