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M’teoulin, Or Indian Magic
by
Some days after, the husband, seeing his wife wearing the magic hair-string, asked her, “Where did you get that pretty sakalobe?” “I found it,” she replied, “in my ‘ntuboonk” (usual sitting place in the wigwam). This caused the young man to reflect how kindly he had been treated by the old fairy or witch, and how easily he, without any merit, had won his wife, and then to think of the deserving young chiefs son who had failed. So, taking him into the woods, they found the old woman, who, kind as ever, did for the chief’s son what she had already done for his friend, and gave him also a magic hair-string. And using it in the same way he in like manner won the other sister; and it was indeed well, for she was the one whom he wanted most. And the two men whose wives were sisters (wechoosjik), were on the best of terms and much together.
Now the young chief reflected that his brother-in-law had been very kind to him, for little cause, and thought how he could repay him. So he asked him one day if he would like to be a swift runner. “Truly I would,” replied the other. “Then go and gather some feathers, and let them blow when the wind is high, and chase them. You will soon be able to outstrip the wind, and when the art comes it will never depart from you.” Then he did this, and became so swift that no man or beast could escape him.
Yet again the chiefs son said, “Would you like to become strong and very active?” And as he of course said “Yes,” the friend replied, “Dress yourself in the worst and raggedest garments, and attack the first man you find. He will catch you by the clothes; but do you slip out of them and run.” This he did; the first man whom he met was a lunatic, who gladly grappled for a fight. So he slipped out of the clothes and ran; but the madman thought the apparel made the man, and beat it a long time, and left it for dead. But after he had done this with many men he indeed became strong and active.
Then the chief’s son said, “I will teach you quickness of sight, so that you may perceive animals while hunting, though other men may not. Take a handful of moose’s hairs; hold them firmly in a roll between your thumb and finger; hold them up in a high wind and let them go. So you will be able to perceive, in time, all the moose. And to see deer, or any other animal, you must take their hair and treat it in the same way.” So he did; and by means of this magic became so keen of sight that he beheld every beast.
Yet again the chief’s son said, “Would you see birds where no other men can?” And he, assenting, was told to strip the feathery part from a bird’s quills (chekakadega), and, blowing it into the air, look carefully in the direction in which it flew. And having practiced this also, he became very perfect in the art. [Footnote: The secret of these spells is very apparent. But the teacher would make the pupil believe that the successful result would greatly depend on the color and kind of the fur or feathers employed. It is curious to observe how, in the over-refinement of “sport” among gentlemen, the idea that this or that is “good form” and “the correct thing,” which must be done, has had the effect of establishing much which is mere fetich. A fox in England and a bear in Canada must be killed in a certain way by men of caste.]
Now, having learned all these things, he asked the chief’s son how he could learn to see the fishes of the sea. And being told that he must collect all kinds of fishes’ bones, and burn them and pound them to dust, he did so; and, having blown them up into the wind, he could see all manner of fish and call them to him.