178 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



fact, Charlevoix and Le Petit show that they did exist. Yet it is 

 possible that the theocratic organization of the Natchez had gone so 

 far as to suppress them in large measure. It is, perhaps, in con- 

 firmation of this view that the only supernatural feat specifically 

 recorded by Dumont was by a shaman among the Yazoo. On this 

 aspect of the shamanistic profession he speaks very naively as 

 follows : 



Besides the medical talent which makes these alexis famous amoug these 

 peoples they have also among them, as I have said, the function of jugglers, 

 that is to say, sorcerers and diviners, and when any pressing need arises, 

 whether individual or public, such as an extraoi'diuary drought, recourse is 

 had to these impostors who, in whatever way they manage, rarely fail to give 

 satisfaction concerning that which is asked of them. I will report on this sub- 

 ject an event of which I was a witness which proves the skill of these char- 

 latans. 



The summer of 1723 was so dry that people hardly remembered having seen 

 the like of it in that country. The tobacco and the other plants which had 

 been sowed languished on the earth for lack of water, and if the weather 

 should not change nothing was foreseen but a very bad harvest and almost cer- 

 tain want. There was then at the grant of the late M. le Blanc at the Yazoos 

 a chaplain named I'Abbe Juif, who had served in this same capacity in the 

 armies of His Majesty. In this public calamity this pious ecclesiastic ordered 

 a general fast with orisons for forty hours in the chapel of the grant, and he 

 started processions to bend the anger of God and obtain from His mercy the 

 assistance of which there was need. Heaven was inexorable to their prayers. 

 Despairing of assistance from that quarter, the one who commanded this post 

 had the chief of the jugglers of the Yazoo Nation come, of whom he asked if he 

 would be able to bring water. The savage promised it to him for next day, and 

 I can certify that it rained not only that day, but even the day following. I 

 leave to another to examine by what art the juggler was able to succeed in 

 keeping his word, but the fact is certain. After all it seems to me that one 

 might be able to explain it very naturally, and that for that it would not be 

 necessary to have recourse to the diabolic art.^ 



The Luxembourg Memoir gives an account of the manner in which 

 a shaman obtained his peculiar powers, which, although general, 

 includes the Natchez. He says : 



They have among them doctors, who, like the ancient Egyptians, do not 

 separate medicine from magic. In order to attain to these sublime functions a 

 savage shuts himself into his cabin alone for nine days without eating, with 

 water only ; everyone is forbidden to disturb him. There holding in his hand 

 a kind of gourd filled with shells, with which he makes a continual noise, he 

 invokes the Spirit, prays Him to speak to him and to receive him as a doctor 

 and magician, and that with cries, howls, contortions, and terrible shakings of 

 the body, until he gets himself out of breath and foams in a frightful manner. 

 This training being completed at the end of nine days, he comes out of his cabin 

 triumphant and boasts of having been in conversiition with the Spirit and of 

 having received from Ilim the gift of healing maladies, driving away storms, 

 and changing the weather. From that time they are recognized as doctors and 

 are very much respected ; people have recourse to them in sickness and to obtain 



» Dumont, M€m. Hist, sur La Louisiane, i, 173-175. 



