ed, confined
to males. I cannot better indicate the meaning of the word Jossakeed
than to say that it is a person who makes oracular responses from a
close lodge of peculiar construction, where the inmate is supposed to be
surrounded by superhuman influences, which impart the power of looking
into futurity. It is, manifestly, the ancient office of a seer, and
after making interrogatories about it, from persons supposed to be best
acquainted with the manners and customs of the people, the existence of
such an order of persons among them offers a curious coincidence with
one of the earliest superstitions of mankind. I further learn that
there is nothing hereditary in the descent of such priestly functions;
that any one, who acquires a character for sanctity or skill therein
among the bands, may assume the duties, and will secure a rank and
respect in proportion to his supposed skill therein. Having spoken of
descent, it is added, by my informants, that the widow of Strong Sky, is
a granddaughter of the noted war-chief Wabodjeeg,[19] of Chegoimegon,
Lake Superior, who, some half a century ago, had obtained a high
reputation with his people for his military skill and bravery, in the
war against the Ottogamies and Sioux. They talk of him as having been a
sort of Rajah, who could at any time get men to follow him.

[Footnote 19: White Fisher. The fisher is a small furred animal
resembling the mustela.]

_28th_. I have had an interview to-day with Ka-ba-konse (Little Hawk),
brother of the murdered Strong Sky.

It does not seem possible to obtain much information respecting their
secret beliefs and superstitions direct from the Indians. The attempts I
have made thus far have, at least, been unsuccessful, partly, perhaps,
because the topic was not properly apprehended by them, or by my
ordinary office interpreter, who, I find, is soon run a-muck by anything
but the plainest and most ordinary line of inquiry. A man of the Indian
frontiers, who has lived all his life to eat and drink, to buy and sell,
and has grown old in this devotion to the means necessary to secure the
material necessaries of life is not easily roused up to intellectual
ardor. I find this to be the case with my present interpreter, and he
is, perhaps, not inferior to the general run of paid interpreters. But
as I find, in my intercourse, the growing difficulties of verbal
communication with the Indians on topics at all out of the ordinary
routine of business