94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



The medicine men could also prescribe general precautions against 

 epidemics.®* For example, one said that whoever stole the Algon- 

 quins' lines or the baits from their hooks would be stricken by the 

 disease. As a result of this admonition several attributed the death 

 of one man to the Algonquin. This man had committed a theft 

 among them and they happened to catch him ; he was attacked later 

 by the disease (JR 14: 13). Another medicine man said that to put 

 a quick end to an epidemic : first, the dead should be put in the gTound 

 and in the spring the bodies should be taken out and placed in dark 

 tombs raised on four posts, as was usual; second, the dead should be 

 given no more new mats ; third, he should be given five cakes of tobac- 

 co. Toward evening, a council assembled outside the village. The 

 children were warned by one of the chiefs not to make any noise. A 

 large fire was lighted and the medicine man, after he had told those 

 present of the importance of the affair, threw the five cakes of tobacco 

 into the fire while addressing the sun, the spirits, and the disease, ask- 

 ing them to leave the country of the Huron and to go to that of the 

 Iroquois ( JR 13 : 259-261) . 



One medicine man said that he could cure all the sick of a village 

 by sprinkling them with a water about which his spirit had taught 

 him. A council was held for 3 days to discuss the matter and 13 

 notable presents were given to him. Immediately after this, he 

 sprinkled all the sick of the village ( JR 19 : 243) . 



One medicine man predicted how many would die during an epi- 

 demic and when it would end. His predictions did not come true 

 and the people lost faith in him ( JR 13 : 213-215) . 



As the dreams of the individual could indicate more than the causes 

 of illness, so there were other arendiwane in addition to those who 

 cured (cf. JR 10: 195).®^ Some such men controlled the weather 

 and predicted the course of future events ( JR 8 : 123 ; 10 : 37, 193-195 ; 

 33 : 221 ; C 144) .^^ One boasted that he could bring and stop rain 

 and prevent the frosts which injured the corn crop (JR 30: 63). 

 Another saw in a dream, before three villages burned, three flames 

 falling on them from the sky. In this instance, a feast of a white 

 dog was then given in order to gain further information, but the 

 arendiwane did not succeed in obtaining this knowledge (JR 8: 125; 

 the villages referred to are probably those mentioned in JR 8: 105). 



** Material on Iroquois control of epidemics is scanty, although it is known that the 

 False Faces may be used to drive away epidemics (Morgan 1852 : 99 ; 1901(1) : 159 ; Taft 

 1914: 102; and see note 1, p. 108). Hewitt (1889) mentions that fires were extinguished 

 if there was an epidemic. 



^ Iroquois fortunetellers can find lost objects, solve love affair problems, predict success 

 or failure of agricultural endeavors and other undertakings (Waugh 1916: 29; and see 

 following notes). 



*» The Iroquois have ceremonies to control the rain (Jackson 1830 b : 34 ; Waugh 1916: 

 25-29; see note 29, p. 75). 



