THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AND THEIR FOLK-LOKE 313 



is true that he badly blundered in answering questions 

 about my family, and I told the other Indians so, too, 

 adding that Nepartee was only an impostor, and that 

 there was no other voice than his own in his pretend- 

 ed conversations with the spirits. None of them would 

 believe in my theory of ventriloquism, however, and 

 as for the mistakes made by the spirits or their minis- 

 ter in replying to my inquiries, they frankly told me 

 that it was hard to conjure for strangers, but that nei- 

 ther the spirits nor the conjurer ever deceived them. 

 We had difficulty in obtaining from them the admis- 

 sion that the juggler did not always tell them cor- 

 rectly where to find game, but they insisted that when 

 he so failed them it was because of his want of will 

 instead of his lack of power. And these are so-called 

 Christian Indians, too. 



Mr. Henry Connolly tells of a Nascapee conjurer 

 named Petshika, who many years ago, at Northwest 

 River, told at night of the coming arrival of an expect- 

 ed Hudson Bay vessel on the morrow, and while ap- 

 parently receiving this information from the spirits in 

 his cabane, burst into a fit of laughter, exclaiming: 

 " What funny animal is this that I see on the boat ?" 

 Nobody at the post knew that any animal was being 

 brought out; but when the ship arrived next day, 

 exactly as Petshika had foretold, it was found that 

 it had a horse on board the first of its species that 

 the juggler had ever seen. 



James Mackenzie, of the old Northwest Company, 

 who has been already referred to, described, as fol- 

 lows, in a manuscript sketch now ninety years old, 

 the professional conduct of an Indian sorcerer : 



