SWANTON] DOCTORING AND MEDICINES 269 
quently saved himself by laying the blame upon lay infractions of the sacred 
regulations or taboos—among them the payments which they owed to him— 
which rendered his best endeavors unavailing. If the drought were prolonged 
as much as two years, a council was held at which they did not fail to discover 
that the trouble was due to persistent violations of the taboos by certain indi- 
viduals, who were then promptly dispatched. Too much rain might work as 
much to the harm of the rain maker as too little, Adair instancing a case of a 
Creek rain maker who was shot because the river overflowed their fields to a 
great height in the middle of August.“ These men had a transparent stone “ of 
supposed great power in assisting to bring down the rain when it is put in a 
basin of water,” and this power was supposed to have been passed down to this 
one from a stone to which the power had originally been committed. As usual, 
this stone could not be exposed to the gaze of the vulgar without losing mightily 
in efficacy.” The control of the rain maker extended only to the summer rains 
and not to those which fell in winter, and it was believed that this was also of 
supernatural ordination. The summer rain had to be sought for; the winter 
rain was given unsought. If the seasons were good, the rain maker was paid a 
certain proportion of each kind of food. It is amusing to note that, like the 
apologist for obsolescent institutions at the present day, the Chickasaw rain 
maker with whom Adair conversed took the ground “that though the former 
beloved speech had a long time subsided, it was very reasonable that they 
should still continue this their old beloved custom; especially as it was both 
profitable in supporting many of their helpless old beloved men, and very pro- 
ductive of virtue, by awing their young people from violating the ancient laws.” “ 
Adair thus comments upon the belief in witchcraft among the 
Chickasaw of his period: 
There are no greater bigots in Europe, nor persons more superstitious, than 
the Indians (especially the women), concerning the power of witches, wizards, 
and eyil spirits. It is the chief feature of their idle winter nights’ chat; and 
both they, and several of our traders, report very incredible and shocking stories. 
They will affirm that they have seen, and distinctiy, most surprising appari- 
tions, and heard horrid shrieking noises.“ 
He has preserved for us the following interesting account of an 
exorcism to protect the house from evil influences: 
In the year 1765, an old physician, or prophet, almost drunk with spirituous 
liquors, came to pay me a friendly visit; his situation made him more com- 
municative than he would have been if quite sober. When he came to the door, 
he bowed himself half bent, with his arms extended north and south, con- 
tinuing so perhaps for the space of a minute. Then raising himself erect, with 
his arms in the same position, he looked in a wild frightful manner, from the 
southwest toward the north, and sung on a low bass key Yo Yo Yo Yo, almost 
a minute, then He He He He, for perhaps the same space of time, and Wa Wa 
Wa Wa, in like manner; and then transposed and accented those sacred notes 
several different ways, in a most rapid guttural manner. Now and then he 
looked upwards, with his head considerably bent backward; his song continued 
about a quarter of an hour. As my door which was then opened stood east, 
his face of course looked toward the west; but whether the natives thus usually 
invoke the deity, I can not determine; yet as all their winter houses have their 
% Adair, Hist. Am. Inds., pp. 85-86. 49 Tbid., pp, 84-94. 
* Ibid., pp. 86-87, “ Ibid., p. 36. 
