264 THE WINNEBAGO TRIBE. [eth. ann. 37 



fulfill all the conditions I dig them out and mix them together with 

 their own roots. Then I take the blossom of the male and mix it 

 together with the center leaf of the female flower. After that both 

 are ground together thoroughly. Then I go to the woman I wish to 

 court and, at night, when she is asleep, I touch first any part of her 

 body, then a place not far from her heart, and finally the top of her 

 head with this mixtui"e. Finally I make her smell it. I then wake her 

 up and go home. The girl will wonder who had touched her and she 

 will think a good deal about the incident and never forget it. The 

 next time I see her she wiU. like me and she will do whatever I ask 

 of her. The medicine would be workuig. If I did not see her for a 

 long time, she would get lonesome, and the only thing that would 

 cure her would be to marry me. 



There is another medicine which I am now going to describe. 

 When it first sprouts, which is in the sprmg, it is quite white. This 

 must he taken and dried. Then one must chew it and go near the 

 woman with whom one desires to talk. Approach her on the side 

 from which the wmd is blowing so that she can smell the medicine. 

 As soon as she smells it, even although the man chewing it is one 

 whom she has hitherto disliked, she will get to like him. This is the 

 way in which the medicme works. 



A man who was blessed was told of all these thmgs. He cured all 

 diseases. If a person had been shot and one blessed with the stench- 

 earth medicine was called, he could be cured. In the same maimer, 

 if one is stabbed in what would generally be considered a fatal way 

 and if a man blessed with stench-earth was called in time he would 

 save him. The same cure is effected ui cases of broken arms and of 

 patients who are on the pouit of death. It is for this reason that 

 those blessed with the stench-earth medicines are always praised, 

 and that the people say "They surely are m charge of life; for their 

 blesshigs really come from the spirits, just as they claim." ^ 



[The "stench-earth" medicme men could imdoubtedly cure the 

 sick, but they also used it to poison people. The courtmg medicuie 

 was a poison medicine, and therefore it was not good. These people 

 cured the body, but they killed the soul. It would have been much 

 better had they saved their souls. They were really working for 

 the devil. It is from him that they got all the bad medicines. When- 

 ever they were offended, they would go and get poisons to kiU the 

 offender. Thus the devil * was really causuig them to kill their own 

 souls and the souls of those they poisoned. It is the same with all 



' The following portion in brackets is the comment of our informant, who is a member of the Peyote 

 sect. 



* Although he really means the Christian devil many of the traits of the old Winnebago deity Ilerec- 

 gu'nina, the chief of the bad spirits, are clearly discernible. 



