THE GUARDIAN MANITOU. Ixxi 



maiiitou, — a beast, a bird, a fish, a serpent, or some 

 other object, aniraate or inanimate. An eagle or a bear 

 is the vision of a destined warrior; a wolf, of a suc- 

 cessful hunt^jr ; while a serpent foreshadows the future 

 medicine-man, or, according to others, portends disaster.^ 

 The young Indian tlienceforth wears about his person the 

 object revealed in his dream, or some portion of it, — as a 

 bone, a feather, a snake-skin, or a tuft of hair. This, in 

 the modern language of the forest and prairie, is known 

 as his '' medicnie." The Indian yields to it a sort of 

 worship, propitiates it with offerings of tobacco, thanks it 

 in prosperity, and upbraids it in disaster.^ If his medi- 

 cine fails to bring the desired success, he will sometimes 

 discard it and adopt another. The superstition now 

 becomes mere fetich-worship, since the Indian regards 

 the mysterious object which he carries about him rather as 

 an embodiment than as a representative of a supernatural 

 power. 



Indian belief recognizes also another and very differ- 



1 Compare Cass, in North-American Review, Second Series, XIII. 100. 

 A turkey -buzzard, according to him, is the vision of a medicine-man. I 

 once knew an old Dahcotali chief, who was greatly respected, but had 

 never been to war, though belonging to a family of peculiarly warlike 

 propensities. The reason was, that, in his initiatory fast, he had dreamed 

 of an antelope, — the peace-spirit of his people. 



Women fast, as well as men, — always at the time of transition from 

 childhood to maturity. In the Narrative of John Tanner, there is an 

 account of an old woman who had fasted, in her youth, for ten days, and 

 throughout her life placed the firmest faith in the visions which had 

 appeared to her at tliat time. Among the Northern Algonquius, the 

 practice, down to a recent day, was almost universal. 



2 The author has seen a Dahcotah warrior open his medicine-bag, 

 talk with an air of affectionate respect to the bone, feather, or horn 

 within, and blow tobacco-smoke upon it as an offering. " Medicines " are 

 acquired not only by fasting, but by casual dreams, and otherwise. They 

 are sometimes even bought and sold. For a curious account of medicine- 

 bags and fetich-worship among the Algonquins of Gaspe, see Le Clerc, 

 Nouvelle Relation do la Gaspesie, Chap. XIII. 



