278 PAPERS RELATING TO A^;THROPOLOGY. 



except, perhaps, the elk dance, which theyi)erform dressed iu the skins 

 of the elk, just before going on a hunting expedition. 



Seguan, lueaning a mole, is the name of the wooden image used by 

 one of the medicine men, "Sammy," and is called by him, in English, 

 " my doctor." The medicine man professes to believe that this image 

 is animated hj a spirit that tells the medicine man if auj- one is sick or 

 dying at a distance. If, as the medicine man says, any one dies, the 

 seguan disappears from the house and goes down into the ground. It 

 travels underground from one place to another. 



The image has small eyes and mouth, and, resembling a mole, can 

 not see much, but has great will powei;. 



In doctoring, the se-guan always sings; but no one can hear it ex- 

 cei)t its medicine man. If the patient is going to die, the image warns 

 tbe doctor. In the night, the seguan stands in the middle of Sammy's 

 floor and sings, and is the guardian angel of the household. As the 

 mole is Sammy's protector, Sammy never kills a mole. The scgnan 

 goes to the graveyard and looks after the dead ; but none of the dead 

 speak to him when he goes there. 



In traveling, if the se-guan sees a fire, he never goes near it. If 4:he 

 image should get burned, his medicine man, Sammy, would immediately 

 die; and if Sammy's " doctor" should meet that of another medicine 

 man, both medicine men would soon expire. If Sammy travels, the se- 

 guan follows him, even if unsunimoned, and is to be seen by Sammy 

 wherever he goes. 



About six years ago Sammy had the vision that made him a doctor. 

 Then he heard all kinds of noises proceeding from the earth, and saw 

 spirits and tamauaws (images) " and their little bones were rattling." 

 Sammy had power given him by the Soccali Tyee Bird (the ruling bird 

 spirit) to make and to have iu his possession tire images, or "doctors," 

 at once. In order to give or sell one of these images to a white man, 

 the Indian doctor must make a new image like the one to be disposed 

 of, and must place it for a while beside the old one to absorb its spirit. 

 If a new one should not be made, the Soccali Tyee Bird would be angry. 



The image tells the doctor when contagious diseases will prevail, and 

 whether they will make the medicine man sick or not; also, how many 

 Indians will be sick, and how many will die. He tells the doctor what 

 to do " to take the sickness out." If any one is about to have sore 

 eyes, the medicine man sees the mole coming from the direction of the 

 water. Its " rattling bones " are deer's toe-nails. 



A second image in Sammy's possession is a brother of the mole and 

 exactly resembles the se-guan in appearance. When Sammy's brother, 

 Henry, died, the mole's brother conducted Henry to his new abode in 

 the land of spirits, remained there two mouths and returned to Sammy 

 with a favorable account of the condition and hapj)iness of Henry. 

 Sammy says that the other world is just the same as this, except that 

 everything is better. There are to be found all kinds of iish, elk, and 



