784 



MAGin 



[b. a. e. 



the New World, from the earhest histor- 

 ical period to the present time, that the 

 Indians practised so-called magic arts, or 

 sorcery. The earlier writers marveled 

 at these arts, and evidently wished their 

 readers to marvel. They often attributed 

 the power of the Indians to Satan. Father 

 Acosta, in the 16th century, spoke in awe 

 of the Mexican magicians filing through 

 the air, assuming any form they pleased 

 and having telepathic knowledge of 

 events occurring at distant places, and 

 the same may be said in a general way 

 of the Eskimo. The Rev. Peter Jones 

 wrote in the first decade of the 19th cen- 

 tury: "I have sometimes been inclined 



NAVAHO ARRO 



to think that, if witchcraft still exists in 

 the world, it is to be found among the 

 aborigines of America." His personal 

 experience was among the Chippewa. 

 The Nipissing were called Jongleurs by 

 the French on account of the expert- 

 ness in magic of their medicine men. 

 Some writers of the present day marvel 

 as much as did their jjredecessors; but 

 instead of attributing the phenomena to 

 Satan, seek the cause in spirits or some- 

 thing equally occult. The feats of Indian 

 magicians, as a rule, may be easily ex- 

 plained as sleight-of-hand tricks, and their 



prophecy and telepathy as the results of 

 collusion. Their tricks are deceptions, 

 very ingenious when it is considered how 

 rude their tools and appliances are, but 

 not to be compared with the acts of civ- 

 ilized conjurers who make claim to no 

 superhuman aid. 



Distinct from such tricks of illusion and 

 deceit, there is evidence that the Indians 

 were and still are versed in hypnotism, 

 or, better, "suggestion." Carver (1776- 

 78) speaks of it among the Sioux, and 

 J. E. Fletcher observed it among the 

 Menominee about the middle of the last 

 century. Mooney describes and pictures 

 the condition among modern Indians 

 (see Ghost dance). 



Sleight-of-hand was not only much em- 

 ployed in the treatment of disease, but was 

 used on many other occasions. A very 

 common trick among Indian charlatans 

 was to pretend to suck foreign bodies, such 

 as stones, out of the persons of their pa- 

 tients. Records of this are found among 

 many tribes, from the lowest in culture to 

 the highest, even among the Aztecs. Of 

 course such trickery was not without some 

 therapeutic efficacy, for it, like many 

 other proceedings of the shamans, was 

 designed to cure disease by influence on 

 the imagination. A Hidatsa residing in 

 Dakota in 1865 was known by the name 

 Cherry-in-t he-mouth because he had a 

 trick of producing from his mouth, at any 

 season, what seemed to be fresh wild cher- 

 ries. He had found some way of preserv- 

 ing cherries, perhaps in whisky, and it was 

 easy for him to hide tliem in his mouth 

 before intending to play the trick; but 

 many of the Indians considered it won- 

 derful magic. 



The most astonishing tricks of the In- 

 dians were displayed in their fire cere- 

 monies and in handling hot substances, 

 accounts of which performances pertain 

 to various tribes. It is said that Chip- 

 pewa sorcerers could handle with impu- 

 nity red-hot stones and burning brands, 

 and could bathe the hands in boiling water 

 orsyrup; such magicians were called "fire- 

 dealers" and "fire-handlers." There 

 are authentic accounts from various parts 

 of the world of fire-dancers and fire-walks 

 among barbarous races, and extraordinary 

 fi.re acts are performed also among widel.y 

 separated Indian tribes. Among the Ari- 

 kara of what is now North Dakota, in the 

 autumn of 1865, when a large fire in the 

 center of the medicine lodge had died 

 down until it became a bed of glowing 

 emljers, and the light in the lodge was dim, 

 the performers ran with apparently bare 

 feet among the hot coals and threw these 

 around in the lodge with their bare hands, 

 causing the spectators to flee. Among 

 the Navaho performers, naked except for 

 breechcloth and moccasins, and having 



