180 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



with a flint, tlie part affected witli tlie malady, and tlien suck out all the blood 

 they can draw from it, and in returning it immediately into a dish, they at 

 the same time spit out a little piece of wood, or straw, or leather, which they 

 have concealed under the tongue. Drawing to it the attention of the relatives 

 of the sick man. " There," say they, '* is the cause of the sickness." These 

 medicine men are always paid in advance. If the sick man recovers their gain 

 is very considerable, but if he should die they are sure to have their heads 

 cut off by the relatives or friends of the deceased. This never fails to take 

 place, and even the relatives of the medicine man find nothing at all of which 

 to complain, and do not testify any concern. 



There is the same rule with some other jugglers who undertake to procure 

 rain or fair weather. These are commonly indolent old men, who, wishing to 

 avoid the labor which is required in hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of the 

 fields, exercise this dangerous trade to gain a support for their families. 

 Toward spring the nation taxes itself to imrchase from these jugglers favorable 

 weather for the fruits of the earth. If the harvest prove abundant, they gain 

 a handsome reward, but if it is unfortunate, they take it from them and cut 

 off their heads. Thus those who engage in this profession risk everything to 

 gain everything. In other respects their life is very idle; they have no other 

 inconvenience than that of fasting and dancing with pipes in their mouths, 

 full of water and pierced like a watering pot. which they blow into the air on 

 the side where the clouds are thickest. In one hand they hold the sicicouet, 

 which is a kind of rattle, and in the other their spirits, which they stretch 

 out toward the clouds, uttering frightful cries to invite them to burst upon 

 their fields. 



If it is pleasant weather for which they agk, they do not use these pipes, 

 but they mount on the roofs of their cabins, and with their arms make signs 

 to the clouds, blowing with all their strength, that they shall not stop over 

 their lands, but pass beyond. When the clouds are dissipated according to 

 their wish, they dance and sing about their spirits, which they place reverently 

 on a kind of pillow ; they redouble their fasts, and when the cloud has passed, 

 they swallow the smoke of tobacco, and hold up their pipes to the sky. 



Although no favor is ever shown to these charlatans, when they do not 

 obtain what they ask, yet the profit they receive is so great, when by chance 

 they succeed, that we see a great number of these savages who do not at all 

 fear to run the risks. It is to be observed that he who undertakes to furnish 

 rain never engages to procure pleasant weather. There is another kind of 

 charlatan to whom this privilege belongs, and when you ask them the reason, 

 they answer boldly that their spirits can give but the one or the other." 



According to De la Vonte, a similar reverence was afterward 

 yielded to Christian missionaries, whom, he says, they regarded as 

 " oracles." '' 



Besides incidental references in various places in the material 

 preceding," we find the following statements regarding belief in a 

 future existence : 



* * * They believe in the immortality of the soul, and when they leave this 

 world they go, they say, to live in another, there to be recompensed or pun- 

 ished. The rewards to which they look forward, consist ]trincipally in feasting, 



" Le Petit in Jes. Rel., lxviii, 150-157. 



^ De la Vcnto in Compte Rendu Cong. Internat. dos Anier., l.'Sth sess., i, 40. 



" See p. 94, and various places in tlie section on Funeral Ceremonies. 



