It may be observed that it is
limited to all that a real Indian requires. It is very different from
what a white man or an Asiatic savage would have wanted; and there is
just enough truth and common sense in the methods recommended to make
the whole plausible. The reader will observe that the magic hair-string
and locks of hair play the same important part in _m'teoulin_ that
they did in Old World magic. This is hardly one of the coincidences
which can be attributed to spontaneous development from similar causes.
It may be such, but there may be also an Eskimo sidegate through which
it entered from the other side.
Another magic means was the influencing high and mysterious powers. Of
this the following is an admirable illustration:--
_Tumilkoontaoo, or the Broken Wing._
(Micmac.)
An Indian family lived on the sea-shore. They had two sons; the eldest
of these was married, and had many small children. They lived by
fishing; they chiefly caught eels.
It came to pass that the weather was so stormy that they could not
fish. The wind blew terribly night and day; the waves were like dancing
hills. Hunger made them fierce. One day the father told his boys to
walk along the shore and see if no fish had been cast on the beach.
A young man went; he went far along; and as he went the wind was ever
worse; it blew so fiercely that he could hardly stand.
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