134 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



the hard limestone shingle on the beach, and producing a 

 very beautiful and melancholy resemblance to distant 

 church-bells. All night long this ringing musical sound 

 was heard, and would, no doubt, in the active imagina- 

 tion of Indians, suggest the existence of those Manitou 

 with which they people the air, the water, the forests, and 

 the caves of the earth. 



The able and zealous missionary at the Indian Settlement, 

 Eed Eiver, the Eev. A. Cowley, has had sad experience of 

 the gross superstitions which darken the intellect of 

 the Ojibways of Lake Manitobah. In 1842 he pro- 

 ceeded to what appeared to be a promising station on 

 the shores of this lake, where he had an opportunity of 

 observing some remarkable instances of heathen faith in 

 dreams and charms. Mr. Cowley writes : " One day I saw 

 something hanging on a tree and w T ent to look at it. It 

 consisted of twenty small rods, peeled, and painted red 

 and black, and fastened together on a plane, with cords 

 of bark. A piece of tobacco was placed between the 

 tenth and eleventh rods, and the whole was suspended 

 perpendicularly from a branch of the tree. It belonged 

 to the old chief, who told me that when he was a young 

 man he lay down to dream, and that in his dream, the 

 moon spoke to him, and told him to make this charm, 

 and to renew it every new moon, that he might have a 

 long life. He had regularly done so ever since, till the 

 preceding summer, when he almost forgot it, and was 

 taken so ill as to be near dying ; but he remembered it, 

 his friends did it for him, and he recovered." * 



Sacrifices and offerings are of very frequent occurrence 

 among the Indians of the Saskatchewan Valley. The 

 customary offering consists of two, three, and sometimes 

 five dogs. At the mouth of the Qu'appelle Eiver, an 



* Quoted by S. Tucker, in "The Rainbow of the North." 



