144 THE MENOMINI INDIANS fBTH.AMB.14 



the paths numerous, and the tracks they had made were the next moment covered 

 by the drift snow. Patience was my only resource, and at Tength I gave them up 

 for lost. 



On the fourteenth night after their departure, as several Indians were smoking 

 their pipes, and telling stories of their war parties, hunting, etc, an old fellow, who 

 was a daily visitor, came in. My interpreter, a Canadian named Felix, pressed me, 

 as he had frequently done before, to employ this conjurer, as he could inform me 

 about the men in question. The dread of being laughed at had hitherto prevented 

 my acceding to his importunities; but now, excited by curiosity, I gave the old man 

 a quarter-pound of tobacco and two yards of ribbon, telling him that if he gave me 

 a true account of them, I would, when I ascertained the fact, give him a bottle of 

 rum. . . . The old fellow withdrew, and the other Indians retired to their lodges. 



A few minutes after, I heard Wahwun (an egg) begin a lamentable song, his voice 

 increasing to such a degree that I really thought he would have injured himself. 

 The whole forest appeared to be in agitation, as if the trees were knocking against 

 each other, then all would lie silent for a few seconds; again the old fellow would 

 scream and yell as if he were in great distress, A chill seized me ami my hair stood 

 on end; the interpreter and I stared at each other without power to express our 

 feelings. 



The narrative states that finally everything became quiet, and the 

 next morning the Indian was sent for, for an explanation. 



"I went," said he, "to smoke the pipe with your men last night, and found them 

 cooking some elk meat which they got from an Ottawa Indian. On leaving this place 

 they took the wrong road on the top of the hill; they traveled hard on and did not 

 know for two days that they were lost. When they discovered their situation they 

 were much alarmed, and, having nothing more to eat, were afraid they would starve 

 to death. They walked on without knowing which way they were going until the 

 seventh day, when they were met near the Illinois river by the Ottawa before 

 named, who was out hunting. He took them to his lodge, fed them well, and wanted 

 to detain them some days until they had recovered their strength; but they would 

 not stay. He then gave them some elk meat for their journey home, and sent his son 

 to put them into the right road. They will go to Lagothenes for the flour you sent 

 them, and will be at home in three days." I then asked him what kind of place they 

 were encamped in when ho was there. He said "they had made a shelter by the 

 side of a large oak tree that had been torn up by the roots, and which had fallen 

 with the head towards the rising sun." 



All this I noted down, and from the circumstantial manner in which he related 

 every particular — though he could not possibly have had any personal communica- 

 tion with or from them by any other Indians — I began to hope my men were safe and 

 that I should again see them. 



Suffice it to say that on the appointed day the men returned, and, 

 upon being asked to give an account of their experience, they told 

 exactly what the Indian had before stated, not omitting the tree or any 

 other circumstance. 



In an account of the life and customs of the Indians of Canada in 

 1723, found in the archives of France by the Honorable Lewis Cass, 1 

 while minister to that country, the narrator says: 



They perform a thousand tricks of magic, pretending they can bring back dead 

 animals to life, cause an otter to run across the lodge, or a bear to walk in there. 



'Cass MS., translated by Charles Whittlesey, in Coll. Hist. Soc. of Wisconsin for 1856, vol. hi, pp. 

 145, 146, 1857. 



