and they made a present of
another beaver skin to me, and we ate to-day bear meat that we were
invited to. In this house, belonging to the chief, there were three or
four meals a day, and they did not cook in it, as everything was
brought in from the other houses in large kettles; for it was the
council that took their meals here every day. And whoever then happens
to be in the house receives a bowlful of food; for it is the rule here
that everyone that comes here has his bowl filled; and if they are
short of bowls they bring them and their spoons with them. They go
thus and seat themselves side by side; the bowls are then fetched and
brought back filled, for a guest that is invited does not rise before
he has eaten. Sometimes they sing, and sometimes they do not, thanking
the host before they return home.

January 4. Two savages came, inviting us to come and see how they used
to drive away the devil. I told them that I had seen it before; but
they did not move off, and I had to go; and because I did not choose to
go alone I took Jeronimus along. I saw a dozen men together who were
going to drive him off. After we arrived the floor of the house was
thickly covered with the bark of trees for the hunters of the devil to
walk upon. They were mostly old men, and they had their faces all
painted with red paint--which they always do when they are going to do
anything unusual. Three men among them had a wreath on their heads, on
which stuck five white crosses. These wreaths are made of deer hair
that they had braided with the roots of a sort of green herb. In the
middle of the house they then put a man who was very sick, and who was
treated without success during a considerable time. Close by sat an old
woman with a turtle shell in her hands. In the turtle shell were a
good many beads. She kept clinking all the while, and all of them sang
to the measure; then they would proceed to catch the devil and trample
him to death; they trampled the bark to atoms so that none of it
remained whole, and wherever they saw but a little cloud of dust upon
the maize, they beat at it in great amazement and then they blew that
dust at one another and were so afraid that they ran as if they really
saw the devil; and after long stamping and running one of them went to
the sick man and took away an otter that he had in his hands; and he
sucked the sick man for awhile in his neck and on the back, and after
that he spat in the otter's mo