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“Women are sometimes m’teoulin. There is one at Psesuk (Bar Harbor) now, this summer. You have met her. She is —‘s wife. [Footnote: I am acquainted with all the parties, but for obvious reasons suppress their names.] If you offend her she can hurt you in strange ways.

“She is a good doctor. Once she cured a man. When he got well he could not pay her for the medicine. His name is Louis —. She asked for her money; she asked many times; she could not get it. He was going to the woods, far away, to trap; he said he would pay her when he returned, but she wanted it then. She said, ‘I will never forget this; I will be revenged.’ He went far up the St. John River with his traps; he set them in the stream for beaver. All that he caught that winter was sticks, and sometimes an eel. Then at the end of the day he would say to his man, ‘It is of no use.’ And then they could hear the witch laughing behind the bushes, and tittering when he came home. So it went on long. Then he was sorry, and said, ‘I wish I had paid that woman what I owed her.’ And at once they heard a voice from the bushes, or rocks, say, ‘Louis, that will do. It is enough.’ And the next day they caught two beaver, and every day two, and so on, till the season was over.

“This happened in 1872, in Miramichi Waters.”

There does not appear to be any single approved method of acquiring m’teoulin. Some, as I have said, are born to it, but they appear to be wizards or witches. Others are formally trained from boyhood by the experienced magicians. Others acquire certain gifts by certain ceremonies or penances. Of this kind was the power obtained in the manner narrated in the following story, which I heard from an old Passamaquoddy:–

“There was once a young man who wished to become a very wise and brave warrior, like his father. And his father said to him, ‘I get all my luck of every kind from my dreams. You can have such dreams; any man can, if he will do a certain thing; but that thing is not easy for a young man like you. You must sleep seven nights with a virgin, and never touch her.’

“The young man thought this over for a few days, and then asked his father how it could be arranged or managed.

“‘I will tell you,’ replied the old man. ‘Find a girl; the more beautiful she is and the more you want her, the stronger the magic will be. Go to the parents for their daughter as a wife. Cheat them so. Before you marry get seven bear-skins, and let no man except one know anything about it. Make him clean them. One skin should be cleaned every twenty-four hours. Seven days must pass so.’

“The young man was accepted by the parents; he sent the seven bear-skins to the young woman; they were married; they went to their wigwam. He lay on the bear-skins; he directed his wife to make another bed and sleep on it. They lay apart. The bride thought this was strange; she told her mother of it. The mother said, ‘Never mind. By and by it will be all right.’ The wife thought it was all wrong. When seven nights had passed the bridegroom disappeared. He was not seen in his village for twenty-five or thirty years. Then he returned to his father. He could divine all things by dreams. He had but to take the magic bear-skin and sleep on it, and dream. He could tell where to find good hunting or fishing. He foredreamed war with the Mohawks. Can any man do this? They say so, and I have known many who tried it in vain. They could not pass the trial successfully.”