DENSMORE] PLANTS AS MEDICINE 325 
combined an aromatic herb with their medicines as a precaution 
against their identification. The fact that persons were willing to 
impart their knowledge of these ancient remedies for publication 
indicates that the attitude of the Chippewa toward their old customs 
is passing away. 
There seems to have been something symbolic in the appearance of 
certain medicinal roots. The writer showed a certain root to a 
medicine woman and asked her if she knew what it was. She replied 
that its use was familiar to her, but that she would have known it 
was a medicinal root if she had never seen it before. On being ques- 
tioned further she said it was evidently an old root which had sent 
up a new stalk each year and had long roots extending downward. 
The stalk and the small roots were gone, but the life canal: in the 
root itself, and this would be the part used for medicine. A class of 
plants highly valued as medicines are those having a divided tap root 
supposed to resemble the legs of a man. An example of this is 
spikenard. The medicine woman already quoted brought the writer 
a plant which she said she had hesitated a long time before showing. 
Her affection and admiration for the plant itself were evident as she 
caressed its straight stalk, delicate leaves, and fine white roots, 
reluctant at the last to part with it. 
In some instances the fertile and sterile plants were considered 
separately. It will be noted that a remedy for dysentery stipulates 
that the flowering plant of Artemisia dracunculoides (mugwort) be 
used, and that in a decoction for strengthening the hair it is stated 
that a sterile plant of the same be used. The writer was informed 
of a remedy in which both sorts of “rattlesnake root” were used, 
but it was impossible at the time to secure specimens for identification. 
Vegetable remedies were usually gathered in the late summer 
or early fall, when the plants are fully developed. At that season 
it was customary for the Chippewa to take journeys or to send to 
other localities to obtain plants which grew in various soils. 
An unfailing custom of the Mide in gathering plants for medicinal 
use is to dig a little hole in the ground beside the plant and put 
tobacco in the hole, speaking meanwhile to the plant. Gagewin, 
who is a member of the Mide, said that when he dug a plant he spoke 
somewhat thus: “ You were allowed to grow here for the benefit of 
mankind, and I give you this tobacco to remind you of this, so that 
you will do the best you can for me.” This, of course, is only rep- 
resentative of part of such a speech. On one occasion the writer 
saw the tobacco put beside a tree whose bark was to be used. The 
medicine man was a member of the Otter Tail Band of Chippewa. 
He said this was commanded by the manido, who gave all knowl- 
edge of plants to the Chippewa. He seemed to require no other 
authority or reason. 
