MANITOU OR FAIEY DWELLINGS. 



133 



visiting their old haunts, and would probably be instru- 

 mental in producing much suffering, if not actual want, 

 to many of the band. 



There are many places on Lake Winnipeg and Mani- 

 tobah which the Indians who hunt and live on the shores 

 of those inland seas dare not visit. There is scarcely a 

 cave or headland which has not some legend attached to 

 it, familiar to all the wanderers on these coasts. 



On the west side of Lake Winnipeg, in the long, dark, 

 and gloomy chambers formed by fissures in the limestone, 

 bad spirits are supposed to dwell, according to the belief 

 of the Indians who hunt on the coast, and he would be a 

 powerful charmer who could induce a heathen Indian to 

 approach, much less enter*, the abodes of these imaginary 

 Manitous. 



Near Limestone Cave Point, on Lake Winnipeg, are 

 several of .these supposed fairy dwellings. When an Indian 

 approaches them in his canoe, he either lays an offering 

 on the beach or gives them as wide a berth as possible. 



Steep Eock Point, on Lake Manitobah, is also a noted 

 dwelling-place for the " Little Men." Some of the tradi- 

 tions connected with these places are very absurd, and 

 appear to have little meaning to civilized men ; neverthe- 

 less, among the barbarous tribes of those regions, they 

 are associated with their past history, or with the history 

 of the race that preceded them. Manitobah Lake, a 

 body of water of very imposing dimensions, having an 

 area of 1,900 square miles, derives its name from one of 

 these superstitions. I stayed for three days on Manitobah 

 island, where a Manitou dwells, but although Indians 

 passed and repassed, heard and answered our shots, yet 

 they could not be persuaded to land. The only evidence 

 of fairy presence which I met with, was the " fairy-like 

 music " of the waves of Lake Manitobah, beating upon 



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