When the evil spirit was gone from under their village there was no more fever. Hinun helped White Cloud in many ways, and she told these things to her people. Hinun does not live behind the falling waters in these days, for when the Indians left he went away.
Adapted from “Iroquois Myths,” Powell’s Report. [[130]]
XVII. HOW THE INDIANS CAME TO KNOW MEDICINE PLANTS
(Tuscarora)
Chief Mt. Pleasant, of the band that has the Bear totem, tells this story:
Many winters ago a poor, sickly old man came to an Indian village. In front of each wigwam was placed a skin on a pole to show what totem belonged to the family. Over some wigwams hung a beaver skin; that was the totem or sign of the tribe of Beaver Indians. Over other wigwams hung deerskins; that was the totem of the Deer tribe.
The old man stopped at each wigwam and asked for food and a place to sleep during that night. He looked so sick that the families who had the Wolf, the Turtle, and the Heron totems all refused him a chance to enter their wigwams.
He went the whole length of the village, and at last he saw a wigwam with a bearskin hanging over it. A [[131]]kind old squaw came out of this wigwam and brought food to him, and spread out skins for his bed. The old man felt very sick. He told her what plants to gather in the woods to make him well.