1953] RITZEXTHALER, CHIPPEVCA HEALTH 213 



Mourning Taboos 



A person in mourning is not allowed to touch children until after a 

 removal of the mourning ceremony. During this period the mourner's touch 

 may produce sickness or even death to the child. It is believed that G. B. 

 who is paralyzed on one side got that way because a woman in mournmg 

 picked him up when he was small. The Chippewa have a great love of 

 children and it is probable that this taboo was rarely broken, and then only 

 by accident. 



Destroying the Straw Man 



Perhaps the most interesting method of protecting the health of the 

 community or an individual is by means of sympathetic magic employed 

 by a group. By the act of obliterating a straw man made for the purpose it 

 is believed that an impending sickness will be obliterated. 



"The ceremonial pattern is simple. A person is warned bv his guardian spirit 

 through the medium of a dream that sickness is about to descend upon the com- 

 munity. The person notifies the community by sending a runner with tobacco, the 

 common method of invitation. The runner presents some of the tobacco (a bit of cut 

 plug, or Standard) to each family, and tells them when and where to come, and to 

 bring equipment for what they are going to do (wimasin skibi'jigan — we are going 

 to make an image). At the appointed time the people assemble bringing food, 

 tobacco; the men with guns; the women and children with knives, clubs, and axes. 

 The Dreamer then tells the people his dream and why they are doing this. The food 

 is laid out on the floor, tobacco is passed around and smoked, and the Dreamer gets 

 up and dedicates the food and tobacco to the ma'nidog (spirits) and asks their help 

 in doing this thing. The people then eat, it being believed that the food and tobacco 

 are really offerings which go to the ma'nidog. After the fast the men take their guns 

 and the women and children their clubs, knives, and axes, go outside and cautiously 

 approach the straw man which has been set a short distance away from the house by 

 the runner. The figure is made of straw or hay (to be inflammable) varying in height 

 from about two to four feet, and dressed in a miniature man's costume. It is either 

 made by the runner the night before, or by the women just before the ceremony 

 begins. . . . 



"As the people approach the straw man. the Dreamer gives the signal to the men 

 to shoot it with their shotguns, he joining them. The women and children then rush 

 up to club it. cut it, and chop it to bits. The remains are gathered up by the people 

 or runner, placed in a pile, and burned. They may return to the house where the 

 Dreamer thanks them for their assistance." (Ritzenthaler, p. 320.) 



Although ordinarily done to avert sickness in the local community the 

 system may have wider application. During World War II a man who had 

 heard of the high incidence of malaria among U. S. troops in the South 

 Pacific dreamed that he should help them by destroying the straw man, 

 and this was done. 



