TURNER.) RELIUJON. 273 



men must be consulted. These are supposed to be in direct contact 

 with such spirits. The .spirit will appear only in the darkness of the 

 conjuriiig house, and then permit itself to be appeased by some atone- 

 ment made by the afflicted, which can be made known only through the 

 shaman. He alone indicates the cour.se to be pursued, and his direc 

 tions, to be explicitlj' followed, are often so confusing and impossible 

 that the person fails to perform them. All these minor .spirits are under 

 the control of a single great spirit having its dwelling in the sky, a term 

 as illimitable with those people as with ourselves. 



Each animal has its protective spirit, which is inferior to those of 

 man. The soul, if such expression may be used, of all animals is inde- 

 structible, and is capable of reappearing again and agaiu as often as 

 the material form is destroyed. There are spirits of beasts, birds, fishes, 

 insects, and plants. Each of these has a home to which it returns after 

 death, which is simply a cessation of that i>eriod of its material form, 

 and each may be recalled at the will of the sliaman. If an animal be 

 killed it does not decrease the number of that species, for it still exists, 

 although in a different form. 



The Canada jay is supi^osed to inform the various animals of the ap- 

 proach of Indians, and these rarely fail to kill the jay wlierever found. 



A species of mouse is supposed to have such dread of man that it 

 dies the instant it wanders near the track of a i)ersou. They often find 

 these tiny creatures near the path, and believe them to be unable to 

 cross it. 



As the dusk of eve draws near, the silent flitting of the common short- 

 eared owl {Asia accijiitriuus), and the hawk owl [Suriiia funeria), 

 attracted by the sounds of the camp, creates direst confusion. The 

 announcement of its presence causes the entire assemblage of people 

 to be alert and hastily suspend some unworn garment, that the bird 

 m.iy perceive it and thus know that the people are not so poor in their 

 worldly possessions as the spirit Wiq'-ti-qu may think; as it only 

 annoys people -who are too poor to have extra garments. As this 

 short-eared owl fr('(inents only the lower lanils, the IndiaiKS assert that 

 they are compelled to select the higher points of land as their camping 

 sites in order to escape from him. 



The shaman, as I have already said, is believed to be able to control 

 all these different spirits by his nuigic art, and to foretell the future, 

 but he mu.st be concealed from view while carrying on his mysterious 

 performan<'es. Hence a special structure must be erected in which the 

 shaman goes through various contortions of body until in a state of 

 exhaustion and while in that weakened condition he fancies these 

 things which have such wonderful hold on the miuds of the people. 



The tent (Fig. 85) is high and of small diameter. Every crack and 

 crevice in the tent is carefully closed to exclude even the least ray of 

 light. 



When within it, the shaman begins his operations by groaning and 

 11 ETH 18 



