It is
the same effectively as _meda_, which is from the same root. It is
a power, but opinions differ as to how it is acquired. It is certain,
as I was told by an old Passamaquoddy Indian, of Sebayk, near Campobello,
that some children are born _m'teoulin_. They manifest it, even
while babes, by being capricious, eccentric, and malicious. Others
acquire the art as they grow older. From all that I have heard I infer
that _m'teoulin_ takes two forms,--one of witchcraft, the other of
magic. The former is innate, or may be acquired; the latter, for aught
I know, may be sometimes inborn, but is generally acquired by fasting,
abstinence of other kinds, and ceremonies. The two are distinctly
different. Rink found in Greenland and Labrador that the Eskimo, as I
have said, made this difference.
I will now give, word for word, the remarks of certain Indians on this
subject, beginning with those of an intelligent and prosperous old man,
who is certainly enlightened and Christianized very much beyond the
average, of his race. I had asked him if there were any
_m'teoulin_, or magicians, living. He replied:--
"There are. Many at St. John and Sebayk are still _m'teoulin_. I
saw this myself thirty-five years ago at St. John's. There was a deaf
Indian there. The white men were abusing him. They spat on him. By and
by a _m'teoulin_ from St. John's came, a man of thirty-five or
forty.
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