WEATHEE MAKING, ANCIENT AND MODERN.' 



By Mark W. Harrington. 



I 



The subject of ancient and modern weather making is a very large 

 one — too hirge to be treated with entire generality. I shall discuss it 

 rather from the American standi)oint, and shall use cases in the Old 

 World simply for the purpose of illustration and for completeness. 



Three distinct sorts of weather making have been employed. The 

 first depends on superstitious and religious methods; then follows on 

 this the degradation of these religious ideas into folklore remnants, 

 which have a curious persistency in civilized countries. Both these 

 are psychic. Opx)osed to them is the third method, mainly American 

 and intensely practical, with which some history and literature are 

 connected. 



I. — Superstitious and Religious Methods. 



RAIN MAKING AND STOPPING.^ 



Many Indian tribes have attempted to produce rainy or dry weather, 

 according to requirements. Among these may be mentioned the 

 Mandan, the Muskingum, the Moqui, the Natchez, Zuili, Choctaws, 

 and others. For this purpose pipes were smoked, tobacco was burned, 

 prayers and incantations were offered, arrows were discharged toward 

 the clouds, charms were used, and various other methods were emjiloyed. 

 Classifying by tribes the processes employed, we turn first to the 

 Iroquois. 



Mrs. E. A. Smith, in her Myths of the Iroquois, says : 



"In a dry season, the horizon being filled with distant thunder heads, 

 it was customary to burn what is called by the Indians real tobacco as 

 an offering to bring rain. 



" On occasions of this nature the people were notified by swift-footed 

 heralds that the children, or sons, of Thunder were in the horizon, and 

 that tobacco must be burned in order to get some rain."-^ 



'From tlie National Geograpliic Magazine, Vol. VI, pages 35-62, April 25, 1894. 

 'These cases of weather making among the North American Indians were collected 

 for me by Dr. Fuller AValker, of the Weather Bureau, who searched through the 

 literature available in Washington. 



^Second Ann. Eep. Bureau of Ethnology for 1880-81 (1883), page 72. 



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