ed upon, and what gives them the greatest
credit, is to know whether the chace of such a particular species of
beasts should be undertaken; at what season, or on which side of the
country; how best may be discovered the designs of any nation with which
they are at war; or at what time such or such persons shall return from
their journey. The Juggler pretends to see all this, and more, in his
bowl of water: divination by coffee-grounds is a trifle to it. He is
also applied to, to know whether a sick person shall recover or die of
his illness. But what I have here told you of the procedure of these
Jugglers, you are to understand only of the times that preceded the
introduction of Christianity amongst these people, or of those parts
where it is not yet received: for these practices are no longer suffered
where we have any influence.

Amongst the old savages lately baptized, I could never, from the
accounts they gave me of the belief of their ancestors, find any true
_knowledge_ of the supreme Being; no idea, I mean, approaching to that
we have, or rather nothing but a vague imagination. They have, it is
true, a confused notion of a Being, acting they know not how [Who
does?], in the universe, but they do not make of him a great soul
diffused through all its parts. They have no conception or knowledge of
all the attributes we bestow on the Deity. Whenever they happen to
philosophize upon this _Manitoo_, or great spirit, they utter nothing
but _reveries_ and absurdities. [Are not there innumerable volumes on
this subject, to which the same objection might as justly be made?
Possibly the savages, and the deepest divines, with respect to the
manner of the Deity's existence, may have, in point of ignorance,
nothing to reproach one another. It matters very little, whether one
sees the sun from the lowest valley, or the highest mountain, when the
immensity of its distance contracts the highest advantage of the
eminence to little less than nothing. Surely the infinite superiority of
the Deity, must still more effectually mock the distinction of the
mental eye, at the same time that his existence itself is as plain as
that of the sun, and like that too, dazzling those most, who contemplate
it most fixedly; reduces them to close the eye, not to exclude the
light, but as overpowered by it.]

Amongst other superstitious notions, not the least prevalent is that of
the _Manitoo_'s exercise of his power over the dead, whom he orders to