“There are jugglers of another kind, in general old men and women, who get their living by pretending to supernatural knowledge, to bring down rain when wanted, and to impart good luck to bad hunters. In the summer of 1799, a most uncommon drought happened in the Muskingum country. An old man was applied to by the women to bring down rain, and after various ceremonies, declared that they should have rain enough. The sky had been clear for nearly five weeks, and was equally clear when the Indian made this declaration. But about four in the afternoon the horizon became overcast, and, without any thunder or wind, it began to rain, and continued to do so till the ground became thoroughly soaked. Experience had doubtless taught him to observe that certain signs in the sky or in the water were forerunners of rain; yet the credulous multitude did not fail to ascribe it to his supernatural power.[67] It is incredible to what a degree the superstitious belief in witchcraft operates on the mind of the Indian. The moment his imagination is struck with the idea that he is bewitched, he is no longer himself. Of this extraordinary power of their conjurers, of the causes which produce it, and the manner in which it is acquired, they have not a very definite idea. The sorcerer, they think, makes use of some deadening substance, which he conveys to the person he means to strike, in a manner which they can neither understand or describe. The person thus stricken is immediately seized with an unaccountable terror. His spirits sink, his appetite fails, he is disturbed in his sleep, he pines and wastes away, or a fit of sickness seizes him, and he dies at last, a miserable victim to the workings of his own imagination.[68]