1636-37.] INDIAN DOCTOES AND PATIENTS. 93 



him that the disease could be frightened away by 

 means of images of straw, like scarecrows, placed 

 on the tops of the houses. Within forty-eight 

 hours after this announcement, the roofs of Onnen- 

 tisati and the neighboring tillages were covered 

 with an army of these effisries. The Indians tried 

 to persuade the Jesuits to put them on the mis- 

 sion-house ; but the priests rephed, that the cross 

 before theu' door was a better protector ; and, for 

 further security, they set another on their roof, 

 declaring that they would rely on it to' save them 

 from infection.-^ The Indians, on their part, anx- 

 ious that their scarecrows should do their office 

 weU, addressed them in loud harangues and burned 

 offerings of tobacco to them.^ 



There was another sorcerer, whose medical prac- 

 tice was so extensive, that, unable to attend to aU 

 his patients, he sent substitutes to the surrounding 

 towns, first imparting to them his own mysterious 

 power. One of these deputies came* to Ossossane 

 while the priests were there. The principal house 

 was thronged with expectant savages, anxiously 

 waiting his arrival. A chief carried before him a 

 kettle of mystic water, with which the envoy sprin- 

 kled the company,^ at the same time fanning them 



1 " Qu'en vertu de ce signe nous ne redoutions point les demons, et 

 esperions que Dieu preserueroit nostre petite maison de cette maladie 

 contagieuse." — Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 150. 



2 Ibid., 157. 



3 The idea seems to have been taken from the holy water of the 

 French. Le Mercier says that a Huron who had been to Quebec once 

 asked him the use of the vase of water at the door of the chapel. The 

 priest told him that it was " to frighten away the devils." On this, he 

 begged earnestly to have some of it. 



