Tooker] 



ETHNOGEAPHY OF THE HURON 107 



Another dance was designated, by the Jesuits at least, as the dance 

 of the naked ones ( JRlT : 81 ; cf . JR 17 : 193— "nude dances") . To 

 cure one sick woman, all the young men, women, and girls danced 

 stark naked in her presence and one of the young men was required 

 to make water in her mouth, which she had to swallow ; this was done 

 in accordance with her dream which she wished carried out without 

 any omission (S 118). 



After the medicine man had visited the sick man or woman and 

 ascertained the cause of the illness, he might send for a large number 

 of men, women, and girls, including three or four old women. They 

 entered the house of the patient dancing, each having on his head 

 the skin of a bear or other wild animal, the bear being the most 

 common. Three or four other old women near the sick person 

 received the presents from the dancers [for the sick person], each wo- 

 man singing and stopping in turn. The presents [probably the de- 

 sires] were food, wampum, and other things. After all the presents 

 had been made, they all sang together, keeping time with sticks on dry 

 tree bark. Then all the women and girls went to the end of the 

 house to dance. The old women walked in front with their bearskins 

 on their heads, and all the others followed them, one after the other. 

 They had only two kinds of dances with regular time, one of 4 steps 

 and the other of 12, as in the trioly of Brittany. The young men 

 often danced with them. After dancing an hour or two, the old 

 women led out the sick person to dance. The latter got up sadly 

 and began to dance and after a short time danced and enjoyed it as 

 much as the others (C 148-150). [This is probably a description of 

 a ceremony for the cure of a sick woman that Champlain saw; see 

 above under section headed "Dancing" for perhaps that is Sagard's 

 description of such a ceremony. The phrasing and the details of 

 these two descriptions are different, but one suspects Sagard used 

 Champlain's description to jog his memory.] 



In another type of ceremony, women walked on all fours like ani- 

 mals.^^ 'When the medicine man saw this, he began to sing and then 

 he blew upon the patient, in the particular instance described, a woman, 

 told her to drink certain waters and to make a feast of fish or meat that 

 had to be found even though it was very scarce at the time. After the 

 feast was over, each woman returned to her own house. Later the 

 medicine man came back to visit the ill woman, blew on her, and sang 

 with several others who had been summoned for this purpose while 

 they rattled a dry tortoise shell filled with little pebbles. They told 

 the patient to make three or four feasts and hold a singing and dancing 



88 Members of certain Iroquois medicine societies, as Bear and Buffalo, imitate the animal 

 to which the society is dedicated. Persons also may become possessed upon witnessing a 

 dance of the medicine society and will then have to be cured by that society (Fenton : 

 personal communication). 



