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four in a row on a hill-top and watch runners being dispatched to dis-
cover who they are; but when the runners draw near they disappear. To
shoot at them is useless, for they can catch a bullet in the air. They hover
around camps to steal the women, making mysterious noises; the T’lotona
have often seen their footprints or the marks they have made on trees.
Berry season is their favourite time for raids. They expectorate on their
hands and wave them in the air when they sight a woman, and the woman,
unable to seream, falls into their hands; or they transform themselves into
logs when the men pass by, only to resume their human form and seize any
women who may be following behind. One party of Dishinni penetrated
as far as Kispiox, the Gitksan village on the upper Skeena; but when it
saw the women carrying baby cradles it turned back, mistaking the cradles
for coffins. Many years ago Dishinni stole a four-year-old T’lotona boy
and taught him to perform the same feats as themselves; but when he
grew up they sent him back to his people to tell of their power. The
boy’s name was Migina, “Singing,” because he never ate, but lived by
singing only; he could vanish into the air under the eyes of the onlookers.
He did not remain with the T’lotona, but returned to the Dishinni as soon
as he had displayed his powers.

The raids of the Cree seem to have continued down to about the middle
of the nineteenth century, fifty years after the establishment of the post
at MeLeod lake. The Sekani, like the Blackfoot and other tribes, dreaded
their medicine power almost as much as their raids. They relate the follow-
ing story.

An early factor at Fort McLeod named McIntosh had two wives, one
a Cree woman, the other a Carrier from Stuart lake. His Cree wife bore
him one son. When the boy was eight years old McIntosh hired a Sekani
Indian to perform some work at the post during the spring. The Indian
was lazy, and instead of working went down to Trout lake to fish with his
brother Ktezuye, but fell sick there and died. Ktezuye went back to
MeLeod lake, and asked the factor for some blankets so that he might
bury his brother in proper state; but McIntosh refused, stating, very
imprudently, that the man had been such a worthless fellow, that he him-
self had caused his death through evil medicine. Ktezuye returned to
Trout lake brooding over MeIntosh’s remarks. Three days later he
secretly re-ascended Crooked river to McLeod lake and awaited an
opportunity to take vengeance.

Now every morning MeIntosh’s wives used to go out in a canoe to set
a fish-net. As Ktezuye watched them he prayed his dream-guardian, the
beaver, to fill the factor with its own restless and sleepless nature in
springtime. His prayer was answered. One morning McIntosh went out
of his store and told his wives that he himself would set the net and take
his boy with him. They set the net at the mouth of Carp Lake creek
and paddled back toward the fort. As they were passing the rancherie the
boy saw Ktezuye aiming his gun at them and shouted a warning to his

father. The Indian fired immediately, and the two bullets with which
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