PUBERTY FASTING AMONG THE OJIBWA. 
73 
little to eat and drink in the morning and the evening. This 
meagre diet was to continue all through the autumn and winter. 
In the spring a little wigwam was built for me on a scaffold, 
not very far from the ground. In this wigwam I was to stay 
ten days and nights, and only get a little to eat in the mornings 
and evenings. My grandmother told me before entering not to 
believe every spirit that would come to me with promises, for 
there are some who try to deceive people, and only to accept the 
blessings of that spirit who came with a great noise and power. 
The first and second night I did not dream of anything, but 
during the third night a very rich man came to me and asked 
me to go along with him and said that he would give me all the 
riches I wanted. I went along with him but I did not accept 
what he offered me and returned to my wigwam. Then I 
looked in the direction in which the man who had appeared to 
me was disappearing, as he had bidden me, and I saw that he 
had changed into an owl and that the big lodge I had visited with 
him was a hollow tree with holes. The next night another rich 
man came to me, dressed in a suit of red material. He offered 
me the same things as the first man, and in addition told me that 
if I accepted his blessings I could change my clothes twice a 
year. After I refused, he told me to look in his direction as he 
left me, and as I did so, I saw nothing but oak trees and dry and 
green leaves. The next night another man came and offered 
me boxes of sugar. I went with him, too, but I refused his 
blessing, and when I turned to look at him as he left, just as I 
had done in the other cases, I only saw a large maple-tree. 
*My grandmother came twice a day to ask me about what I 
had dreamt and to give me something to eat. I told her about 
my dreams and she again told me to accept the blessing of no 
one but the spirit who came to me with a great noise and strength . 
Some night before the tenth I heard the noise of a gush of wind 
above me and saw a very stout and strong man. With this 
man I went towards the north and finally came to nine old men 
sitting around in a circle. In the centre sat a very old man and 
this was the man who blessed me. He told me that he had just 
been sent down from above. Then I was brought back to my 
little wigwam and told to look in the direction in which my 
50815 — 5 * 
