Tooker] ETHNOGRAPHY OF THE HURON 87 



fish for a feast (S 118).^^ The health of the sick person was rapidly 

 restored after these desires had been granted or obtained ( JR 33 : 193, 

 205). The announcement of the desire was made all through the 

 village in order that a person having such an object could make a 

 present of it to the sick person and thus restore his health. In one 

 case, a sick woman dreamed that she would be cured if a cat which 

 a Recollet father had previously given to a great chief was given to 

 her. The chief was told of this and, although both he and his daugh- 

 ter w^ere very fond of the cat, he gave it to the sick woman. The 

 chief's daughter fell sick and died of regret over the loss of the cat 

 (S 118). Sometimes, the desires could not be fulfilled and substitu- 

 tions were made. In one such instance, 10 cakes of tobacco were sub- 

 stituted for the 100 of the desire and 4 large fish for 4 beavers ( JR 

 10 : 173 ; see above, under "Types of Illness") . 



As the sick man might dream that a feast would cure him, so also 

 might he dream that certain details of the ceremony should be 

 observed in order that he be cured. For example, he might dream 

 that the guests should enter by one of the doors and not by the other 

 or that the guests should pass only on one side of the kettle (JR 10: 

 185). Sometimes the dream or the medicine man dictated that all 

 those at the feast had to be several paces apart, not touching one 

 another. At other times, when the guests departed, they made an 

 ugly grimace at the master of the feast or at the sick man as a fare- 

 well. At others, they could not break wind for 24 hours, or else 

 they would die, although they might have eaten andataroni^ i.e., bran 

 biscuits or pancakes, which were very windy substances. Sometimes, 

 after they had eaten and were quite full, they had to vomit up beside 

 them all they had eaten, which they did with ease (S 112-113).^* 



If the desire had been for a dance and if the performance of this 

 dance did not cure, it had not been performed properly; there had 

 been defects and omissions in the forms and details of the ceremonies 



^'^ Dreams still may indicate to the Iroquois that any one of the standard songs, feasts, 

 dances, games, medicine society rites, as well as herbal medicine, ought to be performed 

 (Shimony 1961 a : 273 ; 1961 b : 210). Dreaming that specific objects will cure apparently 

 has lapsed. Certain miniature objects, as miniature False Face masks, miniature canoes, 

 miniature laeross sticks or snowsnakes, are given as tokens as part of the dream guessing 

 and ceremonial friendship rituals, and are made for other reasons (Beauchamp 1905 : 

 18S; 1922: 37; Fenton 1937: 233; 1940 b: 425; 1942 b: 16-17; 1953: 123-124, 142; 

 Harrington 1909: 88-89; Hewitt: 1910 g: 942; Keppler 1941: 29-30; De C. Smith 

 1889 a: 279: Shimony 1961 a: 183, 242; Skinner 1926; Speck 1949: 83-84, 99, 122-123). 

 But these seem to be more in the nature of talismans and charms rather than comparable to 

 the objects of the desires. The earlier dream objects were apparently the objects them- 

 selves, not miniatures, and were given on occasions other than simply dream guessing 

 and ritual friendship. 



** Dreaming of specific ritual details that should be performed is not well documented 

 in recent anthropological descriptions of Iroquois curing. However, the ritual for estab- 

 lishing ceremonial friendship often seems to be dictated by the dream (see note 69, p. 89) 

 and certain changes in the communal calendric ceremonials are made as a result of the 

 dream (Fenton 1936: 4r-5). 



