104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



ceremony was given if the sick man had dreamed that it would cure 

 him or if a diagnostician had said it would (JR 10: 183). For ex- 

 ample, one woman saw at the begimiing of her illness a black man 

 who touched her body. She simultaneously felt all on fire. Before 

 the man disappeared he had begun to dance with the rest of the troop. 

 When she told of this experience, all those present concluded that 

 the awataerohi had caused her illness. Many feasts were then made 

 for her recovery ; among them was a feast of a dog on one day when 

 she was very sick. As she opened her eyes while the dog was half 

 alive on the coals, they thought that the medicine was operating. 

 Next, a medicine man was called in to try to cure her. After taking 

 a sweat bath to diagnose her illness, he said that she had been 

 bewitched [for an account of this part of the treatment see below, 

 "Witchcraft"] (JR 13: 31). Part of the ceremony consisted of the 

 women singing and dancing (JR 13: 189; C 151; S 201) under the 

 direction of the medicine man (C 151) while the "men struck vio- 

 lently against pieces of bark" — the whole creating an awful din 

 (JR 13: 189). Stones which were heated red hot in the fire 

 during the singing were handled by the medicine man. He then 

 chewed hot coals and, with his hands so warmed by the coals, rubbed 

 the disease-affected parts of the patient and blew or spit out on those 

 parts some of the coals he had chewed (S 200-201). Or certain men 

 took live coals in their bare hands and rubbed these coals over the 

 stomach and body of the patient (JR 13:189; 14:63), threw fire 

 from one side of the house to the other, swallowed red-hot coals, held 

 them in their hands for a time, and threw red-hot ashes into the eyes 

 of the spectators (C 151). During one such ceremony, a man put 

 a large live coal in his mouth and growled like a bear into the ears of 

 his patients. When the coal broke in his mouth, the ceremony was not 

 deemed effective and consequently was repeated the next day. This 

 time, the men carried red-hot stones the size of a goose egg instead 

 of live coals in their mouths while holding their hands behind their 

 backs and blew on the patients and growled in their ears (JR 14: 

 59-63). While coals were being thrown about, the occupants of the 

 house feared that the contents of their house would be burned up. For 

 this reason they removed everything in sight (C 152). When the 

 medicine man arrived, his eyes were flashing and frightful and he 

 stood or sat as he wished. Suddenly, he would lay hold of every- 

 thing he found in his way and throw it from one side to the other. 

 Then he would lie down and sleep for a time. Waking with a jump, 

 he would seize fire and stones and throw them on all sides. Then he 

 would sleep again and, on waking, would call several of his friends to 

 sweat with him (C 152-153; S 201). While they were sweating, the 

 kettle boiled in preparation for giving them something to eat. They 

 sweated, covered with their robes, for 2 or 3 hours in a bark-covered 



