hoffman] EARLY WRITERS ON JUGGLERY 141 



s'agite, se tourmente, fait des invocations >V dea imprecations, a peu pics comme la 

 Sibille dout parle Virgile, qui poussee do 1 'esprit d'Apollon rendoit scs Oracles avec 

 cette lneme fureur, 



At Phoebi nondum patieDS, immanis in antro, 

 Ba< chaturvates, magnnm si pectore poaeit, 



Exeussissr Ileum : tanto mauis illc 1'atigat, 



Os rabidum? fera corda donians, fingit quo premeudo. — Yir. 1. 6, v. 77. 



11 fait au Matchimanitou les demandes qu'il souhaite. Celui-ci voulant donner 

 repouse, l'ou entend tout a coup un bruit sourd comme une roche qui tombe, & Unites 

 ces perches sout agitces avec uue violence si surprenante, qui l'ou croiroit que tout 

 est ren verse. Le Jongleur reco it aiusil'oracle : & cette confiance qu'ils ont aux veritez 

 qu'il prononce souvent, sont autant d'obstacles a toutce que l'on pent leur reproclier 

 sur la fausse erreur < » f t ils sont: aussi se donnent ils de garde, qu'aucun Francois 

 n'entre dans 1'endroit ou se fait la Jonglerie. 



Hennepin ' speaks of the religion and sorcerers of the tribes of the 

 Saint Lawrence and those living about the great lakes, as follows : 



We have been all too sadly convinced, that almost all the Salvages iu general hare 

 no notion of a God, and that they are uot able to comprehend the most ordinary 

 Arguments on that Subject; others will have a Spirit that commands, say they, in the 

 Air. Some among 'em look upon the Skie as a kind of Divinity; others as an Oikon 

 or Miinitou, either Good or Evil. 



These People admit of some sort of Genius in all things; they all believe there is 

 a Master of Life, as they call him, but hereof they made various applications; some 

 of them have a lean Raven, which they carry always along with them, and which 

 they say is the Master of their Life; others have an Owl, and some again a Bone, a 

 Sea-Shell, or some such thing. 



There is no Nation among 'em which has not a sort of Juglers or Conjuerers, which 

 some look upon to be Wizards, but in my Opinion there is no Great reason to believe 

 'em such, or to think that their Practice favours any thing of a Communication with 

 the Devil. 



These Impostors cause themselves to be reverenced as Prophets which fore-tell 

 Futurity. They will needs belook'd upon to have an unlimited Power. They boast 

 of being able to make it Wet or Dry; to cause a Calm or a Storm; to render Laud 

 Fruitful or Barren; and, iu a Word, to make Hunters Fortunate or Unfortunate. 

 Tiny also pretend to Physick, and to apply Medicines, but which are such, for the 

 most part as haviug little Virtue at all in 'em, especially to Cure that Distemper 

 which they pretend to. 



It is impossible to imagine, the horrible Howlings and strange Contortions that 

 those Jugglers make of their Bodies, when they are disposing themselves to Conjure, 

 or raise their Enchantments. 



Carver gives a description of a Killistino, or Cree, juggler's perform- 

 ance, which will further illustrate the method of procedure as followed 

 by t his division of the Algonquiau peoples. The narrator had been 

 expecting the arrival of the traders, as provisions were getting very 

 low, and, while in a state of anxiety, the "chief priest" of the tribe 

 said he would endeavor to obtain a conference with the Great Spirit, 

 and thus ascertain when the traders would come. Carver 2 says: 



I paid little attention to this declaration, supposing that it would be productive 

 of some juggling trick, just sufficiently covered to deceive the ignorant Indians. 



■A continuation of the New Discovery, etc., p. 59 et seq., London, 1689. 



'Travels through the interior of North America in the years 1766, 1767, and 1768, p. 123 et seq., 

 London, 1778. 



