To Mr Wm Nelson, Wm Henry G. Nelson Note: Read these pages among yourselves and lend them not out of the house. Part 2 Typescript Page 1st The following few Stories or Tales will give a better notion or Idea of the religion of these People than every other description _I_ am able to pen, & as their _history_ is read with interest, I am persuaded these few Pages will be found equally deserving attention. I give them the same as I received them & leave every one to make his own remarks & to draw his own conclusions. My Interpretor, a young half breed, passed the winter of –'19-'20 with the Indians & gives this account. One day shortly before Christmass he was out with an elderly man, a chief of this place, a hunting. Suddenly he stopped as to _listen_, apparent- ly with great eagerness & anxiety, upon which after allowing a sufficient time the Int. asked what was the matter? "Listen & you'll hear" "I have listened, says the Intr. but hear no- "thing & it is surprising that you who are deaf should hear & I not"--"Ah! a white man is thy "father & thou are just as _skeptical_: doubting & ridiculing every thing we say or do 'till "when it is then too late--then ye lament, but in vain ...." After this the Indian became much down-cast & very thoughtful for several days; & as if to increase his anxiety or rather to to corroborate the husbands assertions, his wife said that one day she also _heard_, tho' the other women that were with her heard nothing, & an altercation ensued. His uneasyness increasing too much he was forced to have recourse to _their_ only alternative in such cases, i.e. _une Jonglerie_ as the french term it, that is conjuring. One of their party, another half-breed, abandoned many years since by his Father & leading an indian life, was applied to: he is reputed a _true man_, i.e. never lies. Out of respect to the other he was induced to consent, but much against his will; "for I am "much afraid that some of these times _they will carry me off_." He was prepared, & entered with his _rattler_, shortly after which the box & the _rattler_ began to move in the usual brisk & violent manner. _Many_ entered, & one asked "what was wanted that they had been called "upon." The indian from the outside of the frame (for only the conjuror alone & enters) inquired "if there was not some evil spirit near from whom he had much "every thing to dread?"--"No, replied the same voice, _all is quiet_, you trouble yourself "with vain phantoms" "What then is the meaning, asked again the Indian, of the those sud- "den flashes of light I sometimes see in the night?"--"What! rejoined another voice from within, "hast thou attained unto this age & never yet observed this;" & then laughing, continued, "it is al- "ways the case during this _moon_ (December) & if you doubt me, for the future observe "attentively & you will find it to be the case".--This satisfied him for the time, he became cheerful & assumed his wonted ways.