Manchester Mevioirs, Vo/. x/vi. (igo2), No. Hi. 3 



desires. Whatever first occurs to the soothsayer is the 

 desire. The relatives must gratify it and the patient gives 

 the soothsayer a share, (i., 259.) 



One way of finding out the cause of illness is by 

 dreams. Dreams are of very great importance, as is 

 shown by the following passage : — 



They have a faith in dreams which surpasses all belief; and if Christians 

 were to put into execution all their divine inspirations with as much care as 

 our Savages carry out their dreams, no doubt they would very soon become 

 great Saints. They look upon their dreams as ordinances and irrevocable 

 decrees, the execution of which it is not permitted without crime to delay. 

 A Savage of our Village dreamed this winter, in his first sleep, that he ought 

 straightway to make a feast ; and immediately, night as it was, he arose, and 

 came and awakened us to borrow one of our kettles. 



The dream is the oracle that all these poor Peoples consult and listen to, 

 the Prophet which predicts to them future events, the Cassandra which 

 warns them of misfortunes that threaten thein, the usual Physician in their 

 sicknesses, the Esculapius and Galen of the whole Country,— the most 

 absolute master they have. If a Captain speaks one way and a dream 

 another, the Captain might shout his head off in vain, — the dream is first 

 obeyed. It is their Mercury in their journeys, their domestic Economy in 

 their families. The dream often presides in their councils ; traffic, fishing, 

 and hunting are undertaken usually under its sanction, and almost as if only 

 to satisfy it. They hold nothing so precious that they would not readily 

 deprive themselves of it for the sake of a dream. If they have been success- 

 ful in hunting, if they bring back their Canoes laden with fish, all this is at 

 the discretion of a dream. A dream will take away from them sometimes 

 their whole year's provisions. It prescribes their feasts, their dances, their 

 songs, their games, — in a word, the dream does everything, and is in truth 

 the principal God of the Hurons. (x. , 167.) 



Further illustration of the importance attached to 

 dreams in relation to healing is given in the following : — 



His brother-in-law came to tell him that he had dreamed his niece would 

 recover, if they had her lie upon a sheepskin painted with various figures ; a 

 search was made for one immediately ; one was found, and they painted 

 thereon a thousand grotesque figures, canoes, paddles, animals, and such 

 things. The Fathers, who hid not yet instructed this girl, urged earnestly 

 that this remedy was useless ; but they must try it. The patient rested upon 

 these paintings, but received.no real benefit. Another Charlatan was of the 

 opinion that, if they gave the sick girl a white sheet as pillow, upon which 

 had been drawn pictures of men singing and dancing, the sickness would 

 disappear. They began immediately to paint men upon a sheet, but they 



