ay use it for the
benefit of yourself and the Indians--your relations and
tribes-people.' It then departed, but as it went away, it assumed
wings, and looked to me like the red-headed woodpecker.

"In consequence of being thus favored, I assumed the arts of a
medicine-woman and a prophetess: but never those of a Wabeno. The
first time I exercised the prophetical art, was at the strong and
repeated solicitations of my friends. It was in the winter season, and
they were then encamped west of the Wisacoda, or Brule River, of Lake
Superior, and between it and the plains west. There were, beside my
mother's family and relatives, a considerable number of families. They
had been some time at the place, and were near starving, as they could
find no game. One evening the chief of the party came into my mother's
lodge. I had lain down, and was supposed to be asleep, and he
requested of my mother that she would allow me to try my skill to
relieve them. My mother spoke to me, and after some conversation, she
gave her consent. I told them to build the _Jee-suk-aun_, or prophet's
lodge _strong_, and gave particular directions for it. I directed that
it should consist of ten posts or saplings, each of a different kind
of wood, which I named. When it was finished, and tightly wound with
skins, the entire population of the encampment assembled around it,
and I went in, taking only a small drum. I immediately knelt down, and
holding my head near the ground, in a position as near as may be
prostrate, began beating my drum, and reciting my songs or
incantations. The lodge commenced shaking violently, by supernatural
means. I knew this by the compressed current of air above, and the
noise of motion. This being regarded by me, and by all without, as a
proof of the presence of the spirits I consulted, I ceased beating
and singing, and lay still, waiting for questions in the position I
at first assumed.

"The first question put to me was in relation to the game, and _where_
it was to be found. The response was given by the orbicular spirit,
who had appeared to me. He said, 'How short-sighted you are! If you
will go in a _west_ direction, you will find game in abundance.' Next
day the camp was broken up, and they all moved westward, the hunters,
as usual, going far ahead. They had not proceeded far beyond the
bounds of their former hunting circle, when they came upon tracks of
moose, and that day they killed a female and two young moose, near