siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

240 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 103
This story shows that some exceptions must be made to Cushman's
statement that they never accused anyone of indulging in the black
art except old and decrepit women.^*^
What Simpson related regarding the animals sent into a person's
body by witchcraft has already been given. The same informant
called wizards bad doctors as opposed to prophets or good doctors.
He said that a man would sometimes sacrifice four or five dollars
worth of property, in the shape of money, silver ornaments, medi-
cine, and so on, at one spring or well into which it was believed a
wizard had put an active spirit or " hant," in order to weaken the
spell. A wizard held himself in much esteem and was often em-
ployed to injure others. They were accepted at ball games because
there they had to fight other wizards but not at other times officially.
This was Simpson's statement, but it seems to the writer unlikely
that in ancient times one who had such a reputation would have
been given a position of such importance.
Regarding rainmakers I will quote the following from Cushman
In the matter of rain, the Choctaw Rainmaker truly swayed the sceptre of
authority in that line of art, undisputed, and was regarded with reverential
awe by his people. In all cases of protracted drouth, which was quite frequent
at an early day in their ancient domains, the Hut-tak Um-ba Ik-bi, (man rain
maker) was regarded as the personage in whom alone was vested the power
to create rain ; therefore to him they went with their offerings and supplica-
tions, the former, however, partaking more of a persuasive nature than the
latter, in the judgment of the Umba Ikbi, as an effectual means to bring into
requisition his mysterious power in the matter of rain. He without hesitation
promised to heed their solicitations, though gently hinting that, in his judgment,
the offerings were not in as exact ratio to their importunities as they should
have been. However, he now assumes an air of mysterious thoughtfulness
and, " grand, gloomy and peculiar wrapped in the solitude of his own imagina-
tion," strolled from village to village, gazing at the sun by day and the stars
by night, seeming to hold communion with the spirits of the upper worlds
finally he ventured his reputation by specifying a certain day upon which he
would make it rain. The day arrived, and if haply came with it a rain the
faith of his dupes was confirmed, his mystic power unquestioned, and the Umba
Jkbi made comfortable. But if otherwise, he did not as the Alikchi, attribute
his failure to the counteracting influence of a witch in the person of an old
woman, but to that of a brother Umba Ikbi living in some remote part of the
nation, with whom he was just then at variance. He now informs his un-
fortunate but not faithless people that an Umba Ikbi's mind must be free
of all contending emotions while engaged in the mystic ceremonies of rain
making; tliat he was now angry, too much mad to make it rain. Upon which
announcement, the now despairing people earnestly solicited to know if they,
in any way could assuage his wrath. He replied in the negative; but promised,
however, to consider the matter as soon as his anger abated. He now became
more reserved ; sought solitude where undisturbed he might scan the sky
and perchance discern some sign of rain. Sooner or later, he discovers a little
hazy cloud stretched along the distant western horizon ; attentively and care-
" Cushmau, Hist. Ind. Tribes, p. 25.').