NO. 4 UPPER YUKON NATIVE CUSTOMS — SCHMITTER I9 



mal, thus stripping the latter of his power, who thus becomes Hke 

 any one else and liable to destruction by the stronger one. 



If a man wants to become skillful in magic healing he goes to 

 sleep in the same blanket with a medicine-man. When they are 

 asleep and dreaming he is taught the medicine by his instructor. 

 The medicine-man, however, is disinclined to teach others, because 

 he is apt to lose his power and since a stronger one could kill him, 

 A bad medicine-man likes to kill, but a good medicine-man always 

 wants to cure, and it is said the good are apt to live longer. 



Their treatment of wounds is most interesting. If a wound bleeds 

 profusely, the medicine-man gets a piece of king salmon skin the 

 size of the palm and cleans it of scales. He takes this between his 

 palms and has another Indian hold his hands together for security; 

 then, as the medicine-man blows, the salmon skin disappears, going 

 into the wound, where it forms a membrane and stops the bleeding. 

 This is extracted again when the wound is healed. This method is 

 also employed when there is a pain but no bleeding. 



An odd test used in case of sickness is to put a frog on top of the 

 man's head; if the frog soon jumps away the man dies soon, but 

 if the frog remains on his head for any length of time the man will 

 live a long time. 



Last winter one of the Indians had severe tuberculosis, bronchitis, 

 and pleurisy, for which I treated him, unaware that he was a medi- 

 cine-man, and during the spring he recovered. He has since confided 

 to me that his illness was caused by a bad medicine-man from 

 "Tanana," who sent the quill of a large eagle feather that entered 

 into him and caused his sickness. He insisted that he extracted this 

 quill in the presence of several witnesses, thus defeating with his 

 magic the machinations of his enemy and curing himself. One of 

 the witnesses assures me that this actually happened. 



Disease is not always the result of the medicine-man's evil spirit, 

 but sometimes comes of itself, so the Indians have certain actual 

 medical remedies. If they have a cough they chew grass roots or 

 spruce bark to stop the illness, and sometimes the old women boil 

 bark, roots, and brush to make tea, which is drunk for all forms 

 of illness. Originally many kinds of bark were infused in the same 

 mixture, making a sort of general remedy, for it seems probable 

 that the specific use of these herbs was not acquired until later from 

 the whites; at least the medicine-man never used them or any other 

 drug, his practice being limited to psychotherapy. 



In war times the medicine-man performs his magic against the 



