106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



and scarecrowlike figures above the houses. One man had four or six 

 of these straw archers hung on the poles of his fireside ( JE. 13 : 227- 

 231). The blind man said that all would be recovered at the end of 

 the January moon. He also said that if some others did not give him 

 a present of a net, they would die ( JR 13 : 233) . 



As the performance of the ceremony was dictated by a dream or 

 vision, so the performers who handled the live coals might dream 

 the power to do so. One man when a youth about 20 years old 

 handled the coals, but found that he could not, like the others, handle 

 hot coals. Thus he was very careful not to touch those that were 

 too hot and made only a pretense of doing it. After a time, 

 he dreamed that he was at an aioataerolii and handling fire like the 

 others. In this dream he heard a song that he remembered perfectly 

 when he awoke. He sang his song at the next ceremony and, taking 

 the live coals and hot stones in his hands and between his teeth 

 and plunging his bare arm in boiling kettles, was neither injured 

 nor felt any pain. On the contrary, he felt a coolness of the hands 

 and mouth. From time to time, he dreamed that at a feast some- 

 thing was given or lent to him ; he then wore it during the ceremony. 

 Such a dream meant that he should not dance at the next ceremony 

 without this object. The next time he would ask for the item of 

 which he had dreamed, and it would be given to him so that he would 

 dance (JR 21: 151-155). 



This ceremony, which so impressed the Jesuits, was only one of 

 the dances that were used for curing purposes. There were as many 

 as 12 different dances used to cure as many illnesses. As for the 

 awataerolii^ a diagnostician or the dream of the ill man dictated which 

 dance was given ( JR 10 : 185) . »» 



One ceremony for the cure of an ill person was that of the 

 andacwander [andacivandet (JR 17: 179)], a mating of men with 

 girls at the end of the feast. In one such ceremony there were 13 

 girls, one for the patient himself (JR 17: 147). In another such 

 ceremony, all the girls in the village assembled at a sick woman's 

 bed and were asked, one by one, which of the young men they would 

 like to have sleep with them the next night. The men selected were 

 then notified by the masters of the ceremony and all came the next 

 night to sleep, in the presence of the sick woman, with the girls who 

 had chosen them. They occupied the house from one end to the other 

 and passed the whole night thus while the two chiefs at the two 

 ends of the house sang and rattled their tortoise shells from evening 

 until the following morning when the ceremony was concluded 

 (S120). 



»8 As the Iroquois have almost 12 medicine societies, It Is tempting to think that the 

 dances referred to are medicine society dances. They may be given, of course, in response 

 to the dream of an ill person. 



