{85} _Further Transactions with the Indians; their Superstition, Jealousy, &c._ Having given an account of the different lakes, rivers, &c. from Lac la Mort, I shall continue the narrative from my return from Lake Manontoye, where I relieved Mr. Shaw. A few days after, another band of Savages arrived with skins, furs, and some provisions; they stayed with me two days, making merry with what rum I could spare them, without doing any mischief, and departed at last very peaceably. On the twenty-third of February another band came in, consisting of about eighty, men, women, and children, who brought dried meats, oats, bears’ grease, and eight packs of beaver, which I purchased, giving them rum, as usual, with which they got intoxicated. In this frolic one woman was killed, and a boy terribly burnt. On the third day they departed, well pleased with their reception, leaving us plenty of provisions. The weather being more moderate, I sent my men to the lake to look after the nets, which had been under the ice a considerable time, the severity of the season not having allowed us to examine them for near a month, when, to our great mortification they were found almost rotten, and not a single fish; but as one of the Canadians could make nets as well as myself, we repaired the damage; and caught plenty of fish to support us till April. The severity of the season was sensibly felt by Mr. James Clark, belonging to the same company, who had five men starved at Lake Savan, {86} a bad lake for fish, about three hundred and fifty miles from my wintering ground;[64] the Indians being obliged to hunt so far back in the woods that they could not give him any assistance; and from the concurrent accounts of the traders in the northwest, as well as from the Savages who resorted to my house, it was the hardest winter they ever remembered. About this time a large band of Chippeways arrived, traded with me for their hunt, and finished their frolic in a peaceable manner. While this band was with me, a curious circumstance occurred, which I shall relate. One part of the religious superstition of the Savages, consists in each of them having his _totam_, or favorite spirit, which he believes watches over him. This _totam_ they conceive assumes the shape of some beast or other, and therefore they never kill, hunt, or eat the animal whose form they think this _totam_ bears.