Let us say a few words of the famous sect of jugglers or sorcerers, whom our modern spiritualists have begun to style mediums. This sect is spread over all the Indian tribes of both Americas, from the. Esquimaux, who inhabit the Arctic regions, to the extremity of Patagonia.
All historians agree in saying, that the most perverse and wicked men in all the tribes are the medicine men. Before their conversion to the faith, as well as everywhere else among the Indian tribes, each Cceur d'Alene had his manitou (tutelary spirit or divinity). To this manitou the Indian addresses his prayer or supplication, and offers his sacrifices, when he is in any danger, sets out for war, or goes fishing or hunting, as well as in every other enterprise in which he is about to engage, in order to obtain success or some extraordinary favor. He believes that he can ask everything of his manitou, reasonable or unreasonable, good
or bad. To obtain favors, he must be able to handle the bow and arrow, and although initiation to the manitou is considered as the most important act of life, the adept is required to submit to ceremonies and practices which are
generally very difficult and often very painful. The young man after making profound incisions on the fleshy parts of the body, or after a rigorous fast, is supposed to discover in his dreams the form or resemblance under which the manitou manifests himself. During his whole life he is bound to bear the image or a mark of it; and on all occasions he must present his offerings and address his prayers
to him. His talisman is the feather or beak of a bird, the claw or tooth of an animal, a root, a herb, a fruit, a scale, a stone, no matter what. He believes that this tutelary spirit will protect him against the evil genii, who to injure the children of earth excite the winds and waves, lightning, thunder and storm. This spirit protects him against the attacks of enemies and wild beasts, and in all diseases that come upon him.
If I mention these dangerous and diabolical superstitions, so profoundly rooted in the mind of the Indian, it is