malleuy.) SHAMANISM EXORCISING DEMON. 191 



is so prevalent among the North American Indians that the adoption of 

 the term Shaman here is substantially correct, and it avoids both the 

 stupid expression "medicine-man" of current literature and the indefi- 

 nite title priest, the associations with which are not appropriate to 

 the Indian religious practitioner. The statement that the Indians wor- 

 ship one "Great Spirit" or single overruling personal god is erroneous. 

 That philosophical conception is beyond the stage of culture reached by 

 them and was not found in any tribe previous to missionary influence. 

 Their actual philosophy can be expressed far more objectively and 

 therefore pictorially. 



Many instances of the " Making Medicine " are shown in the Dakota 

 Winter Counts; also graphic expressions regarding magic. Especial ref- 

 erence may be made to American-Horse's count for the years lS24-'25 

 and 1843-41, in the Corbusier Winter Counts. 



Figure 110 was copied from a piece of walrus ivory in the museum of 

 the Alaska Commercial Company, of San Francisco, California, by Dr. 

 Hoffman, and the interpretation is as obtained from an Alaskan native. 



jjjj? ^j^p >agr^ 



8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 . 



Fig. 110. — Shaman exorcising Demon. Alaska. 



1, 2. The Shaman's summer habitations, trees growing in the vicinity. 



3. The Shaman, who is represented in the act of holding one of his 

 " demons." These " evil spirits " are considered as under the control of 

 the Shaman, who employs them to drive other "evil beings" out of the 

 bodies of sick men. 



4. The demon or aid. 



5. The same Shaman exorcising the demons causing the sickness. 



6. 7. Sick men, who have been under treatment, and from whose 

 bodies the "evil beings" or sickness has been expelled. 



8. Two "evil spirits" which have left the bodies of Nos. 6 and 7. 



Fig. Ill represents a record of a Shamauistic nature, and was copied 

 by Dr. Hoffman from an ivory bow in the museum of the Alaska 

 Commercial Company in 1882. The interpretation was also obtained at 

 the same time from an Alaskan native, with text in the Kiatexamut 

 dialect of the Inuuit language. 



The l'od of the bow upon which the characters occur is here repre- 

 sented in three sections, A, B, and C. A bears the beginning of the 

 narrative, extending over only one-half of the length of the rod. The 

 course of the inscription is then continued on the adjacent side of the 

 rod at the middle, and reading in both directions (section B and C), 

 towards the two files of approaching animals. B and C occupy the 

 whole of one side. 



