This he was
enabled to do with some effect, in consequence of having practised
as a lad in similar mimicry, by way of pastime. The Germans, and the
descendants of Germans in America, are not of a very high class, as
respects education, taken as a body, and they retain many of the
most inveterate of the superstitions of their Teutonic ancestors.
Although the bee-hunter himself was of purely English descent, he
came from a State that was in part peopled by these Germans and
their descendants; and, by intercourse with them, he had acquired a
certain knowledge of their notions on the subject of necromancy,
that he now found was of use. So far as gravity of mien, solemn
grimaces, and unintelligible mutterings were concerned, le Bourdon
played his part to admiration; and by the time he had led the party
half the distance he intended to go, our necromancer, or "medicine-
man," had complete possession of the imaginations of all the
savages, the two or three chiefs already mentioned alone excepted.
At this stage of the proceedings occurred a little incident, which
goes to prove the disposition of the common mind to contribute in
deceiving itself, and which was of considerable assistance to le
Bourdon, in maintaining his assumed character.
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