L O U I S I A N A. 265 



vages who were out upon the winter hunt along 

 ihe river, brought me provifions of roe-deer 

 and turkies, that I might begin again to play- 

 off my trick •, but for fear of being difcovered, 

 and to preferve my reputation, I faid I could 



not 



hot imagination, which thefe quacks have impofed upon 

 their countrymen as a divine language ; thus the moll cun- 

 ning people have always deceived the reil. 



t The heathen nations in the Ruffian empire have exaflly 

 fuch jugglers or- conjurors as are here defcribed. In the go- 

 vernment of Cazan are the TcheremrJ/?s, the Tchu-wajhest and 

 the VVotiaksy three nations ; the iirft of which call their con- 

 jurors Mifjhan, the fccond Tommas or Tymmas, and the third 

 Totm or Tuno', they are of both faxes, "and make the fame 

 grimaces as thefe American jugglers. In Siberia the Tun- 

 gufi, the Takutt, and the By rati, call their conjurors Sha- 

 ifwnsy and they perform the fame tricks, and make many 

 antic geihires at their pretended conjurations. Their drefs 

 is on thefe occaiions likewife very remarkable, fometimes 

 ornamented with the fangs and talons of bealls and birds of 

 prey, fometimes hung with fuch a terrible quantity of feve- 

 ral pieces of iron, as will both make the robe very heavy, 

 and cauf- a great rattling noife at the leall motion of the 

 conjuror's body. The more we go eaft in Siberia^ the more 

 cojftmcn is this kind of conjurors, and the more llriking is 

 the likenefs between the favage inhabitarits of A^orM ^/«f r/r/7, 

 and the favage Nomadic nations of the north-eafl parts of 

 JJia, Seme more hints of this fimilarity are pointed out ia 

 a note to Kahns Tra^ueh into Nortk America, vol. III. 

 p. 126. F. , 



