Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/418

398 We meet with frequent and very candid admissions in the relations of the Jesuit Fathers, that the most formidable opposition which they encountered in their mission work came from the medicine-men, the magicians, sorcerers, and medical practitioners among the Indians. The Jesuits regarded these priestly physicians as diabolical agents, and of course were viewed in their turn as rivals in the same evil ministry. Working on the fear and superstitions of the Indians when under a cloud or ill, these medicine-men, partly through their own craft and partly by the credulity of the people, were invested with a supernatural character. Yet the element of fraud in their pretensions and practices does not seem to have been so predominant but that they may have been the dupes of their own ignorance and delusion. It was, however, a matter of first importance with the Jesuits to win over, dissuade, and convert these medicine-men, and failing in that effort, to expose their pretences and incompetency. This was always a difficult, and often a critical and dangerous undertaking, disturbing the traditional belief and usages of the wild men inherited from generations. The Jesuits were occasionally cautious in dealing with this perilous mischief; but they faithfully met the risk, and calmly or boldly defied the impostors, as they regarded them.

Nor is it at all strange that the good Fathers themselves, as they candidly tell us, were often regarded by jealous and hard-hearted savages as sorcerers and magicians. It was altogether natural that it should have been so. Arrayed in their long robes, surplices, and other vestments which had a magical look, with their backs to the people, with frequent changes of attitude and posture, genuflections and crossings, they were seen to be handling the altar furniture, putting something into their mouths, — not enough for real sustenance, — and muttering some unintelligible sounds which might be charms. This ritual service of