_April 4th, 1823_. There is a sick Indian with me whom I have been obliged to feed with his whole family all winter, not being able to endure the cold on his lungs, and in a manner deserted by his friends. To get as near the truth as I can possibly do in all things relating to their mythology, I frequently converse with him on these subjects. And when _not forbidden by his Dreamed or familiars_, [he] is explicit enough. A few nights back he thus informed me upon the several questions I proposed. [The Figure in the Dream is Sickness] The one that I saw in my dream, as above related, _is not the Sun_, as my half-breeds told me. The Sun is dressed like a gentleman, [in] a short coat, waistcoat, short breeches, stockings, boots, a hat and a beautiful feather stuck in it. He speaks English and the rest as mentioned above. But the one I mentioned above, is Sickness, or the Plague. There are four of them: two walking in the air as I mentioned, and two _in_ the earth--in the bowels of the earth at a certain moderate distance from the surface, perhaps in the same _proportion_ as those who are above. [Sickness Gives Warning of Diseases] The Indian thus relates of him: When I was a young man, he appeared to me and told me his name was Sickness, and that every time a _general_ sickness was to take place amongst us, he would come and forewarn me. See, four winters ago (in 1819), after we had taken debt in the fall and were proceding, each of us, to our hunting grounds, he appeared to me one night and said, "I am come to tell you to get out of the way of all _large waters_ (lakes and rivers) and pitch off immediately into the woods. Be cautious, also select proper ground for an encamping. Never pitch your tents in large high woods particularly of the pine kind, chuse _low woods_ to encamp in. And never look up to gaze lest I see you see and you be smitten. Keep off always from large waters, for I am on a circuit round the earth. I shall follow the travelling waters (the routes or roads usually frequented or navigated), and smite all those I there find with sickness. In the interior or to one side I shall not go. Tell this to the Indians that they keep out of the way." It was that year that the _measles_ made such havock in some places. He thus continued: This last fall (in December) I saw him again. He told me he was on another circuit and intended making a large selection, passing through the plains and coming down again this way. He said he would pass when the leaves would be rather large (about the 20th June, in these parts) and told me as before to admonish everybody to keep out of the way of _large waters_ [and] trees. "It is not my doings, nor is it my choice that I thus _prowl_ through the earth." said he. "But I am sent, and cannot resist."