1953] RITZENTHALER, CHIPPEWA HEALTH 207 



tin, and finally spat out the tube, and the drumming stopped. Patient number two, 

 in constant attention to him. picked up tin, threw the contents into the stove, washed 

 the tin and the tubes, and replaced them. She passed around another shot of whiskey. 

 The patient lay very still during the treatment. She was being treated for sore legs, 

 apparently rheumatism. The doctor said he could see something like a light near her 

 navel, and that was causmg the sickness. After about five minutes of general gossiping 

 the doctor sang, and sucked in the region of the buttocks, but spat out nothing. He 

 said the cause of sickness was too tightly lodged, and that he would have to try- 

 again the following evening. The patient got up, put on her moccasins, and took a 

 seat. Another shot was passed around, and there was about a seven-minute inter- 

 mission. It was now 8:15 and a lamp was lit. 



"The second patient lay down on the floor. Tobacco and whiskey were passed 

 followed by a speech in which the doctor told of how hard he tried to have a vision 

 and learn something when he was a boy. Ever)- morning when he awoke there would 

 be a plate of food, a piece of charcoal, and a switch. He chose the charcoal rather 

 than the food and switch, would rub some on his cheeks and go out fasting for a 

 half or the whole day. When he was a young man he went out on his long vision 

 quest to a sand bluff near Spooner, and there the sun came to him and helped him. 

 The doctor sang a song after which whiskey was passed, the tin filled with whiskey 

 and drunk as before. The first patient ate the food, and after another song the 

 doctor kneeled over the patient who was lying on her back and covered completely 

 with a piece of cheese-cloth. He blew and sucked on her foot, turned her on her 

 side and sucked on her hip, then on her forehead and neck, and spat mucous and the 

 tube into the dish. After a brief intermission and the passing of whiskey he resurned 

 sucking, successively on the forehead, eye, neck and breast, spat out mucous which 

 was thrown into the fire. There was the same convulsive swallowing and regurgi- 

 tating the tube before each sucking, examining the patient through the tube, and 

 blowing through the tube as done in the case of the first patient. When it was over 

 the patient got up, the doctor put his tubes away after they had been washed, and a 

 social shot was passed. It was now 9 o'clock. The doctor told us he would treat 

 them both the next night and that we were welcome to come. He said he would call 

 on sawano'binesi (bird of the south) a more powerful spirit than the one he used 

 tonight, and that he thought he could dislodge the first patient's sickness. (The next 

 night he apparently sucked a tiny pebble from her foot. It was put into the fire 

 along with an offering of tobacco). The first patient has been sorcerized and the 

 doctor had told her who had done it. Her mouth was becoming twisted and 

 paralyzed. She also had bad eyes. We learned later that besides providing room and 

 board for the doctor she had given him a fur coat for treating her." (Field 

 Notes 1941.) 



We -^'itnessed a curing by another sucking doctor, a man over ninety, 

 also a mide' priest, and the most feared and respected man on the reservation. 

 His technique was generally similar to the other, but there were some differ- 

 ences which can be noted in the following field-note account. 



"We arrived at the doctor's house at 8 P.M. There were three Indian spectators, 

 two of us, the doctor and assistant, and the patient, a man of seventy-five. The doctor 

 related his fast at some length, and sang with his rattle and drumming of the assistant. 

 The patient had brought a pair of tennis shoes and a package of tobacco as gifts. Two 

 bone tubes had been put in a pie tin partially filled with salt water and covered with 

 a handkerchief. The doctor swallowed one of the tubes after bending over the patient 

 who was lying on a blanket on his back. He sucked several times near the navel and 

 once on the groin, sometimes regurgitating the tube and sometimes not. Spat out the 

 sali%'a after each sucking as a rule, and finally spat out tube, the drumming stopped, 

 and the first attempt was over. After a song and another series of sucking he spat out 



