h in terrific storms and
tempests, the lightning being the flashes of his eyes, and the thunder
the clapping of his wings. To propitiate his favor they offer to him
annual sacrifices of salmon and venison, the first fruits of their
fishing and hunting.

Besides this aerial spirit they believe in an inferior one, who inhabits
the fire, and of whom they are in perpetual dread, as, though he
possesses equally the power of good and evil, the evil is apt to
predominate. They endeavor, therefore, to keep him in good humor by
frequent offerings. He is supposed also to have great influence with the
winged spirit, their sovereign protector and benefactor. They implore
him, therefore, to act as their interpreter, and procure them all
desirable things, such as success in fishing and hunting, abundance of
game, fleet horses, obedient wives, and male children.

These Indians have likewise their priests, or conjurers, or medicine
men, who pretend to be in the confidence of the deities, and the
expounders and enforcers of their will. Each of these medicine men has
his idols carved in wood, representing the spirits of the air and of the
fire, under some rude and grotesque form of a horse, a bear, a beaver,
or other quadruped, or that of bird or fish. These idols are hung round
with amulets and votive offerings, such as beavers' teeth, and bears'
and eagles' claws.

When any chief personage is on his death-bed, or dangerously ill, the
medicine men are sent for. Each brings with him his idols, with which
he retires into a canoe to hold a consultation. As doctors are prone to
disagree, so these medicine men have now and then a violent altercation
as to the malady of the patient, or the treatment of it. To settle this
they beat their idols soundly against each other; whichever first loses
a tooth or a claw is considered as confuted, and his votary retires from
the field. Polygamy is not only allowed, but considered honorable, and
the greater number of wives a man can maintain, the more important is he
in the eyes of the tribe. The first wife, however, takes rank of all
the others, and is considered mistress of the house. Still the domestic
establishment is liable to jealousies and cabals, and the lord and
master has much difficulty in maintaining harmony in his jangling
household.

In the manuscript from which we draw many of these particulars, it is
stated that he who exceeds his neighbors in the number of his wives,
male children, a