230 A JOURNEY TO THE 



1771. ignorant than themselves can possibly place any belief in the 



™ "' reality of those feats ; yet on the whole, they must be allowed 



a considerable share of dexterity in the performance of those 



tricks, and a wonderful deal of perseverance in what they do 



for the relief of those whom they undertake to cure. 



Not long after the above performance had taken place, 

 some of the Indians began to ask me what I thought of it. 

 As I could not have any plea for saying that I was far off, 

 and at the same time not caring to affront them by hinting 

 my suspicions of the deceit, I was some time at a loss for an 

 answer: I urged, however, the impossibility of a man's swallow- 

 ing a piece of wood, that was not only much longer than his 

 whole back, but nearly twice as broad as he could extend his 

 mouth. On which some of them laughed at my ignorance, 

 as they were pleased to call it ; and said, that the spirits in 

 waiting swallowed, or otherwise concealed, the stick, and only 

 left the forked end apparently sticking out of the conjurer's 

 mouth. My guide, Matonabbee, with all his other good 

 sense, was so bigotted to the reality of those performances, that 

 he assured me in the strongest terms, he had seen a man, who 

 was then in company, swallow a child's cradle, with as much 

 ease as he could fold up a piece of paper, and put it into 

 his mouth ; and that when he hauled it up again, not 

 the [218] mark of a tooth, or of any violence, was to be 

 discovered about it. 



This story so far exceeded the feats which I had seen with 

 the bayonet and board, that, for the sake of keeping up the 

 farce, I began to be very inquisitive about the spirits which 

 appear to them on those occasions, and their form ; when I 

 was told that they appeared in various shapes, for almost every 

 conjurer had his peculiar attendant ; but that the spirit which 

 attended the man who pretended to swallow the piece of wood, 

 they said, generally appeared to him in the shape of a cloud. 

 This I thought very a-propos to the present occasion ; and I 

 must confess that I never had so thick a cloud thrown before 



