190 GUSHING — REMARKS OX SHAMAXISM. [April 23, 



tical way, is he who finds under given auspicious circumstances, his 

 name-token in the shape of a little concentric concretion, for he 

 will be in the line of ordination thereby, to the Central Council or 

 Priesthood of his people. 



And now I would fain add a word, another parenthetic statement, 

 in amplification of what Dr. Morris has said in regard to the 

 *' Medicine-men," Priests or Shamans, of such primitive peoples, — 

 in regard, that is, to their earnest character, to which I can fully testify. 



I am aware that they are generally supposed to be mere quacks; 

 charlatans or jugglers. I never knew one of them to be anything 

 of the sort. Quite the contrary. I have lived among them in the 

 tribe of my adoption, and was even initiated as one of their num- 

 ber, so far as was possible for one not born in the tribe, namely, 

 into their Society of Warriors — " the A'pithla Shi'wani,'" ox " Priest- 

 hood of the Bow " — and, moreover, I have been received in frater- 

 nal manner, by members of the priesthoods or medicine societies of 

 other tribes. Now hardly a traveler among the Indians who does 

 not come back and report what he thinks he saw when watching 

 the operation of one of these medicine-men, but almost invariably 

 his report is unreliable, from lack of understanding of what he saw. 

 Let us take, for instance, the common account that is given of an 

 Indian Medicine-Man endeavoring to effect a cure. It is said that 

 he pretends to charm or to suck or rub forth a worm or a wasp or 

 a grub or some other small object, from the diseased part of the 

 man or woman he is treating. The traveler usually states that he 

 saw the Medicine-Man, after going through his ceremonies, pretend 

 to pluck out a wasp or grub or other object, and hold it up for the edi- 

 fication of the bystanders. A little thought in regard to what really 

 occurs will explain all this. We all have our medical theories ; so 

 has the Indian Medicine-Man. Among the injuries the Indians are 

 exposed to by their mode of living, a^bruise from a stone or a hatchet 

 would be, let us say, the most frequent. This bruise may fester and 

 give rise to suppuration. The wound, naturally ill-cared for in their 

 condition of life, would readily become offensive and breed mag- 

 gots, which would batten on the sore. Now these people observe that 

 decaying meat also produces maggots or '' turns " to them, for, from 

 their observation of countless slain animals, they believe that all 

 flesh comes from, and returns to, worms. That the flesh may not be 

 further destroyed, the Indian Medicine-Man will seek to extermi- 

 nate these destructive worms ; will seek for some other maggot 



