180 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 43

with a flint, the part affected with the malady, and then suck out all the blood
they can draw from it, and in returning it immediately into a dish, they at
the same time spit out a little piece of wood, or straw, or leather, which they
have concealed under the tongue. Drawing to it the attention of the relatives
of the sick man, There," say they, is the cause of the sickness." These
medicine men are always paid in advance. If the sick man recovers their gain
is very considerable, but if he should die they are sure to have their heads
cut off by the relatives or friends of the deceased. This never fails to take
place, and even the relatives of the medicine man find nothing at all of which
to complain, and do not testify any concern.
 There is the same rule with some other jugglers who undertake to procure
rain or fair weather. These are commonly indolent old men, who, wishing to
avoid the labor which is required in hunting, fishing, and the cultivation of the
fields, exercise this dangerous trade to gain a support for their families.
Toward spring the nation taxes itself to purchase from these jugglers favorable
weather for the fruits of the earth. If the harvest prove abundant, they gain
a handsome reward, but if it is unfortunate, they take it from them and cut
off their heads. Thus those who engage in this profession risk everything to
gain everything. In other respects their life is very idle; they have no other
inconvenience than that of fasting and dancing with pipes in their mouths,
full of water and pierced like a watering pot. which they blow into thile air on
the side where the clouds are thickest. In one hand they hold the sicicouet,
which is a kind of rattle, and in the other their spirits, which they stretch
out toward the clouds, uttering frightful cries to invite them to burst upon
their fields.
 If it is pleasant weather for which they ask, they do not use these pipes,
 but they mount on the roofs of their cabins, and with their arms make signs
to the clouds, blowing with all their strength, that they shall not stop over
their lands, but pass beyond. When the clouds are dissipated according to
their wish, they dance and sing about their spirits, which they place reverently
on a kind of pillow; they redouble their fasts, and when the cloud has passed,
they swallow the smoke of tobacco, and hold up their pipes to the sky.
 Although no favor is ever shown to these charlatans, when they do not
 obtain what they ask, yet the profit they receive is so great, when by chance
 they succeed, that we see a great number of these savages who do not at all
 fear to run the risks. It is to be observed that he who undertakes to furnish
 rain never engages to procure pleasant weather. There is another kind of
 charlatan to whom this privilege belongs, and when you ask them the reason,
 they answer boldly that their spirits can give but the one or the other."

 According to De la Vente, a similar reverence was afterward
 yielded to Christian missionaries, whom, he says, they regarded as
 oracles." 5
 Besides incidental references in various places in the material
 preceding,c we find the following statements regarding belief in a
 future existence:
 They believe in the immortality of the soul, and when they leave this
 world they go, they say, to live in another, there to be recompensed or pun-
 ished. The rewards to which they look forward, consist principally in feasting,

 a Le Petit in Jes. Rel., LXVIII, 150-157.
 "De la Vente in Compte Rendu Cong. Internal. des Amer., 15th sess., i, 40.
 C See p. 94, and various places in the section on Funeral Ceremonies.