654 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



implores, and commands the spirit to abjure the mortal clay and as- 

 sume his own proper form, alternately humoring, coaxing, and threat- 

 ening, as circumstances seem to demand, at the same time using set 

 songs whose significance is unknown outside of his own mystic call- 

 ing. In the mean time a running accompaniment is kept up by means 

 of drums, bells, and gourd and parchment rattles. By-and-by the 

 song waxes louder and more violent ; the drums are pounded harder 

 and faster, and the rattles and bells are shaken more forcibly. Higher 

 and higher the sounds rise ; shriller and shriller his voice is pitched ; 

 and faster and fiercer the accompaniment sounds, until the one be- 

 comes a frantic shriek, the other a pandemonium of most fiendish char- 

 acter, together crazing, piercing, and excruciating beyond computation ; 

 and, finally, exhausted by the violence of his efforts, fairly black in the 

 face, with perspiration streaming from every pore, he pauses and 

 eats ! A starved wolf is a miracle of satiety by comparison ; and he 

 is ably seconded in his gormandizing feats by the assembled and ad- 

 miring audience. 



Over and over again is this performance repeated, while the smoke 

 and fumes of burning gunpowder, fish-entrails, human excreta, buffalo- 

 chips, and animal hair,* fill the interior of the lodge to suffocation, 

 producing stinks that may fairly be felt. And, finally, when the ex- 

 cessively tormented and vexed spirit is sufficiently placated or fright- 

 ened, and on the point of departure, his exit is facilitated by rapidly 

 recurring discharges of musketry in and about the dwelling and over 

 the body of the sufferer. When the friends are sufficiently wealthy, 

 the fusillades are frequently prolonged for hours or days, to prevent 

 a return of the (demon) malady. 



But the spirit does oftentimes return in spite of every precaution ; 

 for naturally a relapse is coincident with the cessation of the incanta- 

 tions and the departure of the "medicine-man," or rather with the sub- 

 sidence of the nervous excitement induced by such extraordinary pro- 

 cedures. Such unfavorable result matters little, however, as the super- 

 stitions inculcated render the officiating conjurer practically unassaila- 

 ble. It is to be expected that a demon or spirit imbued with a proper 

 amount of pride and self-respect will return with the first opportunity, 

 requiring new and perhaps varied incantations. The stronger and 

 more persistent the demon, the greater evidence of power on the part 

 of the medicine-man. Everything is made to redound to his credit ; 

 consequently, the spirit is effectually disposed of only when sufficiently 

 bribed, thoroughly overreached, or utterly annihilated only when 

 Nature comes to the aid of the unfortunate and affords the necessary 



* Certain creatures, of the Mustelidce and Canidce especially, are esteemed medicine, 

 such as the beaver, mink, fisher, marten, musquash, skunk, otter, weasel, wolverine (very 

 powerful medicine), dog, fox, wolf, moose, bear, musk-ox, bison, rattlesnake, blacksnake, 

 puma, lynx, sturgeon, cat-fish, and lake sheep's-head {Haplodonitus grunniens) "great 

 medicine.'''* 



