942 



WHITE DOG SACEIFICE 



[B. A. E. 



contagion of fevers and hot maladies 

 produced by the Fire-god, the "Demon 

 Aoutaenhrohi," by passing through the 

 breath of fire, and the exorcism and 

 expulsion from the village and country of 

 the malign spirits that caused these evils. 

 The Jesuit Relation for 1637 relates that 

 a woman among the Hurons for whom 

 this fire rite was being performed, passed 

 barefoot through 200 or 300 fires main- 

 tained expressly for her in the several 

 cabins, and that she was not thereby 

 burned in the least. At the present time 

 this rite is performed symbolically only. 

 The persons performing the rite each 

 receive a wooden paddle and then repair 

 to each of the two phratral fires in the 

 long-house, where they dip up the ashes 

 and let them fall . For this purpose smal 1 

 parties of men, women, and children are 

 formed from either phratry, acting con- 

 secutively or sometimes simultaneously. 

 Every party, however, must have a leader, 

 a chanter, and a speaker who makes an 

 address of praise and of thanksgiving to 

 Teharonhiawagon in behalf of those who 

 accompany him to the two fires. When 

 the people have all passed through the 

 fire, the two persons who acted as heralds 

 perform this fire rite in behalf of Teharon- 

 hiawagon himself; and then two men and 

 two women from each phratry with the 

 usual complement of a leader, a chanter, 

 and a speaker, accompanied by all the 

 people, bank the phratral fires lighted in 

 behalf of Teharonhiawagon, and thus the 

 rite closes. 



In this rite the parties from the Deer 

 phratry bearing paddles leave the room by 

 the eastern doorway, turn to the lefthand, 

 or sinistrally, and go around the building 

 by the northern side and reenter the room 

 by the western doorway; but the parties 

 from the Wolf phratry bearing paddles 

 leave the room by the western doorway, 

 turn to the lefthand, or sinistrally, and 

 go around the building by the south side 

 and reenter the room by the eastern door- 

 way. Thus half of the circuit is made by 

 one phratry, and the other half by the 

 other; and by turning sinistrally the 

 parties do not at any point in their jour- 

 ney turn their backs to the Sun, their 

 "Elder Brother." This distinctly em- 

 phasizes the dual or phratral organiza- 

 tion of the tribe (q. v.), whose functions 

 symbolize those of the male and the 

 female principles in nature. 



With the close of the two fire rites, the 

 Dream festival or ceremony begins; this 

 usually lasts three days. This rite is the 

 cult of the personal tutelary, and consists 

 (1) in the renewal or rejuvenation of the 

 orenda, or magic power, of the personal 

 tutelary of every person who possesses 

 one, by having its distinctive challenge 

 pong or chant resung by the clansmen of 



the father of the owner, this resinging 

 being done according to ritual by one or 

 more persons with a drum or specific 

 rattles; and (2) in "the divining or seek- 

 ing to guess the dream- word" of those 

 who have dreamed specific dreams, for 

 the purpose of ascertaining thereby the 

 suggested or revealed tutelary of the 

 dreamer, w^ho is commonly a child, and 

 the bestowal of a small symbolic material 

 representation of this tutelary upon him 

 by his father's clansmen. A challenge 

 song or chant accompanies the bestowal 

 of the symbol referred to, and it is this 

 which is renewed in subsequent years at 

 such a ceremony. Every clan "of each 

 phratry appoints a man and a woman to 

 hear these specific dreams from children 

 and diffident persons in their clan, and 

 they afterward relate these dreams to the 

 chiefs or priest-chiefs whose duty it is to 

 divine the tutelary for each. The songs 

 which accompany the tutelaries comprise 

 practically all those belonging to the tribe, 

 with the exception of those employed for 

 condolence and sorcery. The rite begins 

 with the renewal of the two challenge 

 songs of Teharonhiawagon himself; these 

 two are the Great Feather Dance and the 

 Drum Dance. Of course, this consists in 

 singing only one of the scores of songs 

 and chants belonging to each of these 

 rites or dances. In many cases these 

 songs constitute integral parts of the 

 ritual of the Four Ceremonies, which are: 



(1) the Great Feather Dance, with about 

 150 songs with dance accompaniment; 



(2) the Drum Dance, with approximately 

 a like number of songs; (3) the Adon^wd' , 

 or Clan Personal (^hant, every clan having 

 about 100 of these, and (4) the Great 

 Wager or Bet which is laid between the 

 two phratries. This is the game of the 

 plum-pits. 



In addition to these songs and dances, 

 some persons may ask to have performed 

 the rite of aspergation with ashes by the 

 Horidu'^i' or False-faces, or that of in- 

 sufflation by them, or that of the Lament 

 of the Women, or that of the Waving of 

 Evergreen Branches, or that of the Add- 

 'gonivi'^se'^' or Dance of the Corn People, 

 or that of the Chant of Death, or any one 

 of many others. It is sometimes neces- 

 sary that persons from both phratries as- 

 sist in the performance. There are, too, 

 certain tutelaries whose nature is sup- 

 posed to be such that their challenge 

 songs need not be renewed at the New 

 Year ceremony, but they may be reju- 

 venated at any other time at a public 

 or private festival held in their honor. 

 These independent tutelaries are the Sun, 

 whose challenge song is the Skin-drum 

 Dance (One'ho^wV); the Moon, whose 

 challenge songs are three in number, 

 namely, the A'gonwi'''se'"'' or Dance of 



