The main reliance of his formalism when he was off in the woods seemed
to be a little tattered volume, which he perused diligently all Sunday,
and wrapped carefully in a strip of oiled paper during the rest of the
week. One day I had a chance to look at this book while its owner was
away after spring water. Every alternate page was in the phonetic
Indian symbols, of which more hereafter. The rest was in French, and
evidently a translation. Although the volume was of Roman Catholic
origin, creed was conspicuously subordinated to the needs of the class
it aimed to reach. A confession of faith, quite simple, in one God, a
Saviour, a Mother of Heaven; a number of Biblical extracts rich in
imagery and applicability to the experience of a woods-dweller; a dozen
simple prayers of the kind the natural man would oftenest find occasion
to express--a prayer for sickness, for bounty, for fair weather, for
ease of travel, for the smiling face of Providence; and then some
hymns. To me the selection seemed most judicious. It answered the needs
of Tawabinisay's habitual experiences, and so the red man was a good
and consistent convert. Irresistibly I was led to contemplate the idea
of any one trying to get Tawabinisay to live in a house, to cut
cordwood with an axe, to roost on a hard bench under a tin steeple, to
wear stiff shoes, and to quit forest roaming.
The written language mentioned above you will see often in the
Northland.
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