X.] THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 377 



with the invisible world, it is impossible to say whether or not 

 the natives " believe in the actual control of spirits by the con- 

 jurers V about which the Siberians have no doubt. Among the 

 North-west Coast natives they are credited with "the power of 

 charming away life by incantations and the use of certain charms," 

 although one of their duties is also " to drive out the evil spirit 

 which haunts the sick man 2 ." They are also expected to perform 

 other duties, such as removing the scalps of the slain in battle, 

 or even carrying out the death-sentence, when "the shaman 

 bewitches the condemned person by throwing disease into him, 

 or by poisoning him in some other (supernatural?) way 3 ." 



Most of the tungaks are clever conjurers, yet " do not seem 

 to enjoy much respect, unless they combine with the business of 

 conjuring the qualities of an expert trader and skilled hunter 4 ." 

 In a few districts the office appears to be inherited 5 , and cases are 

 reported of shamans so thoroughly ashamed of their equivocal 

 position as to warn their sons from accepting the damnosa here- 

 ditas. On the other hand observers are unanimous in declaring 

 that they never take part in, conduct, or preside at sacrificial rites 

 to gods or ancestors, or venture to propitiate evil spirits, whereas 

 this, as we have seen, is one of the most important functions of 

 the Siberian shaman. 



Perhaps the ground on which both agree best are the con- 

 juring tricks, which are often of a strikingly similar character. 

 With those of the Samoyads witnessed by the old traveller Richard 

 Johnson 6 may be compared the scene described by Franz Boas, 

 in which a female performer (a shamanka?) invites the people 



1 Petroff, p. 130. 



2 Niblack, The Coast Indians, etc., p. 349. 

 ' Boas, Social Organization, etc., p. 650. 



4 Petroff, p. 130. 



5 Thus a chief of the Niska tribe, Naas River, told Franz Boas that "only 

 a man whose father was a halait (shaman) can become a shaman." He added 

 that "many who pretend to be shamans have no supernatural helpers at all," 

 but that when he himself was called to cure disease, " four supernatural men 

 appeared to him and helped him. They pointed out witches to him, and 

 enabled him to see ghosts, etc." (Tenth Report of the North- Western Tribes of 

 Canada, 1895, pp. 59-60.) 



6 p. 289. 



