170 EXPEDITION TO THE 



Chippewa, who informed us that the Indians who frequent 

 this part of the country are very much intermixed, be- 

 longing principally to the Potawatomis, Ottawas, and 

 Chippewas, (6'-ch^6-pe'-w'Ag,*) from which circumstance 

 a great admixture of the three languages prevails here. 

 The vicinity of the Miamis has also, in his opinion, tended 

 to adulterate the language of the Potawatomis in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Fort Wayne ; and it is believed that this lan- 

 guage is spoken in the greatest purity, only along the 

 banks of the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan. Robinson did 

 not suppose the Potawatomis to exceed two thousand five 

 hundred souls ; but it is probable that their number must 

 be greater; especially as they are united with the Kicka- 

 poos, whose population amounts to six hundred in the State 

 of Illinois. According to his observations, the Potawato- 

 mis believe that they came from the vicinity of the Sault 

 de St. Marie, where they presume that they were created. 

 A singular belief, which they entertain, is, that the souls of 

 the departed have, on their way to the great prairie, to 

 cross a large stream, over which a log is placed as a bridge ; 

 but that this is in such constant agitation, that none but the 

 spirits of good men can pass over it in safety, while those of 

 the bad slip from the log into the water and are never af- 

 ter heard of. This information they pretend to have had 

 revealed to them by one of their ancestors who, being 

 dead, travelled to the edge of the stream, but not liking 



• We have in the course of this work conformed with the general 

 usage in the spelUng of this word, dropping the final y used by many 

 authors; but from the above method of spelling it, according to its 

 pronunciation, it will be readily observed that the usual orthography 

 can give no idea of the true Indian pronunciation of this word. The 

 final letter ought to be pronounced in a manner intermediate between 

 the g and k. 



