[ 2 Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 16.--The musk-rat is always a conspicuous
figure in Algonquin cosmogony.

It is said that Messou, or Manabozho, once gave to an Indian the gift of
immortality, tied in a bundle, enjoining him never to open it. The
Indian's wife, however, impelled by curiosity, one day cut the string,
the precious gift flew out, and Indians have ever since been subject to
death. Le Jeune, Relation, 1634, 13. ]

Searching for some higher conception of supernatural existence, we find,
among a portion of the primitive Algonquins, traces of a vague belief in
a spirit dimly shadowed forth under the name of Atahocan, to whom it does
not appear that any attributes were ascribed or any worship offered,
and of whom the Indians professed to know nothing whatever; [ 1 ] but
there is no evidence that this belief extended beyond certain tribes of
the Lower St. Lawrence. Others saw a supreme manitou in the Sun. [ 2 ]
The Algonquins believed also in a malignant manitou, in whom the early
missionaries failed not to recognize the Devil, but who was far less
dreaded than his wife. She wore a robe made of the hair of her victims,
for she was the cause of death; and she it was whom, by yelling, drumming,
and stamping, they sought to drive away from the sick. Sometimes,
at night, she was seen by some terrified squaw in the forest, in shape
like a flame of fire; and when the vision was announced to the circle
crouched around the lodge-fire, they burned a fragment of meat to appease
the female fiend.

[ 1 Le Jeune, Relation, 1633, 16; Relation, 1634, 13. ]

[ 2 Biard, Relation, 1611, Chap. VIII.--This belief was very prevalent.