444 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



come during the last hours of Flat Mouth's life that he could not recall 

 exactly what songs were sung, but he did record a song that he generally 

 sang under such circumstances (fig. 1). 



The writer's study of the Midewiwin and the treatment of the sick 

 was continued at White Earth, Minn., where Hoffman had witnessed 

 a ceremony of the society in 1889. Certain Chippewa remembered 

 him and aided the later work which continued to some extent his earlier 

 research on the subject (Cf. p. 454.) 



A certain class of Chippewa doctors are not of necessity members 

 of the Midewiwin. They claim to summon spirits and commune 

 with them. Such men do not administer remedies but rather impress 

 their patients by exhibitions of various sorts intended to show their 

 magic power. They are commonly called jugglers and are here desig- 

 nated as medicine men. The Jesuit Fathers met them early in the 

 seventeenth century and called them "magiciens et consul teurs du 

 manitou" (spirits) . In their demonstrations they are tightly bound 

 and placed in a small conical tipi. They sing, the structure sways as 

 though in a tempest, and strange sounds are heard; these sounds 

 are said to be the voices of spirits communing with the medicine 

 man. Nor has this custom entirely passed away. The writer wit- 

 nessed it in 1930 at Grand Portage, an isolated Chippewa village 

 on the north shore of Lake Superior, where for about two hours in 

 the quiet of a summer evening the little tipi swayed as though a 

 mighty wind were blowing. The next day the medicine man said 

 that he had summoned the spirits to learn whether they would help 

 him cure a certain sick man. Without that assurance he was unwill- 

 ing to take the case. He added that the spirits "spoke loud and clear" 

 so he was sure his treatment would be successful. A day or two 

 later a "beneficial dance" was held under his direction for the man, 

 whose illness had been diagnosed by a physician and a nurse as "ap- 

 parently typhoid fever." They told the man to keep quiet and re- 

 main in bed. The dance was held in an enclosure at his door, and a 

 generous feast was cooked and served. The writer attended the dance 

 and listened to the songs, and about two weeks afterward she was 

 informed that the man had recovered. 



At Santo Domingo Pueblo, N. Mex., as among the Chippewa, the 

 private treatment of the sick may be followed by treatment in a public 

 ceremony. The healing customs of this pueblo were described and 10 

 of its healing songs recorded in Los Angeles by a man from the pueblo. 

 He said, "If the doctors who give herb remedies fail to help a patient, 

 the medicine men of the Flint society may be summoned." This is a 

 medicine society which goes into retreat before a communal rabbit 

 hunt and follows the retreat with a ceremony much like that used to 

 bring rain or secure good crops. The members of the society, usually 



