CHAF. xxvii. INDIAN SPmiT-KAFPlXGS. 103 



civilised people, have been practised for ages by Indian 

 conjurors. 



In common with the Montagnais, they believe in the 

 future spiritual existence of every material thing, and it 

 is no unusual occurrence to see a Nasquapee who has 

 been on the coast tell his beads, kiss the crucifix with 

 which the robe noire has supplied him, and a few minutes 

 after, when about to drink, first pour a small quantity of 

 the beverage on the fire or the earth, as an offering to 

 the spirit of a relative who may be on his way to the 

 happy hunting-grounds in the mysterious Spirit Land.* 



Like all Indians who rarely come to the trading posts 

 of the white man, the Nasquapees are fond of European 

 articles of dress ; and they carry this weakness to such 

 an extent as to make themselves not only highly ridi- 

 culous, but, one would thmk, excessively uncomfortable. 

 In June 1859, the Nasquapees who had descended the 

 Moisie for the first time to see the robe noire and dis- 

 pose of their furs, wore, as is the custom of their tribe, 

 their thick black hair down to the waist, falling loosely 

 over their shoulders. As soon as they saw that the 

 fashionable mode on the coast was to wear the hair short, 

 some of them immediately cut their hair close with the 

 exception of two front locks on each side of the forehead. 

 One poor creature, observing the priestly tonsure on the 

 robe noire, forthwith procured a friend to cut his hair 

 in the same fashion. Their clothing of dressed caribou 

 skins they soon ^exchanged for coats, trousers, caps, &c. 

 The chief, whose dress on the week-days consisted gene- 



* Mr. McLean. 



