Indian Weather Ceremoniatls. 41 
The Indians in some cases have ideas of controlling the 
weather more generally, and Dablin, in his “* Relation of the 
Voyages, Discoveries and Death of Father James Marquette,’ 
writing in 1671-1675, says: 
It now only remains for me to speak of the calumet, than which there 
‘is nothing among the Indians [7. e., the Illinois] more mysterious or more 
esteemed. * * * They esteem it particularly because they regard it 
as the calumet of the sun, and, in fact, they present it to him to smoke 
when they wish to obtain calm or rain or fair weather. 
Even the control of fog has been attempted, as shown by the 
following quotation from Dorsey’s account of the Turtle sub- 
gens of the Omaha: + 
In the time of a fog the men of this subgens drew the figure of a 
turtle on the ground with its face to the south. On the head, tail, mid- 
dle of the back and on each leg were placed small pieces of a (red) 
breech-cloth with some tobacco. This they imagined would make the 
fog disappear very soon. 
But it is not only the pagan Indians who have tried their 
hand at weather-making. Their christianized descendants have 
also tried to control these operations of nature. In the transi- 
tion times between paganism and Christianity occurred some 
events which throw a curious and instructive side-light on this 
question, and two of these I will now give. 
Mr Parkman says that while the Jesuits labored with the 
Hurons a severe drougth came upon the fields. The sorcerers put 
forth their utmost power, and from the tops of the houses yelled 
incessant invocations to the spirits. All was in vain. A re- 
nowned “ rain-maker,” seeing his reputation tottering under his 
repeated failures, bethought him of accusing the Jesuits, and 
gave out that the red color of the cross which stood before their 
house scared away the bird of thunder and caused him to fly 
another way. On this a clamor arose. The popular ire turned 
against the priests, and the obnoxious cross was condemned to 
be cut down. The Jesuits said: “If the red color of the cross 
frightens the bird of thunder, paint it white.” This was done, 
but the clouds still kept aloof. The Jesuits followed up their 
advantage. ‘Your spirits cannot help you. Now ask the aid 
of Him who made the world.” Heavy rains occurring soon 
* Hist. Coll. of Louisiana, part iv, 1852, pp. 34-55. 
+3d Ann. Rep. Bureau of Ethnology, p. 240. 
