The spell has been wrought upon a poor Cree Woman at Ile la C. She
is perfectly convinced as to who did her the injury, and also that it
was her hands which it was intended should suffer. Accordingly each
Spring, for some years past, her hands are rendered powerless by a
foul-looking, scaly eruption, which comes over them. Indians have
been known to climb an almost inaccessible rock, and stripping
themselves of every vestige of clothing, to lie there without food or
drink, singing and invoking the wonder-worker until the revelation of
some secret root was made known, by which their design for good or
evil might be accomplished!
A Cree Indian, a man of sound education, related once the following
story:--"I was suffering in the year 18----from great distress of
body, and after seeing a doctor and feeling no better, I began to
think I must be the victim of some medicine-man. I thought over my
adventures of the last year or two, to discover if there were any who
had reason to wish me evil. Yes, there was one man, a Swampy Indian.
I had quarrelled with him, and then we had had words; and I spoke,
well, I spoke bitterly (which I ought not to have done, for he was
the injured man) and he vowed to revenge himself upon me. This was
some years since, however, and I had never given him a thought since
the time of our quarrel, but now I was certain a spell was over me,
and he must have wrought it,--I knew of no other enemy, and I was
determined to overcome it or die.
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