224 LABRADOH 



"The Great Spirit/' the Tshe Mariitu, is wholly good, but 

 remote and scarcely approachable. The conception seems 

 hardly anthropomorphic at all, certainly not as clearly so 

 as the Biblical one. 



What is doubtless an Indianized doctrine of the Trinity 

 has had standing for many years, even in districts west of 

 Hudson Bay. 



"The First One" Puk-wa-sha-ne-magan "gives us 

 that which we must beg for" (what is necessary for mere 

 existence). 



"The Second One" Wahkt-Kna "gives us too much, 

 more than we can use" (deer, fish, etc., in great numbers). 



"The Third One" Tshe Manitu "is the greatest of 

 all; He gives us the Fur, of which we cannot have too 

 much." 



It must be confessed that as to the concerns of the other 

 world the concept is not very comprehensive. 



All notable features of the country have their local 

 spirits. As a safe rule, the ordinary person does well to 

 avoid them. Some are always wejl disposed, but as a 

 spirit of bad intentions may take an attractive form for 

 his own purposes, it is better for the laymen at least to have 

 no dealings with any of them. The people are readily sus- 

 ceptible to missionary instruction, in all earnestness put- 

 ting on the new faith over the old, which may be supposed 

 to relinquish its ancient hold only about in proportion as 

 the hunting life is given up. This hardly occurs save with 

 persons of much white blood; so long as the wilderness 

 life and the language continue, the old theology will survive. 



Under the strict injunctions of the Gulf missionaries, the 

 sound of the teuehigan, "the ceremonial drum," is not heard 



