boffman] CHARLEVOIX ON JUGGLERY 139 



ami the witches or coninrers answer, yea, or no, having first spoken with the I >i\ ell, 

 in an obscure place; so as these Anaconas do well heare the sound of tho voyce, hut 

 they see not to whom these ooniureis speake, neither do they vnderstaud what they 

 say. 1 



Jugglers were common in perhaps all of the Algonquian tribes, 

 and indeed we have evidence of jugglery also among the Iroquois, for 

 Charlevoix 2 says of tbe Hurons, whom he visited in 1635, that the jug- 

 glers had informed the Indians that the religion of the French was not 

 applicable to them, and that they, furthermore, had a religion of their 

 own. On account of this antagonism the missionary fathers were fre- 

 quently compelled to perform their priestly offices in secret. 



The Indians of Acadia are said to have had their jugglers, termed 

 autmoins, and Charlevoix ,J says of them — 



A sick person often takes it into his head that his disease is owing to witchcraft, 

 in which case their whole attention is employed in discovering it, which is the jug- 

 gler's province. This personage begins with causing himself to be sweated, and 

 after he lias quite fatigued himself with shouting, beating himself, and invoking his 

 genius, the first out-of-the-way thing that comes into his head, is that to which ho 

 attributes the cause of the disease. There are some who, before they enter the stove, 

 take a draft of a composition very proper, they say, for disposing them to receive 

 the divine impulse, and they pretend that the advent of the spirit is made manifest 

 by a rushing wind, which suddenly rises ; or by a bellowing heard under the ground ; 

 or by the agitation and shaking of the stove. Then, full of his pretended divinity. 

 and more like a person possessed by the devil than one inspired of Heaven, he pro- 

 nounces in a positive tone of voice on the state of the patient, and sometimes guesses 

 tolerably just. 



The "stove" mentioned in the above quotation is the conical structure 

 usually designated as the jugglery, a description of which will hereafter 

 be given. "These autmoins," continues Charlevoix, "had much more 

 authority than the other jugglers, although they were not possessed of 

 greater ability, nor were they less impostors." 



It appears from this remark that the class of shamans, known among 

 the western Algonquiau tribes as the inita", or inide', was also repre- 

 sented among the eastern Indians of that stock, although the several 

 classes are usually described under the designation of juggler or 

 sorcerer. 



Baron Lahontan, who was lord-lieutenant of the French colony at 

 Placentia, in Newfoundland, and who visited the Algonquian tribes of 



'Acosta, Natural and Moral History of tbe Indies \ in Hakluy t Society publications, vol. 61, pp. 367- 

 368, London, 1880 (from the English translation, edition of Ed. Grimston, 1604). 



■HiBtoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France, tome i, p. 295 et seq., Paris, 1744. "Ces 

 Charlatans, qui craignoient de perdre la consideration, oft les mettoit l'exercice de leur art, si les Mis- 

 Bioxmaires s'accreditoientdansle Pays, entreprirent de los rendre odieux &meprisables, Sc ils n'ourent 

 pas dans ces commenceniens beaucoup de peine si y reussir; non-seulement parce qu'ils avoient a faire 

 a une Nation excessivement superstitieuse & orohrageuse, inais encore parce que plusieurs s'etoient 

 deja mis dans la fcete, que la Religion des Francois ne leur convenoit point, &. qu'elle leur seroit nicme 

 funeste, si elle s'etahlissoit parmi eux. 



"Les Jongleurs vinrent done aisement ;\ bout de rendre suspectes toutes les demarches des Peres, 

 & surtout leurs Prieres, qu'ils faisoient regarder comiue des malefices; en sorte que ces Peligieux 

 etoient obliges de se cacher pour reciter lour Oilice, & pour s'aequitter des autres Exercices de devo- 

 tion." 



'Journal of a Voyage lo North America, vol. ii, p. 177, London, 1761. 



