240 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



May ISth. — Two days ago I left the fort, and am now en- 

 camped on a plain below Warrior's point. Near me are several 

 large lodges of Kowalitsk Indians ; in all probably one hundred 

 persons. As usual, they give me some trouble by coming around 

 and lolling about my tent, and importuning me for the various 

 little articles that they see. My camp-keeper, however, (a Kli- 

 katat,) is an excellent fellow, and has no great love for Kowalitsk 

 Indians, so that the moment he sees them becoming troublesome, 

 he clears the coast, sans ceremonie. There is in one of the 

 lodges a very pretty little girl, sick with intermittent fever; and to- 

 day the " medicine man" has been exercising his functions upon 

 the poor little patient ; pressing upon its stomach with his brawny 

 hands until it shrieked with the pain, singing and muttering his 

 incantations, whispering in its ears, and exhorting the evil spirit to 

 pass out by the door, &c. These exhibitions would be laughable 

 did they not involve such serious consequences, and for myself 

 I always feel so much indignation against the unfeeling im- 

 postor who operates, and pity for the deluded creatures who 

 submit to it, that any emotions but those of risibility are excited. 



I had a serious conversation with the father of this child, in 

 which I attempted to prove to him, and to some twenty or thirty 

 Indians who were squatted about the ground near, that the 

 " medicine man" was a vile impostor, that he was a fool and a 

 liar, and that his manipulations were calculated to increase the 

 sufferings of the patient instead of relieving them. They all 

 listened in silence, and with great attention to my remarks, and 

 the wily conjurer himself had the full benefit of them : he stood 

 by during the whole time, assuming an expression of callous 

 indifference which not even my warmest vituperations could 

 affect. Finally I offered to exhibit the strongest proof of the truth 

 of what I had been saying, by pledging myself to cure the child 

 in three days, provided the " medicine man" was dismissed with- 

 out delay. This, the father told me, required some consideration 



