560 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. ann. 31 



shaman puts the soul of the patient on his own head to give it strength. 

 After four days the soul of the patient gets better through contact 

 with the head of the principal shaman. Then he assembles all his 

 companions. They dance around the patient, and finally the leader 

 takes the soul of the sick one from his own head and puts it on the 

 head of the patient ; and he orders all the people who live in the same 

 house where the sick one is to keep silent for four days, else the soul 

 might fly away and the patient might die. 



"Sometimes the soul of a sick person is swallowed by a shaman. 

 No one must pass behind or in front of a shaman wliile he is eating, 

 lest Ms soul be swallowed by him. Therefore all the people are 

 afraid of both male and female shamans. 



"The sign that a person's soul has been swallowed by a shaman is 

 that his nose is bleeding all the time. When a shaman sees in a 

 vision that the soul of a sick person has been swallowed by another 

 shaman, the two are called to sit down by the side of the patient — 

 the one who swallowed the soul at the foot end; the other one at 

 the head. And while the shamans are singing, the one who is to 

 cure the patient strikes the back of the shaman who has swallowed the 

 soul of the sick one with his rattle which he is holding with his right 

 hand, and he strikes his stomach with his left hand. He strikes hard 

 and moves both of his hands upward until the shaman who has 

 swallowed the soul opens his mouth. Immediately the other shaman 

 throws away his rattle, puts both hands into the mouth, and takes 

 out the soul of the sick one. Then the other shaman vomits blood. 

 The shaman who is about to cure the patient puts the soul on his 

 own head, and after four days he returns it to the patient, who then 

 recovers. 



"When a shaman believes that a disease is going to visit a village, 

 he will sing Ms song at midnight to warn his or her people of the 

 coming of the disease. Thus they invite in all the people of the 

 village; and when they are hi the house, the shaman opens his 

 rattle-bag, takes out a small leather hag filled with red ocher, and 

 passes it around among all the people in the house to pamt their 

 faces — men, women, and children. After all the people have painted 

 their faces, the shaman takes a dried sea-lion bag filled with eagle 

 down, and passes it about among the people to put the down on their 

 heads." 



Mayne (pp. 289-295) prints the following description of shamanistic 

 practices given to him by Mr. Duncan: 



I am led to conclude that these medical practitioners are, for the most part, those 

 who have themselves been visited with some serious sickness, and have recovered; or 

 else have been, at some time in their lives, exposed to great peril, but have escaped 

 uninjured. For instance, if a man or woman is taken in a fit, and remains motionless 

 for so long that they are concluded dead, should such a one ultimately recover, that is 



