I 



t 



WEATHER MAKING, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 251 



he sees the rain actually falling lie lets his arrow fly, and pointing says: 

 'There! my friends, yon have seen my arrow go. There is a hole in 

 that clond. We shall soon have rain enough.' When he comes down 

 he is a medicine man. The doctors give him a feast and a great cere- 

 mony and the doctor's rattle. When the doctors commence rain mak- 

 ing they never fail to succeed, for they keep up the ceremony until the 

 rain begins to fall. Those who have once succeeded in making it rain 

 in the presence of the whole village never undertake it a second time. 

 They would rather give other young men a chance." 



A similar account of the Mandan ceremony is given by Mr. John 

 Frost in his book, "The Indians of Korth America" (New York, 1845, 

 p. 109). He says: 



"It was in a time of great drought that I once arrived at the Mandan 

 village on the Upper Missouri. The young and the old were crying out 

 that they should have no green corn. After a dav' or Uvo the sky grew 

 a little cloudy in the west, when the medicine men assembled together 

 in great haste to make it rain. The tops of the wigwams were soon 

 crowded. In the mystery lodge a fire was kindled, around which sat 

 the rain makers, burning sweet-smelling herbs, smoking the medicine 

 pipe, and calling on the Great Spirit to open the door of the skies to let 

 out the rain. At last one of the rain makers came out of the mystery 

 lodge and stood on the top of it with a spear in his hand, which he 

 brandished about in a commanding and threatening manner, lifting it 

 uj) as though he were about to hurl it at the heavens. He talked loud 

 of the power of his medicine, holding up his medicine bag in one hand 

 and his spear in the other; but it was of no use, and he came down in 

 disgrace. For several days the same ceremony continued, until a rain 

 maker with a headdress of the skins of birds ascended the top of the 

 mystery lodge, with a bow in his hand and a quiver at his back. He 

 made a long speech, for the sky was growing dark, and it required no 

 great knowledge of the weather to foretell rain. He shot arrows to the 

 sunrise and sundown points of the heavens and also to the north and 

 south, in honor of the Great Spirit, who could send rain from all parts 

 of the sky. A fifth arrow he retained until it was almost certain that 

 rain was at hand. Then sending up the shaft from his bow with all his 

 might to make a hole in the dark cloud ov^er his head, he cried aloud 

 for the waters to pour down at his bidding and to drench him to the 

 skin. He was brandishing his bow in one hand and his medicine in 

 the other, when the rain came down in torrents." 



Among the Blackfeet Indians, according to W. P. Clark, in his 

 "Indian Sign Language" (Philadelphia, 1885, p. 72)— 



"The medicine man has a separate lodge, which faces the east. He 

 fasts and dances to the sun, blowing his whistle. He is painted in dif- 

 ferent colors, and he must have no water, and only after dark can he 

 eat, and then only the inner bark of the cottonwood tree. A picture 

 of the sun is painted on his forehead, the moon, Ursa Major, etc., on his 

 body. The dance continues for four days, and should this medicine 

 man drink it is sure to cause rain, and if it [does not] rains no other 

 evidence of his weakness is wanted or taken. He is deposed as high 

 priest at once." 



Mr. W. Noble, of Indian Territory, says that "the Choctaws, during 

 a severe drought, will fasten a fish to one of their number, who then 

 goes into the water and remains there every day for two weeks in order 



