94 THE HURON AND THE JESUIT. [1G36-37. 



with the wmg of a wild turkey. Then came a 

 grand medicine-feast, followed by a medicme-dance 

 of women. 



Opinion was divided as to the nature of the 

 pest ; but the greater number were agreed that it 

 was a malignant ohi, who came from Lake Huron.^ 

 As it was of the last moment to conciliate or 

 frighten him, no means to these ends were neglect- 

 ed. Feasts were held for him, at which, to do 

 him honor, each guest gorged himself like a vul- 

 ture. A mystic fraternity danced with firebrands 

 in their mouths ; while other dancers wore masks, 

 and pretended to be hump-backed. Tobacco was 

 burned to the Demon of the Pest, no less than to 

 the scarecrows which were to frighten him. A 

 chief climbed to the roof of a house, and shouted 

 to the invisible monster, " If you want flesh, go to 

 our enemies, go to the Iroquois!" — while, to add 

 terror to persuasion, the crowd in the dwelling 

 below yelled with all the force of their lungs, 

 and beat furiously with sticks on the walls of 

 bark. 



Besides these public efl'orts to stay the pestilence, 

 the sufl'erers, each for himself, had their own meth- 

 ods of cure, dictated by dreams or prescribed by 

 established usage. Thus two of the priests, enter- 



I Many believed that the country was bewitched by wicked sorcerers, 

 one of whom, it was said, had been seen at night roaming around the 

 villages, vomiting fire. (Le Mercier, Relation des Hurons, 1637, 134.) 

 This superstition of sorcerers vomiting fire was common among the Iro- 

 quois of New York. — Others held that a sister of l^tienne Brule caused 

 the evil, in revenge for the death of her brother, murdered some years 

 before. She was said to have been seen flying over the comitry, breath- 

 ing forth pestilence. 



