DENSMORE] PLANTS AS MEDICINE 327 
enough for identification.) She said, “ The plant has a very long root 
and the leaves come up from joints of the root, not from the knuckle 
of the root which projects above the ground and is bare. I look for 
the knuckle or knob of the root and then look about 3 or 4 inches away 
for the leaves. The plant grows in soft ground, like that near a lake.” 
Medicinal barks were so generally available that they were usually 
gathered when they were needed. The barks of chokecherry and 
wild cherry, in quantity for one decoction, are shown in Plate 43, d, as 
they would be prepared for a patient. 
As already stated, the roots and herbs were usually stored in bags. 
Some men used the square bags woven of yarn; others preferred bags 
woven of the inner bark of cedar. One old medicine man had a bag 
peculiarly adapted for holding medicinal roots. It was made of 
leather and was smaller at the top than at the bottom to preclude 
the possibility of dampness. The prepared pulverized roots could 
be kept in either birch bark or leather, the latter being preferred. 
A bag used for this purpose is shown in Plate 45. A packet of 
medicine tied in cloth ready to be delivered to a sick person is 
shown in Plate 43, a This contains four vegetable substances 
pounded together and was said to be a sufficient quantity to make 
four liquid preparations of the remedy. This has no distinguishing 
mark, the ingredients being known only to the medicine man who 
prescribed the remedy. A medicine man, however, has various means 
of marking his herbs. One man identifies his prepared herbs by the 
knot in the string with which the packet is tied, the identification 
and use of the herbs being known only to himself.** 
The storing of roots in bags has already been noted and refers to 
a man’s supply of roots and herbs for an entire season. Apart from 
this stored supply a member of the Mide usually carried a large 
number of medicines in his Mide bag. Sometimes he carried a 
small quantity of some particularly strong medicine in a buckskin 
bag, which was placed in the skull of the animal which formed his 
Mide bag. Poisons were not infrequently carried by the Mide, and 
they were instructed in their use. An instance was related of an 
aged man, a member of the Mide, who came to a lodge one winter 
night tired and cold. He said, “ Never mind, I have some medicine 
which will soon warm me.” He then took a packet from the skull 
of his Mide bag, put a little of the contents in water and drank it. 
A few moments later he said, “I have taken the wrong medicine; I 
shall die.” And in a few hours he was dead. 
In addition to the vegetable substances believed to have an effect 
when administered internally or externally there were herbs and 
roots believed to act by their presence independent of actual contact. 
% See Bull. 86, Bur. Amer. Ethn., Pl. 78, 0. 
