170 Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute [vol. x 



referred to has the following: "Dans une vaste plaine ils 6rigent un 

 haute paHssade, autour de laquelle ils attachent des haillons. Quand 

 ils y passent, ils y jettent quelque poisson ou autres vivres".^ 



The same goes on to say that, "outre ces palissades ou perches, il 

 y a encore d'autres Heux saints chez eux, par exemple, les volcans, les 

 sources chaudes et certains bois qu'ils croyent etre habites par des 

 demons, qu'ils adorent et craignent plus que Dieu".^ 



This latter remark of the old author tallies quite well with the well- 

 known fact that, among shamanistic peoples, a good deal more of atten- 

 tion is paid to the evil spirits, whose malefic influence is feared, than to 

 the Supreme Being, who is known to be animated by none but the best 

 of intentions towards man. 



Other tribes venerate more or less curiously shaped or prominent 

 rocks in the forest or on the shore of lakes, and would never pass by 

 without making thereto some sort of offering, were it only the merest 

 pebble picked up from among the dust of the highway — in exactly the 

 same way as I have seen it done by the Western Denes before they had 

 seriously embraced Christianity. 



The traveller P. Dobell writes in this connection: "We soon arrived 

 at a large rock, where our guide told me there was a cave . . . which, 

 he said, if we were to pass without leaving something ... we should 

 certainly be unfortunate. The moment we came opposite the rock, 

 the party stopped, and the Karaikees (sic probably for Koriacks) to a 

 man, even those who professed to be Christians, went and left a pinch 

 of snuff, a leaf of tobacco, a pipe, or something or other, as an offering".^ 



T. W. Atkinson found on Lake Baikal the same superstitious respect 

 paid to prominent rocks. He writes of one of them: "It is held sacred 

 by all of the Shaman creed, and they ne\'er pass it without offering their 

 devotions. Rude figures have been sculptured upon its surface, and 



1 Grieve and Jefferys, Description abregee du Pays de Kamtschatka, p. lo. 



2 Ibid. 



' "Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia", vol. I, 138. In this case the oflFering is 

 said to have been made to the shade of a famous conjuror who had dwelt there; but 

 absolutely similar instances are recorded, when the spirit of the rock itself was intended 

 to be propitiated. Compare with this what Hearne saw among the American Denes 

 on his way to the Frozen Ocean: "By the side of this path", he says, "there are in 

 different parts several large, flat, or table stones, which are covered with many 

 thousands of small pebbles. These the Copper Indians say have been gradually 

 increased by passengers going to and from the mines [of native copper]; and on its 

 being observed to us that it was the universal custom for every one to add a stone to 

 the heap, each of us took a small stone to increase the number, for good luck" {Op. 

 cit., pp. 132-33). Hearne is in this passage as naive as usual. He stooped to a 

 superstitious observance probably without as inuch as suspecting it. Yet he admits that 

 his pebble was deposited on the big stone "for good luck"! 



