102 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap, x.vvir, 



the other evil ; and that their worship appears to be 

 ahiiost identical with the observances of the Montagnais. 

 They attribute to their conjurors the power of communion 

 with spirits ; and, as in days long since gone by among 

 other tribes, these poor Indians sit round the medicine 

 lodge and anxiously await their revelations. One of their 

 feats of legerdemain the missionary describes as follows : — 

 ' The conjurors shut themselves up in a little lodge pro- 

 perly arranged, with their legs crossed after the fashion of 

 the Chinese and Arabs. They remain for several minutes 

 in a pensive attitude. Soon the lodge begins to move 

 like a table turning, and replies by bounds and jumps 

 to the questions which are put to the conjuror.' The 

 barbarous heathen medicine men among the western 

 Nasquapees far surpass the civilised spirit-rappers in their 

 manifestations of supernatural power and communion with 

 the invisible world ; and they could no doubt teach them 

 more surprising and startling deceptions than are yet 

 known to any modern medicine-men. 



The evil deity, Atshem, is the terror and bugbear of 

 the Nasquapees. They imagine that he assumes the form 

 of one of the most celebrated and dreadful conjurors of 

 olden times, or, as a frightful giant, wanders through the 

 forest in search of human prey. Whenever .the report 

 spreads in a camp that his tracks have been seen near at 

 hand, the poor creatures fly in consternation from the 

 neighbourhood, and live for weeks and even months in 

 continual terror. 



Many of those muscular mysteries, known by the name 

 of ' Spiritual Rappings," ' table-turning,' and 'mesmerism,' 

 which have caused such excitement among the most 



