RELIGIOUS BELIEF. 21 



" Great Spirit," at least by name, but some doubt 

 his existence, assigning, as a reason for their 

 atheism, their miserable condition ; or they say, 

 " If there be such a being, he dwells on the lands 

 of the white people, where so many useful and 

 valuable articles are produced." With respect to 

 evil spirits, their name in the Dog-rib country is 

 legion. The 'Tinne recognise them in the Bear, 

 Wolf, and Wolverene, in the woods, waters, and 

 desert places ; often hear them howling in the winds, 

 or moaning by the graves of the dead. Their dread 

 of these disembodied beings, of whom they spoke 

 to us under the general name of " enemies " is such, 

 that few of the hunters will sleep out alone. They 

 never make any offerings to the Great Spirit, or 

 pay him an act of adoration; but they deprecate 

 the wrath of an evil being by prayer, and the 

 sacrifice of some article, generally of little value, 

 perhaps simply by scattering a handful of deer-hair 

 or a few feathers. 



The dead are not burnt, after the manner of 

 the Kolushes, but are buried. In lamenting for de- 

 ceased relatives the mourners sometimes gash their 

 bodies or limbs with knives, but more rarely now 

 than in old times. It was formerly the custom, on 

 a death occurring, for the family to abandon every 

 article they possessed, and betake themselves in a 

 perfectly destitute condition to the nearest body 



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