stout, low-sized savage, with coarse
and repulsive features, and eyes fixed sideways in his head like a
Tartar's. We had left our canoe some distance away, and my companion
asked him to put us across to an island. The Windigo at once consented:
we got into his canoe, and he ferried us over. I don't know the name of
the island upon which he landed us, and very likely it has got no name,
but in my mind, at least, the rock and the Windigo will always be
associated with that celebrated individual of our early days, the King
of the Cannibal Islands. The Windigo looked with wonder at the spinning
bait, seeming to regard it as a "great medicine;" perhaps if he had
possessed such a thing he would never have been forced by hunger to
become a Windigo.

Of the bravery of the Lake of the Woods Ojibbeway I did not form a very
high estimate. Two instances related to me by Mr. Macpherson will suffice
to show that opinion to have been well founded. Since the days when the
Bird of Ages dwelt on the Coteau-des-Prairies the Ojibbeway and the Sioux
have warred against each other; but as the Ojibbeway dwelt chiefly in the
woods and the Sioux are denizens of the great plains, the actual war
carried on between them has not beena unusually destructive. The
Ojibbeways dislike to go far into the open plains; the Sioux hesitate to
pierce the dark depths of the forest, and the war is generally confined
to the border land, where the forest begins to merge into the plains.
Every now and again, however, it becomes necessary to go through the
form of a war-party, and the young men depart upon the war-path against
their hereditary enemies. To kill a Sioux and take his scalp then becomes
the great object of existence. Fortunate is the brave who can return to
the camp bearing with him the coveted trophy. Far and near spreads the
glorious news that a Sioux scalp has been taken, and for many a night the
camps are noisy with the shouts and revels of the scalp dance from
Winnipeg to Rainy Lake. It matters little whether it be the scalp of a
man, a woman, or a child; provided it be a scalp it is all right. There
is the record of the two last war-paths from the Lake of the Woods.

Thirty Ojibbeways set out one fine day for the plains to war against the
Sioux, they followed the line of the Rosseaui river, and soon emerged
from the forest. Before them lay a camp of Sioux. The thirty braves,
hidden in the thickets, looked at the camp of their enemies; but the mo