Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 03Champlain, Samuel de
History
Voyages of Samuel De Champlain — Volume 03
Champlain, Samuel de
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Indians of North America -- Canada; New France -- Discovery and exploration
The medicine-man thus gains honor and credit, his patient being so soon
healed and on her feet. This treatment, however, does nothing for those who
are dangerously ill and reduced by weakness, but causes their death rather
than their cure; for I can testify that they sometimes make such a noise
and hubbub from morning until two o'clock at night that it is impossible
for the patient to endure it without great pain. Sometimes the patient is
seized with the desire to have the women and girls dance all together,
which is done in accordance with the direction of the _oqui_. But this is
not all, for he and the _manitou_, accompanied by some others, make
grimaces, perform magic arts, and twist themselves about so that they
generally end in being out of their senses, seemingly crazy, throwing the
fire from one side of the cabin to the other, eating burning coals, holding
them in their hands for a while, and throwing red-hot ashes into the eyes
of the spectators. Seeing them in this condition, one would say that the
devil, the _oqui_, or _manitou_, if he is thus to be called, possesses and
torments them. This noise and hubbub being over, they retire each to his
own cabin.
But those who suffer especially during this time are the wives of those
possessed, and all the inmates of their cabins, from the fear they have
lest the raging ones burn up all that is in their houses. This leads them
to remove everything that is in sight; for as soon as he arrives he is all
in a fury, his eyes flashing and frightful, sometimes standing up,
sometimes seated, as his fancy takes him. Suddenly a fit seizes him, and
laying hold of everything he finds in his way he throws them to one side
and the other. Then he lies down and sleeps for some time. Waking up with a
jump, he seizes fire and stones which he throws about recklessly on all
sides. This rage passes off with the sleep which seizes him again. Then he
rages and calls several of his friends to sweat with him. The latter is the
best means they have for preserving themselves in health. While they are
sweating, the kettle boils to prepare them something to eat. They remain,
two or three hours or so, covered up with great pieces of bark and wrapped
in their robes, with a great many stones about them which have been heated
red hot in the fire. They sing all the time while they are in the rage,
occasionally stopping to take breath. Then they give them many draughts of
water to drink, since they are very thirsty, when the demoniac, who was
crazy or possessed of an evil spirit, becomes sober.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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