DENSMORB] PLANTS AS MEDICINE 323 
Midewiwin was a respository of knowledge of herbs it did not have 
a pharmacopeeia accessible to every member. The remedies are 
individual, not general, and an individual when questioned invariably 
replies, “I can tell you about my own medicines. I do not know 
about other peoples’ medicines nor their uses of the same plants.” 
Thus it is frequently found that different people have different 
names and uses for the same plant. Members of the Midewiwin were 
not taught many remedies at once, except at the time of their initi- 
ation. Their instruction at that time comprised what might be 
termed a “ ground work in the practice of medicine,” with the identifi- 
cation and use of a number of plants. The same sort of instruction 
accompanied their advancement from one degree to another, and was 
made more extensive as they went into the higher degrees. Aside 
from these times of special instruction a man learned one or two 
remedies at a time as he felt inclined to go to the old men and buy 
the knowledge. Among the Chippewa, as among other tribes studied 
by the writer, it is not common for one man to treat a large number 
of diseases. A Sioux said: 
“In the old days the Indians had few diseases, and so there was 
not a demand for a large variety of medicines. A medicine man 
usually treated one special disease and treated it successfully. He did 
this in accordance with his dream. A medicine man would not try 
to dream of all herbs and treat all diseases, for then he could not 
expect to succeed in all nor to fulfill properly the dream of any one 
herb or animal. He would depend on too many and fail in all. 
That is one reason why our medicine men lost their power when so 
many diseases came among us with the advent of the white man.” 
While many remarkable cures were said to have been wrought by 
the Mide remedies, it was said that if no improvement were seen 
in a reasonable time the treatment was usually discontinued, it being 
said that the medicine evidently would not “take hold” in that 
particular case. From this it seems possible that they recognized a 
self-limited, and also an incurable disease, and in such cases did not 
wish to raise the hopes of the patient. 
The men and women who at the present time (1918) treat the 
sick by Mide remedies are well poised and keen eyed, with a manner 
which indicates confidence in themselves, and which would inspire 
confidence in the sick persons to whom they minister. 
As already indicated, the medicinal use of herbs has been handed 
down for many generations in the Midewiwin. It is said that mem- 
bers of the Midewiwin “follow the bear path” in proceeding from 
a lower to a higher degree in the society and that some of the 
best Mide remedies were received from the bear. Thus one of the 
7a Bull, 61, Bur, Amer, Ethn., pp. 244-245, 
