316 NOTES ON THE TINNEH OR CHEPEWYAN INDIANS 



friendless are kept in servitude and treated so harshly as to be really little 

 better than slaves, until such time as they get big enough and bold enough to 

 assert their independence, when they are allowed to shift for themselves. 



Tbe Loucheux are very superstitious, and place implicit failh in the pre- 

 tended incantations of their medicine-men, for whom they entertain great fear. 

 When a death occurs they make loud expressions of grief. They accompany 

 their lamentations with a song or dirge, in which they enumerate all the good 

 qualities of the deceased, and when they have raised themselves to a tit of un- 

 governable fury and excitement, a medicine-man will adroitly and imperceptibly 

 raise the idea that the person's death was caused by a medicine-man of a neigh- 

 boring tribe, or if a disinterested person do so for him, so much the better, as it 

 draws away suspicion from himself. On such occasions the relatives of the 

 deceased will immediately take a quantity of beads to the conjuror, and entreat 

 him to find out who the hidden enemy really is, and the particular reason of the 

 death of their friend, so that they in their turn may know in what direction to 

 turn the shaft of i eveuge. When a person of consequence is sick, he will fre- 

 quently receive a visit of condolence from a medicine- man of a neighboring tribe. 

 As a mark of respect for the stranger he is invariably employed to recover the 

 sick person, being of course well paid in beads for his trouble, to the exclusion 

 and great displeasure of the native " doctor," who is sure to find some means to 

 be revenged on the intruder for the slight he has received, and the loss he has 

 sustained. On such occasions there is frequently a row, after, if not before, the 

 departure of the visitor, for his opponent will secretly endeavor to make the 

 impression that some medicine-man, or perhaps the favored guest himself is the 

 real enemy of the sick person. When these insinuations and stories begin to 

 take effect, the guest seizes the first favorable opportunity to take his departure, 

 for he has a sufficient knowledge of the Loucheux human nature to be aware that 

 in moments of great grief or excitement the slightest whim or chance may 

 direct the popular fury towards himself If he gets off safe, he goes on his way 

 rejoicing under a good load of beads and thinking good humoredly on the acqui- 

 sition he has made to his wealth, and the power and influence it will give him 

 among his own tribe, riches being the talisman with the Loucheux as well as 

 others. The power of the medicine-men is very great, and they use every means 

 they can to increase it by working on the fears and credulity of the people. 

 Their influence exceeds even that of the chiefs. The power of the latter con- 

 sists in the quantity of beads they possess — their wealth and the means it affords 

 them to work ill to those to whom they maybe evil-disposed ; while the power 

 of the medicine-man consists in the harm they believe he is able to do by sham- 

 anism, should they happen to displease him in any way. It is when sickness 

 prevails that the conjuror rules supreme; it is then that he fills his bead bags 

 and increases his riches. Some near relative of the invalid, or, as often happens, 

 some other pei son, to court popularity, will give him a quantity of beads to save 

 the sick person or to ascertain his probable death or recovery. Of course the 

 medicine-man, from the symptoms of the malady orfrom appearances, has already 

 decided on the answer he is to give in the event of his being employed in the 

 matter, and from long practice and observation he generally becomes an adept 

 in predicting the final death or recovery; for even if the worst be foretold, he is 

 perfectly aware that the friends of the sick person, so far from sparing their 

 beads and losing all hope,, will, on the contrary, rather give even more to avert 

 the doom. 



But the medicine-man has other ways of increasing his means. When prac- 

 tice becomes low, and the people seem to forget that their prosperity, their 

 health, and even their lives are in his hands, among other tricks he will probably 

 take a pretended nap during the day, and when he awakens will inform those 

 near him that such and such a person will, in his opinion, soon die. This he 

 does in an ambiguous way, without particularly mentioning the person's name, 



