mals, nearly allied to the beaver, but greater than the beaver, `because,' they said, `the beaver builds houses like us, and he is very cunning; true, but we can catch the beaver, and he cannot catch us, therefore we are greater than he.'
`' They thought that when they died, that was the last of them. While thus ignorant, it was nothing uncommon for them to bury the very old and the very young alive, because, they said, `these cannot take care of themselves, and we cannot take care of them, and they had better die.'
" The missionaries had an arduous labor before them. They commenced by gaining the good will of the inhabitants, by means of small presents, and by manifesting great interest in their welfare, in attendance upon the sick, and by giving the poor creatures food, seeds and instruction as to farming.
" The Indians could not help seeing that no hopes of temporal or personal benefit induced the missionaries thus to labor among them.
" The missionaries told them that they had a Creator, and that he was good. They told them of their Savior, and of the manner of addressing him by prayer. To this they listened, and believed.
" The people look up to the Father, and love him. They say that if the Father should go away, they would die.
" Before the advent of the missionaries, the inhabitants, though totally destitute of religious ideas, still believed that evil and bad luck emanated from a fabulous old woman or sorceress. They were great believers in charms or medicine. Every man had his particular medicine or charm, and from it they expected either good or ill. With some it would be the mouse, with others the deer, buffalo, elk, salmon, bear, etc. ; and whichever it was, the savage would carry a portion of it constantly with him. The tail of a mouse, or the fur, hoof, claw, feather, fin, or scale, of whatever it might be, became the amulet. When a young man grew up, he was not yet considered a man until he had discovered his medicine. His father would send him to the