The reason for this
exemption from harm was this:--
In those times the Indians made use of the Pazhikewash, or buffalo-weed,
which is still used by some of them to this day, especially on war
excursions. This made them invulnerable to balls. They made a liquor
from it, and sprinkled themselves and their implements, and carried it
in their meda bags. They are under the belief that this medicine not
only wards off the balls and missiles, but tends to make them invisible.
This, with their reliance on the guardian spirits of whom they have
dreamed at their initial fasts, throws around them a double influence,
making them both invisible and invulnerable.
There is a root used by the Pillagers, to which they attribute similar
protecting influences, or attribute the gift of courage in war. It is
called by them OZHIGAWAK.
_22d_. Theodoric (_vide ante_, April 19th,) writes me from Detroit in
terms of the kindest appreciation for my kindness of him. On his arrival
at Mackinack he most acceptably executed several trusts--writing a good
hand, being of gentlemanly manners and deportment, and an obliging
disposition, and withal a high moral tone of character--as the winter
drew on, I judged he would make a good representative for the county in
the legislature, and started him in political life.
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