TRADITIONARY TALES. Ixxxvii 



members are initiated with peculiar ceremonies. These 

 associations are greatly respected and feared. They have 

 charms for love, war, and private revenge, and exert a 

 great, and often a very mischievous influence. The soci- 

 eties of the Metai and the Wabeno, among the Northern 

 Algonquins, are conspicuous examples ; while other soci- 

 eties of similar character have, for a century, been known 

 to exist among the Dahcotah.^ 



A notice of the superstitious ideas of the Indians 

 would be imperfect without a reference to the tradi- 

 tionary tales through which these ideas are handed down 

 from father to son. Some of these tales can be traced 

 back to the period of the earliest intercourse with Euro- 

 peans. One at least of those recorded by the first mis- 

 sionaries, on the Lower St. Lawrence, is still current 

 among the tribes of the Upper Lakes. Many of them 

 are curious combinations of beliefs seriously entertained 

 with strokes intended for humor and drollery, which 

 never fail to awaken peals of laughter in the lodge-circle. 

 Giants, dwarfs, cannibals, spirits, beasts, birds, and anom- 

 alous monsters, transformations, tricks, and sorcery, form 

 the staple of the story. Some of the Iroquois tales em- 

 body conceptions which, however preposterous, are of a 

 bold and striking character ; but those of the Algonquins 

 are, to an incredible degree, flimsy, silly, and meaning- 

 less ; nor are those of the Dahcotah tribes much better. 

 In respect to this wigwam lore, there is a curious super- 

 stition of very wide prevalence. The tales must not be 

 told in summer ; since at that season, when all Nature is 

 full of life, the spirits are awake, and, hearing what is 

 said of them, may take offence; whereas in winter they 



■ 1 The Friendly Society of the Spirit, of which the initiatory ceremo- 

 nies were seen and described by Carver {Travels, 271), preserves to this 

 dav its existence and its rites. 



