Onditachiae
excerpted from Chapter V. LeJeune's Relation
of 1636 by Fr. Jean de Brebeuf
There are among these People men who presume to command
the rain and winds; others, to predict future events; others, to find things
that are lost; and, lastly, others to restore health to the sick, and that
with remedies that have no relation to the sicknesses. That they have these
gifts from God, nobody in my opinion will dare to say; that all they do
is deception or imagination hardly accords with the reputation they have
acquired, and the length of time they have followed this profession. How
is it that their tricks have not been discovered during so many years,
and their business has acquired so much reputation, and been always so
well rewarded, if they have never succeeded except by sheer imagination?
No one dares to contradict them. They are continually at feasts, which
take place at their command. There is, therefore, some foundation for the
belief that the Devil occasionally gives them assistance, and reveals himself
to them for some temporal profit and for their eternal damnation. Let us
see some examples of it. Onditachiae is renowned among the Tobacco Nation
like a Jupiter among the Heathens of former times, from having in hand
the rains, the winds, and the thunder This thunder is, by his account,
a man like a Turkey cock; the Sky is his Palace, and he retires there when
it is serene; he comes down to earth to get his supply [135] of adders
and serpents and of all they call Oki, when the clouds are rumbling; the
lightnings occur in proportion as he extends or folds his wings. If the
uproar is a little louder it so his 1ittle ones who accompany him, and
help him to make a noise as best they can. Raising the objection to him
who told me the tale, "whence, then, cam dryness?" he replied that it came
from the caterpillars, over whom Onditachiae had no power. And asking him
"why the lightning struck trees?" "It is there," said he, " that it lays
in its supply." " Why does it burn Cabins, why does it kill men?" Chieske?
"How do I know?" he said. That is their refrain when they are driven to
the wall. As regards predicting the future which is not remote, nor hard
to know for that reason, I have been assured by Louys de saincte Foy that,
when they were going to war, one of their Jugglers as he came forth from
the Sweat-box, predicted a meeting with the Iroquois at a certain spot.
There is indeed much probability that the Devil was sentinel for him. I
could say this of others who, is truth, have been found false, and about
whom a good old man entertained me some time ago. Ah, said he, there is
a greater Master than he. He spoke of a certain false Prophet who had been
deceived in his calculation. Was it not well said for a Savage? And is
there not something tin this to inspire some hope in regard to what we
are seeking here?