interlacing the topmost branches, then covering
them with moss and a new mat. A few branches
growing still higher are meshed together in a
sort of arch, as a protection against the wind
and rain. And here the youth lies, fasting and
weary, exhausting himself in wild imaginings,
with strict orders to let himself down and
return home if a bad dream or the nightmare
oppress him; and here comes to him his life-
dream, the vision which is to decide his future
course, and point out his coming days. Sometimes,
when very young, or more impressionable
than the race in general, the lad fails in his first
trial, as happened to The Cloud, who, unable to
resist the terrible hunger and thirst that fell
upon him after three days' trial, came down from
his bed in the pine-tree, and devoured all the
edible sprigs, plants, mosses, and herbs which
he could find. His dreaming was over for that
year, for he had broken his fast, and the Good
Spirit could do nothing for an acolyte wanting
in the first requirements of an Indian brave. The
dreams are of various kinds, and all of those
told to Mr. Kohl were highly poetical, and full
of meaning. To him who is to be great in
council, or terrible in war. to him who is to be
a mighty hunter, or a "medicine man" of power,
appear dreams that point distinctly to that
future; and with the unvarying logic of human
life, the dream helps to confirm the tendency, as
the tendency helped to cause the dream.
Sometimes there have been dreams by magicians, or
jossakids—we should call them clairvoyants—
which have strangely foretold coming events.
Thus the arrival of the French, from the Lower
Saint Lawrence, revealed itself to a jossakid in
the interior, who, with his people, had never
heard a whisper of the Europeans. Our magician
assembled all the chiefs and braves and
Midés of the tribe, and told them what he had
seen in his dream, and what infinite necessity
there was for them all to go down at once and
meet these strange white demigods, come
from afar. They agreed, and journeyed on in
hope and faith, exactly as their leader, the
dreamer, indicated; until they came to a camping-
ground where the mightiest trees had been cut
down, smooth and level, to the roots, as their
sharpest stone tools could not have cut them—
looking, in fact, as if they had been gnawed by
the teeth of some gigantic beaver. Here they
found the most curious "medicine" things
(irreverent Saxon workmen name them shavings),
long rolls or curls of thin wood, evidently of
divine origin, which they reverently thrust into
their hair and around their ears, and accepted
as nothing less than miracles. And then they
went on, and soon came to the long knives and
fire-tubes and snow-coloured faces which the
jossakid had seen in his dream, and had
described before setting out; and then, after being
well treated and kindly spoken to by the pale-
faced strangers, they returned, each man to his
own wigwam, and smoked no end of pipes in
commemoration of the event.

Sometimes their dreams are purely personal.
The Black Cloud dreams thrice of his dead uncle,
scalped three years ago by those eternal enemies of
the Ojibbeways, the Sioux, and how he appears to
him, commanding him to take vengeance on his
murderers, and let the scalps of his foes flutter
round his grave; others dream of becoming
cannibals, or windigos, and most frequently end
in being the thing they dread. Even girls have
their dreams, their vague mystic visions of life,
when the spirits mutter to them through the
woods, and the great mysteries of nature seem
to come nearer and nearer to their gaze. One
girl dreamt that she was to be a renowned
female runner, a kind of red-skinned Atalanta,
whom none could distance but the one chosen
beloved: and she became what she dreamt. She
went with her tribe on one of their invading
wars against the Sioux, "lifted a scalp," and
ran home before even the swiftest of the youths
could see the smoke of the village fires. She
was a great heroine in the procession that
commemorated the return of the Braves; walked in
front, with the Sioux's scalp flying like a banner
before her, and shared in all the honours
accorded to the best of the warriors. Another girl
had a brolher, the sole stay and support of the
family, killed by these same Sioux; and in
consequence of the dreams that came to her, thick
and fast, felt herself impelled to sacrifice a
Sioux in return. Her lover was one of the tribe,
so one night she stole out towards his tent,
whispered to him through the cracks of the
apakwas, enticed him out into the forest, and
murdered him. Then she left off dreaming; her
widowed mother was comforted, the chiefs and
braves applauded her, and she strode through
life with all the pride and glory of a forest
Judith. A man dreamed that he must kill seven
men of his own tribe, not enemies, and he did
manage to kill three before public suspicion
made itself felt in his own public assassination.
No one had actually seen him, but every one
knew that he did commit these murders, and
when a party of the friends of the slain struck
him down, the whole tribe felt their hearts
lighter, and confessed that justice was fairly
executed.

The Windigo dream is the most dreaded
of all. It seems to be a form of insanity,
and one of the most common forms known
among these people. If a man live gloomily
apart from the rest of the world, people get
afraid, point him out as a probable windigo,
and shun him with every mark of fear and
aversion. And when a man quarrels with his wife,
his most potent threat often is, "Squaw, take
care, thou wilt drive me so far, that I shall turn
windigo." This superstition is a remnant of
the old belief in a race of aboriginal ogres, or
ghouls, current throughout America; a belief
highly exciting to the Indian mind, but intensely
abhorred. Beside these primeval windigos, or
ogres, those great old forests once knew, and
still know, a fairy life, fluttering like flowers, or
falling like dewdrops, among the thick branches
of the trees. Small pigmy men are they,
extremely delicate and ethereal, sailing in minute
canoes, and hunting with tiny guns; in fact,