NORTHERN OCEAN 327 



misfortune attendant on old age ; so that they may be said to 

 wait patiently for the melancholy hour when, being no longer 

 capable of walking, they are to be left alone, to starve, and 

 perish for want. This, however shocking and unnatural it 

 may appear, is nevertheless so common, that, among those 

 people, one half at least of the aged persons of both sexes 

 absolutely die in this miserable condition. 



The Northern Indians call the Aurora Borealis^ Ed-thin ; 

 that is. Deer : * and when that meteor is very bright, they say 

 that deer is plentiful in that part of the atmosphere ; but they 

 have never yet extended their ideas so far as to entertain hopes 

 of tasting those celestial animals. 



Beside this silly notion, they are very superstitious with 

 respect to the existence of several kinds of fairies, called by 

 them Nant-e-na, whom they frequently say they see, and who 

 are supposed by them to inhabit the different elements [347] of 

 earth, sea, and air, according to their several qualities. To 

 one or other of those fairies they usually attribute any change 

 in their circumstances, either for the better or worse ; and as 

 they are led into this way of thinking entirely by the art of 

 the conjurors, there is no such thing as any general mode of 

 belief ; for those jugglers differ so much from each other in 

 their accounts of these beings, that those who believe any thing 

 they say, have little to do but change their opinions according 

 to the will and caprice of the conjuror, who is almost daily 

 relating some new whim, or extraordinary event, which, he 

 says, has been revealed to him in a dream, or by some of his 

 favourite fairies, when on a hunting excursion. 



* Their.ideas in this respect are founded on a principle one would not imagine. 

 Experience has shewn them, that when a hairy deer-skin is briskly stroked 

 with the hand in a dark night, it will emit many sparks of electrical fire, as the 

 back of a cat will. The idea which the Southern Indians have of this meteor 

 is equally romantic, though more pleasing, as they believe it to be the spirits of 

 their departed friends dancing in the clouds ; and when the Atirora Borealis is 

 remarkably bright, at which time they vary most in colour, form, and situation, 

 they say, their deceased friends are very merry. 



