252 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull, ei 



One of the greatest things it taught me is that the first thing a sick person should do 

 is to take a sweat l)ath, to take out all the impurities, so that the body will respond to 

 remedies. The booth showed how the sweat lodge must be constructed, and the hot 

 stone showed the use of heated stones in the lodge. The hot stone is taken into the 

 lodge, and water is sprinkled upon it. The oftener this bath is taken, the healthier a 

 person will be. In ease of illness, the sick person must take this bath the first thing, 

 and as often afterward as the medicine-man directs. I always prescribe the sweat 

 bath the first thing. I also claim that a sick person can not recover unless the diet is 

 changed. Certain kinds of food and of wild fruit are bad in certain illnesses, and 

 certain kinds of game or venison are injurious to a sick person. The food must be 

 lighter than usual, and the person must avoid unnecessary exertion. My recjuire- 

 ments are the sweat bath, light diet, and rest. I have treated consumption, and if the 

 disease is not too far advanced the person usually recovers. The treatment depends 

 on the seriousness of the case. All three herbs which I saw in my dream were pre- 

 pared in a certain way and w^ere intended for use in consumption, which is caused by 

 improper circulation of the blood. I do not want the patient to make any undue 

 exertion, but I try especially to keep up his circulation. The sweat bath makes the 

 circulation better. In the-old days a person did not take cold after a sweat bath. The 

 sick person did not jump immediately into cold water, as is sometimes stated, but was 

 covered with furs and allowed to cool off gradually. 



Many years ago there lived among the Sioux a medicine-man 

 named Ceha'kiij (Carry-the-Kettle), who was said to have walcaY 

 power in a remarkahle degree. A gourd rattle ^ (pi. 32) used by him 

 in treating the sick became the possession of the writer. 



Such a rattle is called by the Sioux wagmu'ha.^ This is, however, 

 not the only type of rattle used among the Sioux in treating the sick, 

 the form of rattle depending on the choice of the medicine-man. 



Every medicine-man had a bag or case in wliich he kept his supply of 

 herbs and the articles used by him in treating the sick. In some in- 

 stances the outer case was of decorated rawhide. A man's medicine 

 bag was hung on a pole outside the lodge and usually brought in at 

 night; it was often " incensed " with burning sweet grass. It was be- 

 lieved that the presence of "the wrong kind of person" in the lodge 

 would affect the efficacy of the medicine, and that if it were exposed to 

 such influence for any considerable time its power would be entirely 

 destroyed. The writer secured three of these medicine bags. One 

 (pi. 33) belonged to a medicine-man named Wagbh'iyo'take (Sitting 

 Eagle), who lived many years ago. The bag is made of four ante- 

 lope ears. When Sitting Eagle died the medicine bag and its contents 

 passed into the possession of his niece, who emptied most of the 

 small bags contained in the pouch, but kept the pouch and two of the 



» This specimen is described as follows by Mr. E. H. Hawley, .curator of musical instruments, U. S. 

 National Museum: "Total length, 10 inches; body length, 6 inches; diameter, ,5?|' to 6 inches. An irregular 

 gourd shell with a short neck. A wooden handle enters the neck and comes out at the blossom end. Tliree- 

 sixteenth-inch holes are made in the neck and a strip of leather sewed to the neck through these holes; this 

 leather is brought down over the handle and boimd to it by a strip of bright cloth. This gives a firm attach- 

 ment between the gourd and handle. Near the outer end of the handle a groove is cut; in it is tied a strip 

 of twisted cloth so it can be worn on the arm or hung up. The gourd incloses pebbles." 



2 A rattle similar to this is pictmed by Skinner as part of a charm used by the Menomini to call the buffalo. 

 (Skmner, Alanson, Social Life and Ceremonial Bundles of the Menomini Indians, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 Anthr Papers, xni, pt 1, p. 157, New York, 1913.) 



