All these people are superstitious to an excess,
believing in spirits and supernatural agency.
Apparently they have no professed religion,
though they universally acknowledge one good
spirit, who governs all things; and when it
thunders they say he is angry. They also believe
in an evil spirit, and'in rewards and punishments
hereafter. A confused idea prevails among them,
that the world was destroyed by water, and will



RELIGIOUS IDEAS AND CUSTOMS.' 67

be again destroyed by the same element. They
say, that when a good man dies, he goes to a
world where there is plenty of provisions, and
where there is no occasion to work; and on the
contrary, when a bad man dies, he will go to a
country where the provisions are scare, and
where he will be forced to work hard, and meet
with many and great difficulties. It may be
gathered from this what is indeed the truth, that
these Indians have a very great aversion to work.
They observe the rite of circumcision, and have
slaves whom they purchase from other tribes,
prisoners who have been taken in war. On the
death of a chief, from three to six slaves are
sacrificed, according to the rank of the deceased.
In the winter season all the tribes move back to
the woods, where they have their winter villages.
In summer they catch sturgeon, salmon, and a
variety of small fish, etc. ; in the fall of the year
they have plenty of ducks, geese, and swans,
and in spring an abundance of small fish like
sardines. The climate is much the same as in
England : from May till October the weather is
very fine, the wind generally blowing from N. W.
