MISSIONARY 29

practical instructions, or little sermons. Then he
thundered against vice, denounced reprehensible native
customs, such as conjuring, which he called the prayer
of the devil, condemned violence and licentiousness,
and at the same time he commended the learning of
prayers and catechism as a preparation for the recep-
tion of baptism. He does not claim to have changed
the Chilcotins during the short time he passed amongst
them, but he made an impression on them, for to this
day he is remembered as ‘‘the young priest with the
strong words.”’

One of the aboriginal abuses he denounced, and
sometimes actually stopped at his own peril, was that
of gambling. Two partners squatting on the ground
face one another, jerking their bodies to the time of
the “tune,’’ and slyly changing from hand to hand,
under a blanket which partially covers their limbs, two
little pieces of bone, one of which has a special mark,
while an assistant is beating a drum or a kettle and
the crowd sings out, in time, unending he’s, hi’s, ho’s.
After a while, one of the partners has to guess in which
of the gambler’s hands is the marked bone. There is
something very simple, nay, almost childish, in this
pastime; yet the passion for that kind of gambling,
known under the name of ‘“‘Iahal’’ on the coast and in
the adjacent country, is such that no reader can have
an adequate idea of its hold on the natives. The
following little anecdote will effectively illustrate it.

Father Morice would generally have in each place
a ‘“‘retreat,’’ or revival, of one or two weeks’ duration,
at the end of which a representative of the next
village would come for him with a horse to carry his
impedimenta and all the requisites for the celebration
of Mass. As he was one day closing his missionary