proceedings: anthropological society 495 



Reindeer bones were in former days sometimes placed in a spring; 

 this was believed to restore life. According to Lappish ideas the 

 relations between reindeer and man are rather intimate. In former 

 days the same deity took care of the birth of children and of reindeer 

 calves. A reindeer's life can buy life for man, and the life. of a human 

 being can buy reindeer luck. 



At the 487th regular and 36th annual meeting of the Society, held 

 April 20, 1915, Dr. Henry R. Evans, of the Bureau of Education, 

 read a paper on The old and new magic. In addition to explanations 

 given in hiis book under this title, the speaker held, in common with 

 others taking part in the discussion, that thought transference and 

 even hypnotism might be the real explanation of peculiar phenomena 

 exhibited by so-called mediums and chlairvoyants. At any rate, 

 this would throw light upon some of the spiritualistic seances in 

 which he had taken part. In interviews with "psychics" in different 

 parts of the country, a knowledge was shown by these exhibitors of 

 the occult that could not possibly have been obtained through any 

 ordinary channels of information. Although ''orthodox" science 

 sneers at so-called telepathy, many eminent psychologists have little 

 doubt that there is a basis of fact underlying clairvoyance and thought 

 transference which has not as yei been fully worked out in a scientific 

 manner. 



Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt said that shamans among the Iroquois were all 

 jugglers and had annual meetings at which they showed their skill. 

 They believed that each trick came from a "dangerous dream." Each 

 juggler was obliged at these meetings to show a new trick or he forfeited 

 his life, and a simple trick answered the purpose if it deceived the 

 other jugglers. Jugglers could swallow pebbles, knives, and the like, 

 by the use of a tube inserted in the throat, made of a piece of Angelica. 

 They also caused "appearances" in the smoke after putting tobacco 

 and perfumes upon the fire. A juggler that could not tell the meaning 

 of a dream also forfeited his life. 



Mr. Francis La Flesche related some tricks played by the Pawnee 

 jugglers. One feat, the swallowing of a deer's head, he could not 

 explain. "Arrows" were swallowed which were made of ^ vine soaked 

 and greased so as to render them pliable. Pawnee tricks were more 

 remarkable than those described by the speaker of the evening, in that 

 the jugglers were nearly nude, remained in the midst of the audience, 

 and did not use any of the aids employed by professional prestidigita- 

 tors. Medicine men sometimes avenged themselves b}' playing tricks 

 that seemed simple enough when explained. One secretly tied a horse's 

 hair tightly around the exposed tip of the tail of the offender's horse, 

 causing the animal to walk backward in circles until restored to its 

 normal condition by the medicine man on payment of a fee. 



Mr. MooNEY spoke of remarkable hypnotic phenomena which he had 

 observed among the Indians. He believed in the possibility of hypno- 

 tizing an entire audience of Indians, especially during the ghost dance, 



