INDIANS OF WASHINGTON TERRITOEY. 675 



very earnestly on sotnewliat the same principle tiiat the Mohammedan 

 prays. Hence they tamanous for wind, for gambling, and to cure the 

 sick or cause sickness. 



A wicked medicine man can, as they believe, in an invisible manner 

 shoot a stone, ball, or poison into the heart of a person to make him 

 sick. They believe this so tirmlj^ that they say when the heart of one 

 who died was opened the stone or bone has been found in it. He is 

 also 8Ui)posed to bi^ able to send a woodpecker, squirrel, bear, or any 

 treacherous animal to the heart of his enemy to eat his heart, plague 

 him, make him sick, or kill him. The good medicine man finds out from 

 his sickness what kind of an animal it is and then tries to draw it forth, 

 and while the common people make a noise, pounding on a rough drum, 

 on sticks, halloing, singing, etc., the medicine man places his hands on 

 some part of the body and draws forth, or says he does, the evil spirit, 

 and when he says he has it he holds it between his hands, invisible, and 

 blows it up or takes it to another man who throws a stone at it and 

 kills it. When the sick person is not cured they say there are several 

 evil spirits, but sometimes the person dies before they are all drawn out 

 or else the opposing medicine man is stronger than he and so he can 

 not draw them all out. Sometimes the good spirit of the person is gone 

 and he is sick. Then the medicine man draws them all out.- Some- 

 times the good spirit of the person is gone and he is sick. Then the 

 medicine man tries with hi ; hands to draw it back and so cure him. 



The first time I ever saw an Indian doctor perform over a sick per- 

 son was in October, 187G. The patient was a woman of perhaps fifty 

 years. As I went to the house a prominent Indian came out and told 

 me that although they had sent to the agency physician for medicine, 

 yet they were not certain where she was sick. At times she could not 

 see, she would know almost nothing, and could not tell where she was 

 sick, and they were tamanousing to find out what was the difficulty, 

 and when they had learned this they would send and obtain the right 

 kind of medicine. They say that they often do tamanous, first in order to 

 learn what is the difficulty and afterwards to cure. Having asked per- 

 mission, I went in and took my seat, as directed, behind the doctor, so 

 that he was between me and the patient. The house was about 20 feet 

 square, a summer house, built on the gravelly beacli of the Skokomish 

 Eiver. There were about fifteen persons in the house, both men and 

 women, all of whom while the doctor was performing beat with small 

 sticks on larger ones and sang in regular time. I was in one corner of 

 the house, the patient (female) in the opposite corner facing me, sitting 

 up and held by another woman. There were two fires near the middle, 

 and the doctor was between them on his knees on the gravel. He was 

 stripped to the waist, having only pantaloons and boots on, and faced 

 the woman. He had a small tub of water-near the woman. As he be- 

 gan he almost laid down on the gravel and sang and kept swinging his 

 head up and down, constantly singing, while the other Indians joined 



