As to the belief in sorcery, spells, talismans, incantations, all which go by the general name of _medicine_, it is unbounded. Henry mentions, that among the goods which some traders took up the country to exchange for furs, they had a large collection of the little rude prints, published for children, at a halfpenny a piece--I recollect such when I was a child. They sold these at a high price, for _medicines_ (_i. e._ talismans), and found them a very profitable and popular article of commerce. One of these, a little print of a sailor kissing his sweetheart, was an esteemed _medicine_ among the young, and eagerly purchased for a love-spell. A soldier presenting his gun, or brandishing his sabre, was a medicine to promote warlike courage--and so on. The medicines and manitos of the Indians will remind you of the fetishes of the negroes. [Footnote 30: I have heard the particulars of this wild story of the origin of the white-fish, but cannot remember them. I think the woman was put to death by her sons. Most of the above particulars I learned from oral communication, and from some of the papers published by Mr. Schoolcraft. This gentleman and others instituted a society at Detroit (1832), called the _Algic Society_, for "evangelising the north-western tribes, inquiring into their history and superstitions, and promoting education, agriculture, industry, peace, and temperance among them."] With regard to the belief in omens and incantations, I should like to see it ascertained how far we civilised Christians, with all our schools, our pastors, and our masters, are in advance of these (so-called) savages?[31] Who would believe that with a smile, whose blessing Would, like the patriarch's, soothe a dying hour; With voice as low, as gentle, as caressing, As e'er won maiden's lip in moonlit bower; With look, like patient Job's, eschewing evil; With motions graceful as a bird's in air; Thou art, in sober truth, the veriest devil, That e'er clench'd fingers in a captive's hair!--Halleck.