eS6 LE JEIINE AND THE HUNTERS. [1633-34. 



val of singing, the spirits declared their presence 

 by then- usual squeaking utterances from the re- 

 cesses of the mystic tabernacle. Their responses 

 were not unfavorable ; and the sorcerer drew much 

 consolation from the invocations of his brother 

 impostor.^ 



Besides his incessant endeavors to annoy Le 

 Jeune, the sorcerer now and then tried to frighten 

 him. On one occasion, when a period of starva- 

 tion had been followed by a successful hunt, the 

 whole party assembled for one of the gluttonous 

 feasts usual with them at such times. While the 

 guests sat expectant, and the squaws were about' 

 to ladle out the banquet, the sorcerer suddenly 

 leaped up, exclaiming, that he had lost his senses, 

 and that knives and hatchets must be kept out 

 of his way, as he had a mind to kill somebody. 

 Then, rolling his eyes towards Le Jeune, he began 

 a series of frantic gestures and outcries, — then 

 stopped abruptly and stared into vacancy, silent 

 and motionless, — then resumed his former clamor, 

 raged in and out of the hut, and, seizing some of 

 its supporting poles, broke them, as if in an uncon- 

 trollable frenzy. The missionary, though alarmed, 

 sat reading his breviary as before. When, how- 

 ever, on the next morning, the sorcerer began 

 again to play the maniac, the thought occurred to 

 him, that some stroke of fever might in truth have 

 touched his brain. Accordingly, he approached 

 him and felt his pulse, which he found, in his own 

 words, " as cool as a fish." The pretended mad- 



1 See Introduction. Also, " Pioneers of France," 315. 



