God."

A day or two after this we left the Garden River Mission and returned
to Sarnia.




CHAPTER X.

BAPTISM OF PAGANS.


There were not many genuine Pagans either at Sarnia or at Kettle
Point. Pagan practices had fallen altogether into disuse. There were
some Indians living who had been "medicine men," but we never heard
that they practised their charms. Still there were several families who
held aloof from Christianity. When spoken to about being baptized,
their reply was that they thought the Christian Indians behaved worse
than the Pagan Indians, and they were afraid that if they were baptized
they would become as bad. It was sad that such a thing could be said,
and sadder still that there should be any truth about it. Of course the
mere fact of the Indians being brought into contact with white people
would lead them into temptations from which, in their wild wandering
state, they had been comparatively free. It has been said even by white
travellers that they have found the pagan Indiana of the North more
honest and trustworthy than those in a semi-civilized and nominally
Christian state. The Indian when he mixes with the Whites soon learns
their bad habits, but is more slow to learn what is holy and good.