Ioskeha, returning, peaceably devoted himself to peopling the land.  He opened a cave which existed in the earth and allowed to come forth from it all the varieties of animals with which the woods and prairies are peopled.  In order that they might be more easily caught by men, he wounded every one in the foot except the wolf, which dodged his blow; for that reason this beast is one of the most difficult to catch.  He then formed men and gave them life, and instructed them in the art of making fire, which he himself had learned from the great tortoise.  Furthermore he taught them how to raise maize, and it is, in fact, Ioskeha himself who imparts fertility to the soil, and through his bounty and kindness the grain returns a hundred fold.

Nor did they suppose that he was a distant, invisible, unapproachable god.  No, he was ever at hand with instruction and assistance.  Was there to be a failure in the harvest, he would be seen early in the season, thin with anxiety about his people, holding in his hand a blighted ear of corn.  Did a hunter go out after game, he asked the aid of Ioskeha, who would put fat animals in the way, were he so minded.  At their village festivals he was present and partook of the cheer.

Once, in 1640, when the smallpox was desolating the villages of the Hurons, we are told by Father Lalemant that an Indian said there had appeared to him a beautiful youth, of imposing stature, and addressed him with these words:  “Have no fear; I am the master of the earth, whom you Hurons adore under the name Ioskeha.  The French wrongly call me Jesus, because they do not know me.  It grieves me to see the pestilence that is destroying my people, and I come to teach you its cause and its remedy.  Its cause is the presence of these strangers; and its remedy is to drive out these black robes (the missionaries), to drink of a certain water which I shall tell you of, and to hold a festival in my honor, which must be kept up all night, until the dawn of day.”

The home of Ioskeha is in the far East, at that part of the horizon where the sun rises.  There he has his cabin, and there he dwells with his grandmother, the wise Ataensic.  She is a woman of marvelous magical power, and is capable of assuming any shape she pleases.  In her hands is the fate of all men’s lives, and while Ioskeha looks after the things of life, it is she who appoints the time of death, and concerns herself with all that relates to the close of existence.  Hence she was feared, not exactly as a maleficent deity, but as one whose business is with what is most dreaded and gloomy.