216 TIP THE ASHUAPMOUCHOUAN 



fishing may be had, though the fish are not very 

 large. 



Up the perpendicular cliff at the side of the Peraonka 

 Rapids, the Indians declare that one of their sorcerers, 

 some few years ago, walked to the top like a fly, 

 bringing down with him a number of bird's-nests and 

 their eggs ; and they add, with a shake of the head, 

 that " it was not with the aid of the good God, but 

 rather with the assistance of the devil," that he did it. 

 Amphibious human beings, called by the Indians " riv- 

 er-men," are believed by them to have formerly occu- 

 pied parts of Canada, and Father Charlevoix, in his 

 works, tells some curious stories concerning them that 

 were repeated by the Indians to the first discoverers 

 of the country. To my friend Mr. Archibald Stuart 

 his guides pointed out the exact spot in the Pemonka 

 Rapids where, as they allege, the last survivor of this 

 now extinct race was ruthlessly slaughtered by a Mis- 

 tassini Indian, who, accompanied by his wife and 

 family, was descending them on his way to the St. 

 Lawrence to hunt porpoises. It was about fifty years 

 ago, and the guides pretend to have known some old 

 Indians who saw the Mistassini hunter when he 

 reached Lake St. John. To them he boasted that he 

 had killed the river-man. " I shot him in the back 

 with a slug from my rifle," he said, " while he was 

 swimming down the rapids, and he turned a number 

 of somersaults and disappeared." The Indians were 

 horror-stricken, and told him that he had committed 

 a dreadful deed, and that something awful was sure to 

 happen him. " I don't care," was the answer of this 

 bold, bad man ; " I would do it again. I would kill 



