INDIAN MEDICINE. 653 



when I assert that whole families, especially during the ravages of 

 epidemics, are frequently and literally drummed, rattled, stank, and 

 powwowed out of existence. Conceive of a child with its peculiarly 

 sensitive nervous organization, prostrated with burning fever, kept in a 

 close and stifling atmosphere and subjected to combinations of sounds 

 and smells fit to launch an adult in full tide of health into the very 

 depths of lunacy ! Why, the din is so very infernal in character, the 

 odors so intensely nauseous and suffocating, that the wonder is that 

 any recover. Seemingly the most obstreperous of spirits, even the 

 " Old Harry " himself, would be forced in self-defense to stop ears, 

 clap fingers to nose, and flee to the uttermost confines of space ! 



The demonology of the red-man seemingly provides for various 

 classes of spirits possessed of like attributes (but more exaggerated) 

 with man. Some are strong, bold, persistent, revengeful, malevolent 

 beyond measure, and but sparingly amenable to discipline. Others, 

 again, are mild, weak, vacillating, forgiving, indifferent, easily placated. 

 One of the latter may be got rid of, sometimes, with little trouble 

 and ceremony ; but an old and accomplished individual not infre- 

 quently demands the combined wisdom and efforts of a dozen or more 

 conjurers, while days and even weeks may be consumed ere a success- 

 ful (or fatal) issue is reached. Then there are various creeds, or arti- 

 cles of faith, that would appear not to be definitely settled (theologians 

 and physicians the world over will disagree !), and it is a somewhat 

 mooted question as to how the evil ones are disciplined, and whether 

 they are coaxed or frightened from their hold upon the victim, alto- 

 gether annihilated, or amenable to all three measures. In one thing, 

 however, the fraternity is united ; in any event, the treatment is the 

 same ! 



The medicine-man is no sooner summoned, than he begins to enact 

 the part of a leech in very truth. Above all things, he must feast, and 

 that, too, almost incessantly, and upon the very best the surroundings 

 afford, else he can not sustain the strength necessary to a struggle with 

 the denizens of the spirit-world ; and it frequently happens that not 

 only the family of the sufferer, but all his blood relatives even to the 

 most remote degree (and this is enforced by a very nice point of sav- 

 age honor), are thereby rendered hopelessly bankrupt ! 



An examination, to determine the condition of the sufferer, is not 

 at all essential, since the conjurer possesses an infallible means of diag- 

 nosis in the charms and amulets that stuff to repletion the "medicine- 

 bag " that is constantly worn suspended from the neck ; through these 

 he derives power to mingle with the inhabitants of the unseen world, 

 and to bring before his mental vision the entire physical and spiritual 

 economy of any individual of earth or air at will. Summoning to his 

 aid an assistant or assistants, he proceeds to his incantations without 

 the least questioning or circumlocution, beginning with a low, monoto- 

 nous chant rising and falling with abrupt inflections, wherein he begs, 



