Fig. 671.—Winnebago magic animal.
Schoolcraft, part II, p. 224, describes Fig. 671 as follows:
It was drawn by Little Hill, a Winnebago chief of the upper Mississippi, west. He represents it as their medicine animal. He says that this animal is seldom seen; that it is only seen by medicine men after severe fasting. He has a piece of bone which he asserts was taken from this animal. He considers it a potent medicine and uses it by filing a small piece in water. He has also a small piece of native copper which he uses in the same manner, and entertains like notions of its sovereign virtues.
The four preceding figures are to be compared with those relating to the Piasa rock. See Figs. 40 and 41, supra.
Fig. 672.—Mythic buffalo.
Fig. 672.—A Minneconjou Dakota, having killed a buffalo cow, found an old woman inside of her. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1850-’51.
For remarks upon this statement see Lone-Dog’s Winter Count for 1850-’51, supra.
Graphic representations of Atotarka and of the Great Heads are shown in Mrs. Erminie A. Smith’s Myths of the Iroquois, in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Several illustrations of myths and mythic animals appear in the present work in Chap. IX, Secs. 4 and 5.
Some forms of the thunder bird are here presented:
Fig. 673.—Thunder-bird, Dakota.
Fig. 674.—Thunder-bird, Dakota.
Figs. 673 and 674 are forms of the thunder bird found in 1883 among the Dakotas near Fort Snelling, drawn and interpreted by themselves. They are both winged, and have waving lines extending from the mouth downward, signifying lightning. It is noticeable that Fig. 673 placed vertically, then appearing roughly as an upright human figure, is almost identically the same as some of the Ojibwa meda or spirit figures represented in Schoolcraft, and also on a bark Ojibwa record in the possession of the writer.
Fig. 675.—Wingless thunder-bird, Dakota.
Fig. 675 is another and more cursive form of the thunder bird obtained at the same place and time as those immediately preceding. It is wingless, and, with changed position or point of view, would suggest a headless human figure.
Fig. 676.—Thunder-bird, Dakota.
The thunder-bird, Fig. 676, is blue, with red breast and tail. It is a copy of one worked in beads found at Mendota, Minnesota.
Fig. 677.—Dakota thunder-bird.
The Sioux believe that thunder is a large bird, and represent it thus, Fig. 677, according to Mrs. Eastman (c), who adds details condensed as follows:
This figure is often seen worked with porcupine quills on their ornaments. U-mi-ne wah-chippe is a dance given by some one who fears thunder and thus endeavors to propitiate the god and save his own life.
A ring is made of about 60 feet in circumference by sticking saplings in the ground and bending their tops down, fastening them together. In the center of this ring a pole is placed, about 15 feet in height and painted red. From this swings a piece of birch bark cut so as to represent thunder. At the foot of the pole stand two boys and two girls. The boys represent war; they are painted red and hold war clubs in their hands. The girls have their faces painted with blue clay; they represent peace.
On one side of the circle a kind of booth is erected, and about 20 feet from it a wigwam. There are four entrances. When all arrangements for the dance are concluded the man who gives it emerges from his wigwam, dressed up hideously, crawling on all fours toward the booth. He must sing four tunes before reaching it.
In the meantime the medicine men, who are seated in the wigwam, beat time on the drum, and the young men and squaws keep time to the music by hopping on one foot and then on the other, moving around inside the ring as fast as they can. This is continued for about five minutes, until the music stops. After resting a few moments the second tune commences and lasts the same length of time, then the third and the fourth; the Indian meanwhile making his way toward the booth. At the end of each tune a whoop is raised by the men dancers.
After the Indian has reached his booth inside the ring he must sing four more tunes. At the end of the fourth tune the squaws all run out of the ring as fast as possible, and must leave by the same way that they entered, the other three entrances being reserved for the men, who, carrying their war implements, might be accidentally touched by one of the squaws, and the war implements of the Sioux warrior have from time immemorial been held sacred from the touch of woman. For the same reason the men form the inner ring in dancing round the pole, their war implements being placed at the foot of the pole.
When the last tune is ended the young men shoot at the image of thunder, which is hanging to the pole, and when it falls a general rush is made by the warriors to get hold of it. There is placed at the foot of the pole a bowl of water colored with blue clay. While the men are trying to seize the parts of the bark representation of their god they at the same time are eagerly endeavoring to drink the water in the bowl, every drop of which must be drank.
The warriors then seize on the two boys and girls (the representations of war and peace) and use them as roughly as possible, taking their pipes and war-clubs from them and rolling them in the dirt until the paint is entirely rubbed off from their faces. Much as they dislike this part of the dance, they submit to it through fear, believing that after this performance the power of thunder is destroyed.
James’s Long (f) says:
When a Kansas Indian is killed in battle the thunder is supposed to take him up they do not know where. In going to battle each man traces an imaginary figure of the thunder on the soil, and he who represents it incorrectly is killed by the thunder.
Fig. 678.—Thunder-bird. Haida.
Fig. 678 is “Skam-son,” the thunder-bird, a tattoo mark copied from the back of an Indian belonging to the Laskeek village of the Haida tribe, Queen Charlotte islands, by Mr. James G. Swan.
Fig. 679.—Thunder-bird. Twana.
Fig. 679 is a Twana thunder-bird, as reported by Rev. M. Eells in Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, III, p. 112.
There is at Eneti, on the reservation [Washington Territory], an irregular basaltic rock, about 3 feet by 3 feet and 4 inches, and a foot and a half high. On one side there has been hammered a face, said to be the representation of the face of the thunder-bird, which could also cause storms.
The two eyes are about 6 inches in diameter and 4 inches apart and the nose about 9 inches long. It is said to have been made by some man a long time ago, who felt very badly, and went and sat on the rock and with another stone hammered out the eyes and nose. For a long time they believed that if the rock was shaken it would cause rain, probably because the thunder-bird was angry.
The three following figures, taken from Red-Cloud’s Census, are connected with the thunder-bird myth:
Fig. 680.—Medicine bird. Dakota.
Fig. 680.—Medicine bird. Red-Cloud’s Census. The word medicine is in the Indian sense, before explained, and would be more correctly expressed by the word sacred or mystic, as is also indicated by the waving lines issuing from the mouth.
Fig. 681.—Five thunders. Dakota.
Fig. 681.—Five thunders. Red-Cloud’s Census. The thunder-bird is here drawn with five lines (voices) issuing from the mouth, which may mean many voices or loud sound, but is connected with the above mentioned wavy or spiral lines, which form the conventional sign for wakan.
Fig. 682.—Thunder pipe. Dakota.
Fig. 682.—Thunder pipe. Red-Cloud’s Census. This is a pipe to which are attached the wings of the thunder-bird.
Fig. 683.—Micmac thunder-bird.
Fig. 683, one of the drawings from the Kejimkoojik rocks of Nova Scotia, may be compared with the other designs of the thunder-bird and also with the Ojibwa type of device for woman. As regards the head, which appears to have a non-human form, it may also be compared with the many totemic designations in Chapter XIII, on Totems, Titles, and Names.
Fig. 684.—Venezuelan thunder-bird.
Marcano (d), describing Fig. 684, reports:
At Boca del Infierno (mouth of hell), on a plain, there are found stones, separated from each other by spaces of 7 meters, on which are found inscriptions nearly a centimeter in depth. One of them represents a great bird similar to those which the Oyampis (Crevaux) are in the habit of drawing. On its left shoulder are seen three concentric circles arranged like those that form the eyes of the jaguars of Calcara. This figure is often reproduced in Venezuelan Guiana and beyond the Esequibo. The bird is united at the right by a double connecting stroke with another which is incomplete and much smaller. Furthermore, three small circles are seen below the left wing; three others, farther apart, separate its right wing from the neck of the lower bird. The triangles which form the breast and the tail of the two birds are worthy of note.
Mr. A. Ernst (b) describes the same figure:
From the same place (“Boca del Infierno,” a rapid of the Orinoco, 35 kilometers below the mouth of the Caura) is easily recognized a rough representation of two birds; from the feathers of the larger one water seems to be dropping; above, to the right, is seen a picture of the sun. This may be symbolic, and would then remind one of the representation of the wind and rain gods on the ruins of Central America.
Fig. 685.—Ojibwa thunder-bird.
Fig. 685 is a copy of four specimens of Indian workmanship in the collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The objects are depicted by porcupine quills worked on pieces of birch bark, and represent various forms of the thunder-bird. The specimens are reported as having been obtained from a northwestern tribe, which may safely be designated as the Ojibwa, because the figures relate to one of the most important mythic animals of that tribe, and also because birch bark is used, a material exceedingly scarce in the country of the Sioux, among whom also the thunder-bird has a prominent religious position.
a. Made of neutral-tinted quills upon yellow bark, as is also b, which is without the projecting pieces to designate wings. In c, made of yellow quills on faded red bark, the head is shown with the wings and legs beneath, while in the two preceding figures the head takes the place of the bird’s body. d. Here is still more abbreviation, the body and legs being absent, leaving only the head and wings. This is made of neutral-tint quills on straw-yellow bark.
Fig. 686.—Moki Rain bird.
Fig. 686 is a copy of a painting on a jar, probably of old Moki work, thus described in the manuscript catalogue of Mr. T. V. Keam:
It is the “Rain bird” (Tci-zur), the upper portion surrounded by inclosing cloud symbols, arranged so as to convey the idea of the germinative symbol implying the generative power of rain. The crosshatching, still water, in the wings denotes rain water in volume. The body or tail of the bird divided into two tapering prolongations is a very common occurrence. As a cloud emblem in the modern ware, the Tci-zur is not like the Um-tokina (Thunder-bird) in mythical creation, but is the comprehensive name used by the women for any small bird. Explained as a rain emblem by the fact that during seasons of sufficient rainfall flocks of small birds surround the villages and gardens, while during drought they take flight to the distant water courses.
Fig. 687.—Ahuitzotl.
Fig. 687 is reproduced from Kingsborough (c). It represents Ahuitzotl, which is the name of an aquatic animal famous in Mexican mythology. The conventional sign for water is connected with this animal which Dr. Brinton (c) calls a hedgehog.
Wiener (c) gives a copy, here reproduced as the left-hand character in Fig. 688, of a bas-relief found at Cabana, Peru, representing a fabulous animal, a quadruped, the hair of which is floating and its tongue hanging out of the mouth and ending in serpents’ heads. One-sixth actual size.
The same author, loc. cit., gives a copy, now reproduced as the right-hand character in the same Fig. 688, of another bas-relief in granite found at Cabana, Peru, representing a fabulous animal, perhaps the alcoce, sitting like a dog. One-sixth natural size.
Mr. Thomas Worsnop (a) gives an account of Fig. 689, abbreviated as follows:
Sir George Grey, between 1836 and 1839, saw on a sandstone rock a most extraordinary large figure. Upon examination this proved to be a drawing at the entrance to a cave, which he found to contain besides many remarkable paintings. On the sloping roof the principal character, i. e., the upper one of Fig. 689, was drawn. In order to produce the greater effect the rock about it was painted black and the figure itself colored with the most vivid red and white. It thus appeared to stand out from the rock, and Sir George Grey says he was surprised at the moment that he first saw this gigantic head and upper part of a body bending over and staring grimly down at him. He adds that it would be impossible to convey in words an adequate idea of this uncouth and savage figure, and therefore he only gives such a succinct account as will serve as a sort of description.
Its head was encircled by bright red rays, something like the rays one sees proceeding from the sun, when depicted on the signboard of a public house; inside of this came a broad stripe of very brilliant red, which was crossed by lines of white; but both inside and outside of this red space were narrow stripes of a still deeper red, intended probably to mark its boundaries; the face was painted vividly white and the eyes black, being, however, surrounded by red and yellow lines; the body, hands, and arms were outlined in red, the body being curiously painted with red stripes and bars.
Upon the rock which formed the left-hand wall of this cave, and which partly faced you on entering, was a very singular painting, the lower character of the same figure, vividly colored, representing four heads joined together. From the mild expression of the countenances they appeared to represent females, and to be drawn in such a manner, and in such a position, as to look up at the principal figure, before described; each had a very remarkable head-dress, colored bright blue, and one had a necklace on. Both of the lower figures had a sort of dress painted with red in the same manner as that of the principal figure, and one of them had a band round her waist. In Sir George Grey’s opinion each of the four faces was marked by a totally distinct expression of countenance, and none of them had mouths.
The term “shaman” is a corrupted form of the Sanscrit word meaning ascetic. Its original application was to the religion of certain tribes of northern Asia, but now shamanism is generally used to express several forms of religion which are founded in the supposed communion with and influence over supernatural beings by means of magic arts. The shaman or priest pretends to control by incantations and ceremonies the evil spirits to whom death, sickness, and other misfortunes are ascribed. This form or stage of religion was so prevalent among the North American Indians that the adoption of the term “shaman” here is substantially correct, and it avoids both the stupid expression “medicine man” of current literature and the indefinite title “priest,” the associations with which are not appropriate to the Indian religious practitioner. The statement that the Indians worship, or ever have worshiped, one “Great Spirit” or single overruling personal god is erroneous. That philosophical conception is beyond the stage of culture reached by them, and was not found in any tribe previous to missionary influence. Their actual philosophy can be expressed far more objectively and therefore pictorially.
The special feature of the notes now collected under the present heading relates to the claims and practices of shamans, but the immediately succeeding headings of “Charms and Amulets” and of “Religious Ceremonies” are closely connected with the same topic. It must be confessed that, as now presented, they have been arranged chiefly for mechanical convenience, to which convenience also in other parts of the present work scientific discrimination has sometimes been forced to yield without, it is hoped, much injury. Individual intercomparison, with or without cross references, is besought from any critical reader of this paper.
Feats of jugglery or pretended magic rivaling or surpassing the best of spiritualistic séances have been recounted to the present writer in many places by independent and intelligent Indian witnesses, not operators, generally of advanced age. The cumulated evidence gives an opportunity for spiritualists to argue for the genuineness of their own manifestations or manipulations as, in accordance with the degree of credence, they may be styled. Others will contend that these remarkable performances in which this hemisphere was rich before the Columbian discovery—the occidental rivaling the oriental Indians—belong to a culture stage below civilization. They will observe that the age of miracles among barbaric people has not expired, and that it still exists among outwardly civilized persons who are yet subject to superstition in its true etymologic sense of “remaining over from the past.”
The most elaborate and interesting of these stories which are known relate to a time about forty years ago, shortly before the Davenport brothers and the Fox sisters had excited interest in the civilized portions of the United States; but exhibitions of a magic character are still given among the tribes, though secretly, from fear of the Indian agents and missionaries. It is an important fact that the first French missionaries in Canada and the early settlers of New England described substantially the same performances when they first met the Indians, all of whom belonged to the Algonquian or Iroquoian stocks. So remarkable and frequent were these performances of jugglery that the French, in 1613, called the whole body of Indians on the Ottawa River, whom they met at a very early period, “The Sorcerers.” They were the tribes afterwards called Nipissing, and were the typical Algonquians. No suspicion of prestidigitation or other form of charlatanry appears to have been entertained by any of the earliest French and English writers on the subject. The severe Puritan and the ardent Catholic both considered that the exhibitions were real, and the work of Satan. It is also worth mentioning that one of the derivations of the name “Micmac” is connected with the word meaning sorcerer. The early known practices of this character, which had an important effect upon the life of the people, extended from the extreme east of the continent to the Great Lakes. They have been found later far to the south, and in a higher state of evolution.
It was obvious in cross-examining the old men of the Algonquians that the performances of jugglery were exhibitions of the pretended miraculous power of an adventurer whereby he obtained a reputation above his rivals and derived subsistence and authority by the selling of charms and pretended superhuman information. The charms and fetiches which still are bought from the few shamans who yet have a credulous clientele are of three kinds—to bring death or disease on an enemy, to lure an enemy into an ambush, and to excite a return to sexual love.
Among the Ojibwa three distinct secret societies are extant, the members of which are termed, respectively and in order of their importance, the Midē', the Jĕs'sakīd, and the Wâbĕnō. The oldest and most influential society is known as the Midē'wiwin', or Grand Medicine, and the structure in which the ceremonies are conducted is called the Midē'wigân, or Grand Medicine lodge.
The following statement of the White Earth Midē' shaman presents his views upon the origin of the rite and the objects employed in connection with ceremonies, as well as in the practices connected with medical magic and sorcery:
When Minabō'sho, the first man, had been for some time upon the earth, two great spirits told him that to be of service to his successors they would give to him several gifts, which he was to employ in prolonging life and extending assistance to those who might apply for it.
The first present consisted of a sacred drum, which was to be used at the side of the sick and when invoking the presence and assistance of the spirits. The second was a sacred rattle, with which he was enabled to prolong the life of a patient. The third gift was tobacco, which was to be an emblem of peace; and as a companion he also received a dog. He was then told to build a lodge, where he was to practice the rites of which he would receive further instruction.
All the knowledge which the Midē' have, and more, Minabō'sho received from the spirits. Then he built a long lodge, as he had been directed, and now even at this day he is present at the Sacred Medicine lodge when the Grand Medicine rite is performed.
In the rite is incorporated most that is ancient amongst them, songs and traditions that have descended, not orally alone, but by pictographs, for a long line of generations. In this rite is also perpetuated the purest and most ancient idioms of their language, which differs somewhat from that of the common, every-day use.
It is desirable to explain the mode of using the Midē' and other bark records of the Ojibwa and also those of other tribes mentioned in this paper. A comparison made by Dr. Tyler of the pictorial alphabet to teach children, “A was an archer,” etc., is not strictly appropriate in this case. The devices are not only mnemonic, but are also ideographic and descriptive. They are not merely invented to express or memorize the subject, but are evolved therefrom. To persons acquainted with secret societies a good comparison for the charts or rolls is what is called the trestle board of the Masonic order, which is printed and published and publicly exposed without exhibiting any of the secrets of the order, yet through its ideography it is practically useful to the esoteric members by assisting memory in details of ceremony and it also prevents deviation from the established ritual.
Fig. 690.—Ojibwa Midē' wigwam.
Fig. 690, from Copway (d), gives the Ojibway character for Grand Medicine lodge.
Fig. 171, supra, is a reproduction, with description, of a birch-bark record illustrating the alleged power of a Jĕssakkī'd, one who is also a Midē' of the four degrees of the Medicine Society.
Fig. 172, supra, represents, with explanations, a Jĕssakkī'd named Niwi'kki, curing a sick woman by sucking the demon through a bone tube.
When the method of procedure of a Midē' goes beyond the ordinary ceremonies, such as chanting prayers and drumming, the use of the rattle, and the administration of magic medicines and exorcisms, it overlaps the prescribed formulæ of the Midē'win and partakes of the rites of the Jĕssakkī'd or “Juggler.”
Fig. 691.—Lodge of a Midē'.
The lodge of the Midē' is represented as in Fig. 691, the shaman himself being indicated as sitting inside.
Fig. 692.—Lodge of Jĕssakkī'd.
The Jĕssakkī'd represents his lodge or jugglery as shown in Fig. 692, the shaman being represented as sitting on the outside. The chief feature of the jugglery lodge is that the branch is always seen projecting from the top of one of the vertical poles, which peculiarity exists in no other religious structure represented in pictorial records.
The following group, including Figs. 693 to 697, gives several modes of illustrating the “making buffalo medicine” by the Dakotas and other tribes of the Great Plains. The main object was to bring the buffalo to where they could be hunted successfully, and incantations, with dancing and many ceremonies, were resorted to, as upon the buffalo the tribes depended not only for food but for most of the necessaries and conveniences of their daily life. The topic is referred to elsewhere in this paper, especially in Lone-Dog’s Winter Count for the year 1810-’11.
Fig. 693.—Making medicine. Dakota.
Fig. 693.—A Minneconjou chief named Lone-Horn made medicine with a white buffalo cow skin. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1858-’59.
The horned head of the animal is connected with the man figure. An albino buffalo was much more prized for ceremonial purposes than any other. Lone-Horn, chief of the Minneconjous, died in 1874, in his camp on the Big Cheyenne.
Fig. 694.—Making medicine. Dakota.
Fig. 694.—A Minneconjou Dakota named Little-Tail first made “medicine” with white buffalo cow skin. The-Swan’s Winter Count, 1810-’11. Again the head of an albino buffalo.
Fig. 695.—Making medicine. Dakota.
Fig. 695.—White-Cow-Man. Red-Cloud’s Census. The mere possession of an albino buffalo conferred dignity and honor. To have once owned such an animal, even though it had died or been lost, gave specific rank.
Fig. 696.—Making medicine. Dakota.
Fig. 696.—Lone-Horn makes medicine. “At such times Indians sacrifice ponies and fast.” The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1858-’59. In this figure the buffalo head is black.
Fig. 697.—Making medicine.
Fig. 697. Buffalo is scarce; an Indian makes medicine and brings a herd to the suffering. The-Flame’s Winter Count, 1843-’44.
Here the incantation is shown by a tipi with the buffalo head drawn upon it. It is the “medicine” or sacred tipi where the rites are held.
A curious variant of divination with regard to the use of songs in the removal of disease was found among the Choctaws. Each of the songs of this class bore reference to some herb or form of treatment, each of which was represented objectively or pictorially and produced simultaneously with the chanting of the appropriate song by the shaman. The remedy or treatment to be adopted was decided upon by the degree of pleasure or relief afforded to the patient by the respective songs.
Fig. 698.—Magic Killing.
Fig. 698. Cat-Owner was killed with a spider-web thrown at him by a Dakota. Cloud-Shield’s Winter Count, 1824-’25. The spider-web is shown reaching to the heart of the victim from the hand of the man who threw it and two spiral wakan lines are also shown. Blood issuing from his nose, colored red in the original, indicates that he bled to death. It is a common belief among Indians that certain “medicine men” possess the power of taking life by shooting needles, straws, spider-webs, bullets, and other objects, however distant the person may be against whom they are directed.
It may be noted that the union line connecting the two figures at the base signifies that they belong to the same tribe which the hair on the figure of the left shows to be Dakota. The victim is not scalped, but has no hair or other designation, being shown only in outline.
Fig. 699.—Held a ghost lodge.
Fig. 699. Cannaksa-Yuha, Has-a-war-club; from the Oglala Roster. This man has his father’s name “war-club,” and is therefore set by the ghosts in his stead as a warrior. He is supposed to be invulnerable to any mortal weapon, and the children and even women fear him as they would a ghost. He holds the war club before his face, as it partakes of the nature of insignia. In the original the whole of the man’s face is painted red. This is to show that he has a wakicagapi-ecokicoupe, which means that he has put up a ghost tent, concerning which there are many and complicated ceremonies and details narrated by Rev. J. Owen Dorsey in the American Anthropologist, II, 145 et seq.
Fig. 700.—Muzzin-ne-neen. Ojibwa.
John Tanner (g) gives an account of sorcery among the Ojibwa, with illustrations copied as Fig. 700, being nearly identical with those recently obtained by Dr. Hoffman, and published in the Seventh Ann. Rep., Bureau of Ethnology, as Figs. 20 and 21.
It was thought necessary to have recourse to a medicine hunt. Nah-gitch-e-gum-me [a “medicine” maker] sent to me and O-ge-mah-we-ninne, the best two hunters of the band, each a little leather sack of medicine, consisting of certain roots pounded fine and mixed with red paint, to be applied to the little images or figures of the animals we wish to kill. Precisely the same method is practiced in this kind of hunting, at least as far as the use of medicine is concerned, as in those instances where one Indian attempts to inflict disease or suffering on another. A drawing or a little image is made to represent the man, the woman, or the animal on which the power of the medicine is to be tried; then the part representing the heart is punctured with a sharp instrument, if the design be to cause death, and a little of the medicine is applied. The drawing or image of an animal used in this case is called muzzin-ne-neen, and the same name is applicable to the little figures of a man or women, and is sometime rudely traced on birch bark, in other instances more carefully carved of wood. These little images or drawings, for they are called by the same names, whether of carved wood or rags or only rudely sketched on birch bark, or even traced in sand, are much in use among several and probably all the Algonquin tribes. Their use is not confined to hunting, but extends to the making of love, and the gratification of hatred, revenge, and all malignant passions.
It is a prevailing belief that the necromancers, men or women of medicine, or those who are acquainted with the hidden powers of their wusks, can, by practicing upon the muzzin-ne-neence, exercise an unlimited control over the body and mind of the person represented. Many a simple Indian girl gives to some crafty old squaw her most valued ornaments, or whatever property she may possess, to purchase from her the love of the man she is most anxious to please. The old woman, in a case of this kind, commonly makes up a little image of stained wood and rags, to which she gives the name of the person whose inclinations she is expected to control; and to the heart, the eyes, or to some other part of this she, from time to time, applies her medicines, or professes to have done so, as she may find necessary to dupe and encourage her credulous employer.
But the influence of these images and conjurations is more frequently tested in cases of an opposite character, where the inciting cause is not love, but hatred, and the object to be attained the gratification of a deadly revenge. In cases of this kind the practices are similar to those above mentioned, only different medicines are used Sometimes the muzzin-ne-neence is pricked with a pin or needle in various parts, and pain or disease is supposed to be produced in the corresponding part of the person practiced upon. Sometimes they blacken the hands and mouth of the image, and the effect expected is the change which marks the near approach of death.
The similarity, approaching identity, of these practices to those common in Europe during the middle ages and continuing in some regions until the present time will be noticed.
The same author, pp. 197, 198, gives an account of Ojibwa divination in the following address of a shaman, illustrated by Fig. 702.
Fig. 702.—Ojibwa divination.
For you, my friends, who have been careful to regard and obey the injunctions of the Great Spirit, as communicated by me, to each of you he has given to live to the full age of man: this long and straight line a is the image of your several lives. For you, Shaw-shaw-wa ne-ba-se, who have turned aside from the right path, and despised the admonitions you have received, this short and crooked line b represents your life. You are to attain only to half of the full age of man. This line, turning off on the other side, is that which shows what is determined in relation to the young wife of Ba-po-wash. As he said this, he showed us the marks he had made on the ground, as below. The long, straight middle line represented, as he said, the life of the Indians, Sha-gwaw-koo-sink, Wau-zhe-gaw-maish-koon, etc. The short, crooked one below showed the irregular course and short continuance of mine; and the abruptly terminating one on the other side showed the life of the favorite wife of Ba-po-wash.
Fig. 703 was copied from a piece of walrus ivory in the museum of the Alaska Commercial Company, of San Francisco, California, in 1882, by Dr. Hoffman, and the interpretation is as obtained from a native Alaskan.
a, b. The shaman’s summer habitations, trees growing in the vicinity. c. The shaman, who is represented in the act of holding one of his “demons.” These are considered as under the control of the shaman, who employs them to drive others out of the bodies of sick men. d. The demon or aid. e. The same shaman exorcising the demons causing the sickness. f, g. Sick men, who have been under treatment, and from whose bodies the “evil beings” or sickness has been expelled. h. Two “evil spirits” which have left the bodies of f and g.
Fig. 704 was copied by Dr. Hoffman from an ivory bow in the same museum. The interpretation was also obtained at the same time from the same Alaskan.
The rod of the bow upon which the characters occur is here represented in three sections, A, B, and C. A bears the beginning of the narrative, extending over only one-half of the length of the rod. The course of the inscription is then continued on the adjacent side of the rod at the middle, and reading in both directions (sections B and C), toward the two files of approaching animals. B and C occupy the whole of one side.
The following is the explanation of the characters:
A. a, baidarka or skin boat resting on poles; b, winter habitation; c, tree; d, winter habitations; e, storehouse; f, tree. Between this and the storehouse is placed a piece of timber, from which is suspended fish for drying. g, storehouse. The characters from a to g represent a group of dwellings, which signifies a settlement, the home of the person to whom the history relates. h, the hunter sitting on the ground, asking for aid, and making the gesture for supplication. i, the shaman to whom application is made by the hunter desiring success in the chase. The shaman has just finished his incantations, and while still retaining his left arm in the position for that ceremony, holds the right toward the hunter, giving him the success requested. j, the shaman’s winter lodge; k, trees; l, summer habitation of the shaman; m, trees near the shaman’s home.
B. n, tree; o, a shaman standing upon his lodge, driving back game which had approached against his wish. To this shaman the hunter had also made application for success in the chase, but was denied, hence the act of driving back. p, deer leaving at the shaman’s order; q, horns of a deer swimming a river; r, young deer, apparently, from the smaller size of the body and unusually long legs.
C. s, a tree; t, the lodge of the hunter (A. h), who, after having been granted the request for success, placed his totem upon the lodge as a mark of gratification and to insure greater luck in his undertaking; u, the hunter in the act of shooting; v-w, the game killed, consisting of five deer; x, the demon sent out by the shaman (A. i), to drive the game in the way of the hunter; y-bb, the demon’s assistants.
The following description and illustration, Fig. 705, is kindly contributed by the Rev. M. Eells, of Skokomish, Washington:
Fig. 705.—Skokomish tamahnous.
Your figure of a shaman’s lodge in Alaska [Fig. 714 in this work] reminds me of a drawing made of the same character on this reservation by one of our best educated Indian boys. His description of it is as follows: “When I was at Dr. Charley’s house (the shaman or medicine man), they tamahnoused [performed incantations] over [my brother] Frank. They saw that he was under a kind of sickness. Dr. Charley took it, and just a little after that Frank shook and became stiff, and while I sat I heard my father say that his breath was gone. I went out, as I did not want to see my brother lay dead before me. When I came back he was breathing a little and his eyes were closed. Dr. Charley was taking care of his breath with his own tamahnous [guardian spirit] and waiting for more folks to come, so as to have enough folks to beat on sticks when he should tamahnous and see what was the matter with Frank. So he went on and saw that there was another kind of sickness besides the one he took first. The other one went over Frank and almost killed him. Dr. Charley took it again and went (travel) [in spirit] with another kind of tamahnous to see where Frank’s spirit was. He found him at Humahuma [18 or 20 miles distant], where they had camped [some time previous]. So Frank got better after a hard tamahnous. From the drawing you will see how Dr. Charley fixed the kind of sickness. b shows the first sickness which Dr. Charley took. It has tails, which, when they come close to the sick person, makes him worse. a is the way it goes when it kills a person and stays in his home. c is the second one and is hanging over Frank, d. e is another sickness which is in Frank.”
In Kingsborough (d) is the following: “In the year of Eleven Houses, or in 1529, Nuño de Guzman set out for Yalisco on his march to subdue that territory. They pretend that a serpent descended from the sky, exclaiming that troubles were preparing for the natives, since the Christians were directing their course hither.” The illustration for this account is presented as Fig. 1224, Chap. XX, on Special Comparisons.
The use of material objects for the magic purposes suggested by this title is well known. Their graphic representation is not so familiar, though it is to be supposed that the objects of this character would be pictorially represented in pictographs connected with religion. The following is an instance where the use of a charm or fetich in action was certainly portrayed in a pictograph.