Volume 1

WABENO—INDIAN GRATITUDE—PROPOSED JOURNEY. 12$
symbols of the
Wabbano " medicine, a number of different
medicines, and songs concerning that ceremony—articles of
superior value and high consideration among these people ;
when given with a view to obtain any particular favor, that
is seldom denied. However, on this occasion I succeeded
in breaking the treaty. It might be considered ungrateful
in Maymiutch to debauch my hunter away, but similar
affairs occur so frequently among the Saulteurs that we
think them not at all extraordinary. Gratitude they have
none ; treat them ever so well and satisfy every demand for
a long time, then refuse them but a glass of liquor,
and all
past obligations are forgotten in an instant; those very
persons are then your greatest enemies.
Sunday, Oct. 26th. Maymiutch having failed in his design,
came to me and offered to go in search of the Red
Lake Indians, and inform them I had built here. He
wished to make friends with me, seeing I
cared not a fig for
him. I was anxious to hear from these Indians and I know
of none so fit to search for them as himself, he being well
acquainted in that quarter. I therefore arranged it with
him. To better perform the journey, and prevent him from
circulating falsehoods which might deter the Indians from
coming this way, I determined to accompany him, with one
of my men. We therefore began to make shoes, as I proposed
to set off to-morrow. During the night my hunter
got an alarm and knocked at the gate, saying he had heard
the report of a gun in the plains, but I found it was only
the door of my men's house that had slammed.
Oct. 2yth. At daybreak I was up and sent for the
Indians ; crossed over my horse, and immediately set out
on our journey, taking only a few fathoms of tobacco.
The
'^ Waubeno or Wabeno, as now usually spelled ;
accent on the last syllable.
The term is applied to the ceremony, to its charm, to the juggler himself, and
to his implements. A picture of the drum or tamborine is given on p. 223 of
Dr. W. J. Hoffman's Medewiwin of the Ojibway in Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur.
Ethnology for 1885-86, pub, 1 891, Washington, Gov't Pr. Off., pp. 143-300—an
article replete with curious information on Ojibway superstitions, and handsomely
illustrated. Tanner describes the "fashionable Wawbeno," p. 135.