387 
tent, lines, nooses, and nets for fish and beaver. A skilful hunter 
enjoyed great prestige and could maintain several wives; he needed 
them indeed to pack all his hides. Men depended for success in the 
chase on dreams and visions in which they conceived, like other 
Indians, that they were communicating with a supernatural world. ^ 
Medicine-men claimed a similar derivation for their supposed powers; 
they could both cure and cause disease with the aid of familiar 
spirits, according to the judgment of their tribesmen, who employed 
no herbal remedies and ascribed all illness and death to witchci-aft. 
74880 
A Cliipewyan camp near Cliurchill, Hudson bay. (Photo by R. Bell.) 
For the Cliipewyan seem to have recognized no deities, offered up 
no public prayers, and possessed no real religion except this belief 
in guardian spirits. The souls of the dead, they thought, entered 
a stone boat and travelled along a river to a beautiful island abound- 
ing in game. Only the good reached the island in safety; when the 
evil came within sight of it the stone boat sank and they struggled 
in the water forever. A few souls, after remaining on the island for 
a time, might be born again, but the prospect of possible reincarna- 
tion left the Indians coldly indifferent. 
1 They painlwi the symbols of their vision.s on their shields Ijefore entering a fight, llearne; Op. 
cit., p. 175 f. 
