from God and the Devil at once.

The hump-backed sorcerer became a thorn in the side of the Fathers,
who more than half believed his own account of his origin. He was, he
said, not a man, but an _oki_,--a spirit, or, as the priests rendered it,
a demon,--and had dwelt with other _okies_ under the earth, when the whim
seized him to become a man. Therefore he ascended to the upper world,
in company with a female spirit. They hid beside a path, and, when they
saw a woman passing, they entered her womb. After a time they were born,
but not until the male oki had quarrelled with and strangled his female
companion, who came dead into the world. [ Le Mercier, Relation des
Hurons, 1637, 72 (Cramoisy). This "petit sorcier" is often mentioned
elsewhere. ] The character of the sorcerer seems to have comported
reasonably well with this story of his origin. He pretended to have an
absolute control over the pestilence, and his prescriptions were
scrupulously followed.

He had several conspicuous rivals, besides a host of humbler competitors.
One of these magician-doctors, who was nearly blind, made for himself a
kennel at the end of his house, where he fasted for seven days. [ See
Introduction. ] On the sixth day the spirits appeared, and, among other
revelations, told him that the disease could be frightened away by means
of images of straw, like scarecrows, placed on the tops of the houses.
Within forty-eight hours after this announcement, the roofs of
Onnentisati and the neighboring villages were covered with an army of
these effigies. The Indians tried to persuade the Jesuits to put them on
the mission-house; but the priests replied, that the cross before their
door was a better protector; and, for further security, they set another
on their roof, declaring that they would rely on it to save them from
infection. [ "Qu'en vertu de ce signe nous ne redoutions point les