254 SUPERSTITIONS AND CUSTOMS OF THE 



now occupy. They are no longer dependant upon tlie forest for tbeir 

 supply of food and clothing ; but many of them, on the banks of the 

 Assiniboine, Eed Eiver, and Lake Manitobah, possess horses and join 

 the half-breeds in their annual spring and fall hunts. Notwithstand- 

 ing this intercourse and blending of different tribes, most of the 

 superstitions and customs peculiar to each are stni maintained and 

 practised. 



It is often asked whether the thrilling descriptions of savage life, as 

 given in Cooper's delightful romances, are imaginary or real ; and, if 

 real, whether tbey exist now among the tribes which have long been 

 familiar with civilized man, such as the Plain Crees, the Sioux, the 

 Swampys, and the Ojibways. It is enough to visit the secluded 

 Ojibway graves, on the banks of the Red Eiver, and behold there 

 Sioux scalps decorated with beads, bits of cloth, coloured ribbons, and 

 strips of leather suspended at the extremity of a long slender stick 

 near the head of the grave, to feel satisfied that one barbarous cus- 

 tom stiU prevails. But to be an eye witness of a scalp dance or a 

 skull dance is more than enough to press home the conviction that 

 the fiendish passions, so faithfully described by Cooper, still find ex- 

 pression in violent gesture, loud vociferation, triumphant song, and 

 barbarous feasting with undiminished strength and bitterness, even 

 after a century's intercourse with civilized men. 



In the following pages, I shall endeavour to describe some incidents 

 which will show how far old superstitions and customs prevail among 

 the Indians occupying the country I visited last summer, between 

 Ked Eiver and the south branch of the Saskatchewan. 



Early last spring, the warlike bands of Ojibways, called the Lac la 

 Huie Indians, were thrown into a state of savage excitement by the 

 arrival of messengers from their friends on .the Eed Eiver, with tidings 

 that two Sioux had been killed and scalped in the Plains. In testi- 

 mony of this triumph, they brought with them two fingers severed 

 from the hands of the unfortunate Sioux. The announcement of the 

 intelligence that the scalps would be sent after their Eed Eiver 

 brethren had celebrated war dances over them, was received with wild 

 clamour and shouting. After the scalps had been carried from hand 

 to hand and the victory that won them triumphed over with dancing, 

 singing, and feasting, they would be returned to the warriors who toofc 

 them, and finally suspended over the graves of relatives or friends 

 mourning the loss of any of their kindred by the hands of the Sioux. 



