36. M. W. Harrington— Weather making. 
Zuni, Choctaws, and others. For this purpose pipes were 
smoked, tobacco was burned, prayers and incantations were 
offered, arrows were discharged toward the clouds, charms were 
used, and various other methods were employed. Classifying 
by tribes the processes employed, we turn first to the Iroquois. 
Mrs E. A. Smith, in her “ Myths of the Iroquois,” says: 
In a dry season, the horizon being filled with distant thunder-heads, it 
was customary to burn what is called by the Indians real tobacco as an 
offering to bring rain. 
On occasions of this nature the people were notified by swift-footed 
heralds that the children, or sons, of Thunder were in the horizon, and 
that tobacco must be burned in order to get some rain. * 
As to the Muskingum, Heckewelder, in his “Account of the 
Indians of Pennsylvania” (Philadelphia, 1819, page 229), says: 
There are jugglers, generally old men and women, who get their living 
by pretending to bring down rain when wanted, and to impart good luck 
to bad hunters. In the summer of 1799 a most uncommon drought 
happened in the Muskingum country (Ohio). An old man was applied 
to by the women to bring down rain, and, after various ceremonies, de- 
clared that they should have rain enough. The sky had been clear for 
nearly five weeks, and was equally clear when the Indian made this 
declaration ; but about four o’clock in the afternoon the horizon became 
overcast, and, without any thunder or wind, it began to rain, and con- 
tinued to do so until the ground became thoroughly soaked. 
Heckewelder adds that ‘‘ Experience had doubtless taught the 
juggler to observe that certain signs in the sky and in the water 
were the forerunners of rain.” 
Among the Natchez, according to Father Charlevoix,t jugglers 
not only pretended to cure the sick, but also professed to procure 
rain and seasons favorable for the fruits of the earth. Their in- 
cantations were often directed to the dispersion of clouds and 
the expulsion of evil spirits from the bodies of the afflicted. 
In the third report of the Bureau of Ethnology it is stated by 
J. Owen Dorsey that “ When the first thunder is heard in the 
spring of the year the Elk people [among the Omaha Indians] 
call to their servants, the Bear people, who proceed to the sacred 
tent of the Elk gens. When the Bear people arrive one of them 
opens the sacred bag and, after remoying the sacred pipe, hands 
‘it to one of the Elk men, with some of the tobacco from the elk 
*2d Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology for 1880-’81 (1883), p. 72. 
+ Voyage to North America, Dublin, 1776, vol. ii, p. 203. 
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