170               ORIGIN OF THE


THE FESTIVAL OF DREAMS AMONG THE NORTH
               AMERICAN INDIANS.

  We know not if religion has ever had any share in
what they generally call the festival of dreams, and
which the Iroquois, and some others, have more proper.
ly called the turning of the brain. This is a kind of
Bacchanal, which commonly lasts fifteen days, and is
celebrated about the end of winter.
  They act at this time all kinds of fooleries, and every
one runs from cabin to cabin disguised in a thousand
ridiculous ways; they break and overset every thing,
and nobody dares to contradict them. Whoever chooses
notto be present in such a confusion, nor be exposed to all
the tricks they play, must keep out of the way. If they
meet any one, they desire him to guess their dreams,
and if they do, it is at their expense, for he must give
the thing he dreamt of. When it ends, they return
every thing, they make a great feast, and they only
think how to repair the sad effects of the masquerade,
for most commonly it is no trifling business; because
this is also one of those opportunities which they wait
for, without saying any thing, to give those a good
drubbing who, they think, have done them any wrong.
When the festival, however, is over, all injuries are
forgotten.
  The following description of one of these festivals is
found in the journal of one of the missionaries, who was
forced to be a spectator of it, much against his will, at
Onontaguee:
  "iThe approaching festival was proclaimed on the
22nd of February, by the elders, with as much gravity
as if it had been a weihrty affair of state. They had no
sooner re-entered their cabin, than there came forth in-
stantly, men, women, and children, almost quite naked,
though the weather was excessively cold.    They
entered directly into all the cabins, then they went