74 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 2. 
guide was going. When he had gone some distance, I looked 
and I saw a number of large white stones in a circle and one in 
the centre of this circle. The next morning when my grand- 
mother came to me to feed me and question me, I told her of 
what I had dreamt. That was the end of my fasting. 
Some people are fooled, during their fast, by a bird called the 
chickadee. 
FASTING EXPERIENCE (D). 
When an Indian is about to fast, he gets up early in the morn- 
ing, gets his charcoal ready, and marks his cheeks. In the even- 
ing, when he returns, he washes his face and eats very little. 
He does the same thing for two days. Then he breaks his fast 
for two days. After that he begins his real fast. For six days 
he marks his face with charcoal. After the expiration of these 
six days he breaks his fast again for from five to six days. After 
that his parents build him a little wigwam about fifty rods from 
their lodge and there he is supposed to remain ten days. He 
knows that it is here that he will see his manito and that the 
animal (spirit) will bless him. 
While the faster is in this little wigwam, the people get a 
very fast runner near him. When the morning of the tenth day 
arrives, the fire is made and the faster gets ready to leave. 
As soon as he leaves his fasting lodge, he starts to run. The fast 
runner gets after him and soon he catches him. Then they all 
ask the faster what spirit had blessed him. After that they 
give him a little song, and then he tells them by whom he had 
been blessed. By a very thin man (a pagak spirit) he had been 
blessed . 1 
FASTING EXPERIENCE (E ). 2 
When a child was ten years of age, it generally started to fast. 
For a few days, sometimes a week, it was given nothing to eat 
except a little for supper. This was only preliminary to the real 
1 Pagak are thin airy spirits who formerly inhabited this earth, but who became 
so attenuated that they ascended into the air, where they still live, flying around 
and making peculiar sounds. It was formerly believed that if any one heard them 
he would die. 
^his is a generalized account. 
