es 
Indian Rain Ceremonials. nT 
bladder. Before the pipe is smoked it is held toward the sky, 
and the thunder god is addressed. * * * ‘At the conclu- 
sion of this ceremony the rain always ceases, dnd the Bear people 
return to their homes.’ ” * 
Catlin, in his “ Life among the Indians ” (page 78), says that 
he found that the Mandan had ‘ rain-makers” and also “ rain- 
stoppers,” who were respected medicine men “ From the aston- 
ishing facts of their having made it rain in an extraordinary 
drought, and for having stopped it raining when the rain was 
continuing to an inconvenient length.” He adds: 
For this purpose, in a very dry time, the medicine men assembled in 
the medicine lodge, and sitting around a fire in the center, from day to 
day smoking and praying to the Great Spirit for rain, while a requisite 
number of young men volunteered to make it rain. Each one of these, 
by ballot, takes his turn to mount to the top of the wigwam at sunrise in 
the morning, with his bow and arrows in his hand and shield on his arm, 
talking to the clouds and asking for rain, or ranting and threatening the 
clouds with his bow, commanding it to rain. After several days of un- 
successful attempts have passed off in this way with a clear sky, some one 
more lucky than the rest happens to take his. stand on a day on which a 
black cloud will be seen moving up. When he sees the rain actually fall- 
ing he lets his arrow fly, and pointing.says: ‘‘ There! my friends, you 
have seen my arrow go. There js a hole in that cloud. We shall soon 
have rain enough.’? When he comes down he is a medicine man. The 
doctors give him a feast and a great ceremony and the doctor’s rattle. 
When the doctors commence rain-making they never fail to succeed, for 
they keep up the ceremony until the rain begins to fall. Those who have 
once succeeded in making it rain, in the presence of the whole village, 
never undertake it a second time. They would rather give. other young 
men a chance. 
A similar account of the Mandan ceremony is given by Mr 
John Frost, in his book ‘‘ The Indians of North America ” (New 
York, 1845, page 109). He says: 
It was in a time of great drought that I once arrived at the Mandan 
village on the upper Missouri. The young and the old were crying out 
that they should have no green corn. After a day or two the sky grew a 
little cloudy i in the west, when the medicine men assembled together in 
great haste to make it rain. The tops of the wigwams were soon crow ded. 
In the mystery lodge a fire was kindled, around which sat the rain- 
makers, burning sweet-smelling herbs, smoking the medicine pipe and 
calling on the Great Spirit to open the door of the skies to let out the 
* “Qmaha Sociology,’’ op. cit., 1884, p. 227. 
