310 THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AND THEIR FOLK-LOKE 



After the lapse of more than two hundred years the 

 Indian belief in jugglery, or, as they call it, ikanse, is 

 virtually unchanged, being citing to by many profess- 

 ing Christians. And considering the number of high- 

 ly cultured people who believe in spiritualism, and the 

 really remarkable doings and sayings of some of these 

 Indian sorcerers, the influence possessed by these lat- 

 ter upon their untutored fellow-countrymen is certain- 

 ly not surprising. There is little doubt that these 

 Indian jugglers have played and experimented with 

 certain occult sciences for centuries before the study 

 of necromancy and so-called spirit-rappings, magnetic 

 fluid, etc., had engaged the attention of the modern 

 civilized world. 



The heathen Indians believe in the existence of two 

 divinities whom they call Manitous, or spirits ; but 

 this belief is so confused that they can give no definite 

 account of it. According to the prevailing theology, 

 there is a good and a bad Manitou. The Good Spirit 

 is good essentially. He made the earth and the Ind- 

 ians, and accords them whatever of success they have 

 in all their enterprises. So from him there is nothing 

 to fear. And because there is no reason to fear him 

 they neither worship him nor pay him any attention 

 whatever. James Mackenzie, of the old Northwest 

 Company, who travelled through the country of the 

 Nascapees in 1808, relates that those Indians believe 

 also in an inferior deity, who made the different kinds of 

 wild animals, and distributed them among the Indians 

 in proportion to their merits and the fervency of their 

 prayers. This god is therefore adored whenever the 

 belly feels concerned. He is not longer than their lit- 



