454 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1952 



ment case. In one song he talks to a sturgeon and a bird, and in the 

 others to the seal, grizzly bear, deer, and eagle. 



Tasalt has inherited his name from a remote past and does not 

 know its meaning. He lives on the Fraser River and is commonly 

 known as Catholic Tommy. When the writer's work was explained, 

 he said that he would record his four songs for the treatment of small- 

 pox, fever, palsy, hemorrhage from the lungs and pneumonia. These 

 were preceded by a long introductory song. The songs were ascribed 

 to mythical spirits; one was said to live in the water and to resemble 

 a dog. It had a golden breast and golden eyes. Another was received 

 from a "wild spirit" that he could not describe. He said these spirits 

 went away when the White men came. Each song has its own charac- 

 teristics and the rhythms are varied. The tempo is slowest in the song 

 for pneumonia and most rapid in the song for palsy. 



The members of the Chippewa Midewiwin continue the treatment 

 which they were using for the sick when Hoffman heard their songs 

 in 1889. The writer talked with one of these men in August 1945. 

 He was Joe Pete of Lac Vieux Desert, Mich. Two of his recent 

 cures, with singing, were related. ( Cf . pp. 442-444. ) 



These examples will suffice to show the close relation between music 

 and medicine among the Indians and the deep faith of these primitive 

 peoples in the healing power of music. The White man has developed 

 his own methods of musical therapy, but in isolated places the Indian 

 doctor still sings the songs that come to him in dreams, while his pa- 

 tients listen and recover. 



Reprints of the various articles in this Report may be obtained, as long as 

 the supply lasts, on request addressed to the Division of Publications, 

 Smithsonian Institution, Washington 25, D. C. 



