98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



returned as mad as when he left. A few days later he dreamed that 

 he should receive a canoe, 8 beavers, 2 rays, 120 gulls' eggs, and a 

 turtle, and that he should be adopted by a man as a son. As soon as 

 he had told of his dream, the old people of the village met and talked 

 it over. They then set about finding what he requested. The chief's 

 father adopted liim as his son the same day. For the gulls' eggs, 

 small loaves were substituted, a substitution which kept all the women 

 of the village busy. The feast took place in the evening, but without 

 effect. The next day another feast was given at which masked and 

 costumed people appeared. Some of the dancers wore sacks over 

 their heads with only holes pierced for their eyes ; others had straw 

 stuffed around their waists to imitate pregnant women ; ^^* still others 

 were naked with their bodies painted white and their faces black, and 

 on their heads were feathers or horns ; others were painted red, black, 

 and white. Although there was the tlireat of war and although all 

 the youth had been invited to go to the village of Angwiens to work 

 on a half-made palisade, they continued the ceremony. The chief 

 cried in vain enonou eienti ecwarhakliion^ 'Young men, come.' The 

 ceremony accomplished no more than the preceding. After he had 

 fasted 18 days without tasting anything except tobacco, he came to 

 see the Jesuits. They gave him seven or eight raisins. He thanked 

 them and said he would eat one every day in order not to break his 

 fast. Later, making his usual round of the houses, he found the 

 people preparing for a feast and said, "I shall prepare a feast; I wish 

 this to be my feast." Immediately he put on his snowshoes and went 

 himself to the neighboring villages to invite people. He returned 

 almost 48 hours later and made 7 or 8 feasts. It was said that on 

 his trip three remarkable things happened: he was not buried in 

 the snow although it was 3 feet deep ; he threw himself from the top 

 of a large rock and was not hurt ; he was not wet and his shoes were 

 dry when he returned. He had done all this, as a spirit had guided 

 him. At the end, he asked that the Jesuits see him. He told them of 

 the progress and cause of his malady which he attributed to the 

 breaking of his fast, and said that he had resolved to go on to the end, 

 that is, as prescribed in his dream. Later, he told the Jesuits that he 

 had become ohi^ a higher title than that to which he aspired. But 

 still he was not free from his madness until he dreamed that the 

 performance of a certain kind of dance would make him well. This 

 ceremony was called akhrendoiaen as those who took part in the dance 

 gave poison to each other. It had not been practiced before among 

 the Nation of the Bear. Messengers were sent out and a fortnight 



"i^'Fenton (1937: 218-219) suggests that the dancers wearing sacks over their heads 

 were wearing masks comparable to the Iroquois Longnose mask — a mask which unlike 

 the False Face and Husk Face masks is made of buckskin. The Longnose Is a bogeyman, 

 a cannibal clown, who sometimes kidnaps children, I.e., is used to frighten them (Fenton 

 1937: 222; 1940 b: 418). Fenton also suggests that the dancers with straw stuflEed 

 around their waists were Husk Face Impersonators. 



