THE MONTAGNAIS INDIANS AND THEIR FOLK-LOEE 311 



tie finger, is dressed in white, and called Ka-wab-api- 

 shit, or the White Spirit. The Bad Spirit is a busy, 

 meddling body, forever planning mischief to counter- 

 act the good works of Kaymah-api-shit. They there- 

 fore desire to propitiate him, so that since he has 

 neither the power nor the will to do them good he 

 will at least do them no harm. Father Arnaud and 

 other educated men have testified Jto the wondrous 

 power of some of the Indian jugglers, who manipulate 

 the magnetic fluid, or whatever else it may be, with 

 greater facility than the most eminent magicians of 

 civilization, the remarkable movements of their cabanes 

 while they are engaged at their divination being even 

 more surprising than those of the tables used in spirit- 

 rapping. If fraud and humbug constitute these jug- 

 glers' chief stock-in-trade, there is certainly much 

 method and skill in their impostilre. The Roman 

 Catholic missionaries, when warning their converts 

 against the sorcerers, accuse them of much worse 

 than deception, alleging that the wonders that they 

 perform are done with the assistance of the devil. 



A rather famous JS^ascapee juggler from Lake Mis- 

 tassinijThomas Nepartee by name, undertook to juggle 

 for me in August, 1894, on the banks of the Mistassini 

 Hiver. I was accompanied at the time by Mr. Archi- 

 bald Stuart, of Feddal House, Braco, Perthshire, Scot- 

 land, who had recently returned from his trip to 

 Great Lake Mistassini, during whicli he had learned 

 much from his Indian guides of the wonders of their 

 jugglers. Accordingly, Mr. Nepar^ee's offer was ac- 

 cepted, and the Indian, immediately after nightfall, 

 built himself a tepee, or cabane, by firmly planting 



