82 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



in this place, here is some tobacco which I present you; help us, 

 guard us from shipwreck, defend us from our enemies, and cause that 

 after having made good trades we may return safe and sound to our 

 villages' (JE 10: 165-167). This [?] rock looked something like a 

 head and two upraised arms. In the belly or middle was a deep 

 cavern that was difficult to approach. The Indians believed that this 

 rock had been a man who, while lifting up his arms and hands, had 

 been transformed into rock. If they were in doubt about the success 

 of tlieir journey they would offer tobacco to the rock when passing 

 in their canoes. They threw the tobacco into the water against the 

 rock itself, saying "Here take courage, and let us have a good 

 journey" and some other things (S 171).** 



The Huron believed that thunder was a bird (JR 10: 45; 15: 181; 

 S 183). OnditacMae (ondiaachiae) , the thunder, in form, a man 

 like a turkey cock, was renowned in the Tobacco Nation. He con- 

 trolled the rains, winds, and thunder. The sky was his home.*^ Wlien 

 he was tliere, the weather was calm. When he came down to earth 

 to get his supply of snakes and oki, the clouds rumbled.**^ Lightning 

 was due to the flapping of his wings. If Thunder was loud, then 

 it was his little ones who accompanied him and helped him make 

 noise as best they could. In answer to the Jesuits' question, "Whence, 

 then, came dryness?" their Indian informant replied that it came 

 from the caterpillars, over whom onditachlae had no control.*^ In 

 answer to the question, ""V^-liy does lightning strike trees?" the Indian 

 said, "It is there that it lays in its supply" (JK 10: 195-197). 



A spirit called aireshouy soutanditenr was invoked at various times : 

 while hunting in the forests and when in danger of shipwreck on the 

 water (JE33:225). 



TYPES OF ILLNESS 

 The Huron recognized three types of illness: (1) illnesses due to 

 natural causes that were cured by natural remedies, (2) illnesses 

 caused by the desires of the soul of the sick person that were cured 

 by supplying these desires [called ondinnonk (JE 33: 191, 193), 

 ondinoG (JE 17: 155), ondinonc (JE 17: 155, 163, 179, 191-195)], 



^^Beauchamp (1892: 227) thought that such "reverence to remarkable stones" became 

 less common in more recent times. 



^= The Iroquois proper do not seem to have believed in a mythical "thunderbird," 

 although the Huron and Petun did (Waugh 1916: 24). Shimony's (1961 a: 137 n.) 

 reference to a "thunderbird" is probably a reference to the Dew Eagle (Fenton : personal 

 communication ; see Fenton 1953). 



*^ The Iroquois believe that the Thunderers control certain mythical animals : magic 

 snakes and the giant lizard ; and certain real animals : worms in the earth, wood ticks, 

 mosquitoes, and injurious bugs and rain, wind, and certain diseases (Shimony 1961 a: 

 137 n., 163). 



" This statement apparently indicates that the power of the Thunderers was tem- 

 porarily in abeyance and they were not fulfilling their hoped-for control over both 

 rain and bugs. 



