His mother said, 'I warned you of
danger:' but he had conquered the danger. He had all the strength of
five strong men, and all the might and magic of the Spirit; yes, the
Spirit itself was now in him. After this he could do anything, and find
game where no one else could. To conquer a ghost gives power."
To conquer the dead, or to fight terrible spirits, to thereby absorb
their power, and finally to keep them in a struggle until the day
shines on them, is both Norse and Celtic, if not, indeed, world-wide.
But the grim spirit of this narrative is Norse; it is that of the hero
wresting from a corpse's hold the sword of victory.
"Farewell, daughter!
Fleet give I thee,
Five men's bane,
If thou it believe."
But the great element or chief cause of magic power among, the Indians
is that of Will. It manifests itself in many forms, mere courage being
one. Thus the _Weewillmekq'_ confers supernatural ability or other
favors only on those who are not afraid of it. The demon Log, as we
have just seen, gives strength and prosperity to a man for simply
fighting like a bull-dog. Beyond courage, pluck or bottom is with these
Indians as nearly allied to magic as poetry was among the Greeks, or
with an Eschenwaya. When the true magician "gets mad," and continues to
get madder till the end, he is invincible. Allied to this is
perseverance.
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