THE INDIANS 223 



and shining. Wash alone means sky; Washeshkundu 

 means blue, sky-colour. 



The language is mild in its cadences. Little conversa- 

 tion accompanies serious occupation and travelling. When 

 making camp, the young men toss their japes back and forth, 

 and about the fire the women talk and laugh when by them- 

 selves in the world- wide fashion. 



The religion of the country is professedly almost wholly 

 Christian. The people trading around Hudson Bay are 

 Protestants, while all the Montagnais are Catholics, cared 

 for spiritually by the various missions of the Gulf and the 

 Saguenay. 



It is not to be supposed that the old beliefs are extinct ; 

 on the contrary, no reserve or gathering place is so changed 

 in blood or so affected by white neighbourhood as not to 

 have among its members those who are priests of the older 

 theology and can deal with at least some of the overpowers 

 of earth and sky. The influence of these many spirits for or 

 against the laymen is determined largely by the rites of the 

 manitu lodge. The spirits are not malevolent if uninflu- 

 enced, although naturally less to be trusted as their form 

 approaches the human ; but the power of the priest, liter- 

 ally a manitsesht, or " spirit-person," may win over almost 

 any spirit to evil purposes. The one supernatural being 

 of original malice is the frightful urindigo, described as a 

 cannibal man fifteen or twenty feet high. He lies in wait 

 for the solitary hunter, and rushes out upon him. The 

 mere glimpse of a windigo brings calamity and an early 

 and unfortunate end. The spell may, however, be broken 

 by making the proper observances ; these are usually done 

 by the manitsesht, who has power in these matters. 



