The poor cat became afraid of the long ugly name of the Indian god, because the whip and the name always came together.  One day the black cat crept into the cabin of an Indian woman to get something to eat.  The medicine man who was near by saw it.  He said the name of his god in his common voice.  The cat, which the Indians believed to be a witch, jumped like lightning through the hole in the cabin that was used for a window.  The Indians really believed that they had seen an evil spirit in the shape of a little black panther, and that it disappeared when the medicine man spoke the name of his god.

After that, every time an Indian saw this black cat, or little black panther, as it was called, he spoke the name of this terrible god.  Of course, the black cat with yellow eyes ran away.  Tired out at last with being driven off in this fashion, the cat disappeared entirely, and took up its home with the wild animals in the woods, where it could not hear the terrible name of the idol any more.

Bossu afterward made use of the Indians’ belief in spirits for his own purpose.  One of his soldiers had been killed by one of the Indians.  Bossu could not find out who killed the soldier, or even to what tribe the Indian that killed him belonged.  He wanted to punish or frighten the murderer in order to save the lives of the rest of the French soldiers.

He called the chief of the Indians, and told him that one of his men was missing.  He said he was sure the man had not run away.  He therefore asked that the Indians should find the man, and said, that, if he were not found, he should have to think that some of the Indians had killed him.

The chief answered that the white soldier had probably gone hunting in the woods, and killed himself accidentally with his gun, or else he had been killed by a panther.  To this Bossu replied that the animal would not have eaten the gun or the clothes of the soldier.  He said that if the Indians would find the Frenchman’s gun, or bits of his clothes, they could easily show that he had been killed by a wild animal.

Bossu had a friend among the Indians who was very much attached to him.  He persuaded this young Indian to tell him to what tribe the murderer of the Frenchman belonged, but he solemnly promised that the other Indians should never know who had told him.  He paid the young Indian for telling him.

The Frenchman who was called Fearless now undertook to have the man who had killed the other soldier punished, for the dead soldier had been his friend.  But it was necessary that he should not let the Indians know who had told about it.  Fearless stripped off a great quantity of bark of the pawpaw tree.  He thought he would play a trick like that of the medicine man, and make the Indians believe that a spirit was talking to them.  He did everything very secretly.  By fastening pieces of the pawpaw bark together with pitch, he managed to make a very large speaking trumpet, which would carry the voice a long distance.