THE INDIANS 223 
and shining. Wash alone means sky; Washéshkundu 
means blue, sky-colour. 
The language is mild in its cadences. Little conversa- 
tion accompanies serious occupation and travelling. When 
making camp, the young men toss their japes back and forth, 
and about the fire the women talk and laugh when by them- 
selves in the world-wide fashion. 
The religion of the country is professedly almost wholly 
Christian. The people trading around Hudson Bay are 
Protestants, while all the Montagnais are Catholics, cared 
for spiritually by the various missions of the Gulf and the 
Saguenay. 
It is not to be supposed that the old beliefs are extinct; 
on the contrary, no reserve or gathering place is so changed 
in blood or so affected by white neighbourhood as not to 
have among its members those who are priests of the older 
theology and can deal with at least some of the overpowers 
of earth and sky. The influence of these many spirits for or 
against the laymen is determined largely by the rites of the 
manitu lodge. The spirits are not malevolent if uninflu- 
enced, although naturally less to be trusted as their form 
approaches the human; but the power of the priest, liter- 
ally a manitsesht, or “‘spirit-person,” may win over almost 
any spirit to evil purposes. The one supernatural being 
of original malice is the frightful windigo, described as a 
cannibal man fifteen or twenty feet high. He lies in wait 
for the solitary hunter, and rushes out upon him. The 
mere glimpse of a windigo brings calamity and an early 
and unfortunate end. The spell may, however, be broken 
by making the proper observances; these are usually done 
by the manitsesht, who has power in these matters. 
