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Show HOFFMAN.] INDIAN JUGGLERY. 277 $ 100, a large sum, then and there, against goods of equal value, that the juggler could not perform satisfactorily one of the tricks of his repertoire to be selected by him ( Beaulieu) in the presence of himself and a committee of his friends. The Jes sakkan'- or Jes'sakkid' lodge- was then erected. The framework of vertical poles, inclined to the center, was filled in with interlaced twigs covered with blankets and birch- bark from the ground to the top, leaving an upper orifice of about a foot in diameter for the ingress and egress of spirits and the objects to be mentioned, but not large enough for the passage of a man's body. At one side of the lower wrapping a flap was left for the entrance of the Jes'sakkid'. A committee of twelve was selected to see that no communication was possible between the Jes'sakkid' and confederates. These were reliable people, one of them the Episcopal clergyman of the reservation. The spectators were several hundred in number, but they stood off, not being allowed to approach. The Jes'sakkid' then removed his clothing, until nothing remained but the breech- cloth. Beaulieu took a rope ( selected by himself for the purpose) and first tied and knotted one end about the juggler's ankles; his knees were then securely tied together, next the wrists, after which the arms were passed over the knees and a billet of wood passed through under the knees, thus securing and keeping the arms down motionless. The rope was then passed around the neck, again and again, each time tied and knotted, so as to bring the face down upon the knees. A flat river- stone, of black color- which was the Jes'sakkid" s ma'nido or amulet- was left lying upon his thighs. The Jes'sakkid' was then carried to the lodge and placed inside upon a mat on the ground, and the flap covering was restored so as to completely hide him from view. Immediately loud, thumping noises were heard, and the framework began to sway from side to side with great violence; whereupon the clergyman remarked that this was the work of the Evil One and * it was no place for him, 7 so he left and did not see the end. After a few minutes of violent movements and swayings of the lodge accompanied by loud inarticulate noises, the motions gradually ceased when the voice of the juggler was heard, telling Beaulieu to go to the house of a friend, near by, and get the rope. Now, Beaulieu, suspecting some joke was to be played upon him, directed the committee to be very careful not to permit any one to approach while he went for the rope, which he found at the place indicated, still tied exactly as he had placed it about the neck and extremities of the Jes'sakkid'. He immediatedly returned, laid it down before the spectators, and requested of the Jess akkid' to be allowed to look at him, which was granted, but with the understanding that Beaulieu was not to touch him. When the covering was pulled aside, the Jes'sakkid' sat within the lodge, contentedly smoking his pipe, with no other object in sight than the black stone man-ido. Beaulieu paid his wager of $ 100. An exhibition of similar pretended powers, also for a wager, was announced a short time after, at Yellow Medicine, Minnesota, to be given in the presence of a number of Army people, but at the threat of the Grand Medicine Man of the Leech Lake bands, who probably objected to interference with his lucrative monopoly, the event did not take place and bets were declared off. Col. Mallery obtained farther information of a similar kind from various persons on the Bad River Reservation, and at Bayfield, Wisconsin. All of these he considered to be mere variants of a class of performances which were reported by the colonists of New England and the first French missionaries in Canada as early as 1613, where the general designation of " The Sorcerers" was applied to the whole body of Indians on the Ottawa River. These reports, it must be |