not the place for these discussions.---- (17) -_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, & 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; & when "not forbid- den by his Dreamed or familiars" is explicit enough. A few nights back he thus informed me upon the several questions I proposed. 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, i.e a short coat, waistcoat, short breeches, stock- ings, boots, a hat & a beautiful feather stuck in it. He speakes English &c. 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, & two _in_ the earth, i.e. in the bowels of the earth at a certain moderate distance from the surface, perhaps in the same _proportion_ as those who are above. The indian thus relates of him: "When I was a young man, he appeared to me, & told me his "name was Sickness; & that every time a _general_ sickness was to take place "amongst us he would come & forwarn me. See: Four winters ago (in 1819) after "we had taken debt in the fall & were proceding each of us to our hunting Grounds "he appeared to me one night & said, 'I am come to tell you to get out of the way "'of all _Large waters_ (i.e. Lakes & rivers) & 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 & never look up to Gaze lest I see you see & you be "'smitten. Keep off, always from Large waters, for I am on a circuit round "'the earth: I shall follow the travelling waters (i.e. The routes or roads "'usually frequented or navigated) & 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 & intended making a "large selection, passing thro' the plains & coming down again this way. He said "he would pass when the leaves would be rather large (about the 20th June, "in these parts) & told me as before to admonish every body to keep out of the "way of _large waters_, trees &c. &c.--'It is not my doings, nor is it my choice "'that I thus _prowl_ thro' the earth, said he, but I am sent, & cannot resist'-- "Now we will be again this spring visited with some sickness, but I cannot "tell which--it is a breaking out in the flesh &c. and his appearing to you