92 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. 1636-37. 



a grand "medicine-feast"; and the disappointed 

 Jesuits saw plainly that the objects of theh spir- 

 itual care, unwilling to throw away any chance of 

 cure, were bent on invoking aid from God and the 

 Devil at once. 



The hump-backed sorcerer became a thorn in 

 the side of the Fathers, who more than half be- 

 lieved his own account of his origin. He was, he 

 said, not a man, but an oH, — a spirit, or, as the 

 priests rendered it, a demon, — and had dwelt with 

 other Okies under the earth, when the whim seized 

 him to become a man. Therefore he ascended to 

 the upper world, in company with a female spmt. 

 They hid beside a path, and, when they saw a 

 woman passing, they entered her womb. After a 

 time they were born, but not until the male oki 

 had quarrelled with and strangled his female com- 

 panion, who came dead into the world.^ The 

 character of the sorcerer seems to have comport- 

 ed reasonably well with this story of his origin. 

 He pretended to have an absolute control over 

 the pestilence, and his prescriptions were scrupu- 

 lously followed. 



He had several conspicuous rivals, besides a 

 host of humbler competitors. One of these ma- 

 gician-doctors, who was nearly blind, made for 

 himself a kennel at the end of his house, where he 

 fasted for seven days.^ On the sixth day the spir- 

 its appeared, and, among other revelations, told 



1 Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 72 (Cramoisy). This "petit 

 sorcier " is often mentioned elsewhere. 



2 See Introduction. 



