108 THE ACOMA INDIANS 



There are many witches in the world, evil spirits whose sole pur- 

 pose is to injure people, to make them sick."' A witch may appear 

 in a number of guises. He may come as ahnost any kind of animal 

 or bird or he may appear as a person. Sometimes persons in the 

 pueblo itself prove to be witches. There is no sign by which one may 

 recognize a witch in the body of a dog, or an owl, or a person. This 

 fact makes witches even more insidious and dangerous. One can 

 detect a witch only by associating some person or animal with some 

 malady. For the layman this association amoimts to little more than 

 mere suspicion (sometimes abetted by jealousy or dislike in the case 

 of persons accused of witchcraft). But the medicLne men are infalli- 

 ble. When by means of their instruments and rituals the}- have 

 secured power from the animal medicine men they can see and know 

 everything. 



Witches cause disease in two ways. They shoot such things as 

 thorns, sticks, pebbles, broken glass, rags, yarn, or snakes into some 

 one's bodj^, or they steal a person's heart and make off with it.^^ In 

 either case, of course, the patient becomes very ill and will die unless 

 the objects are removed or the heart returned. 



A person who is ill may secure treatment from a medicine society 

 (or a single doctor) if he so desires. A sick person is not compelled 

 to submit to treatment, but the medicine men are obligated to treat 

 any person applying to them for aid. 



Whethei' one doctor or an enth'e society is summoned depends upon 

 the wishes of the patient (and his immediate senior kin) and upon the 

 nature of the ailment. If the ailment is relatively slight, one doctor 

 only may be called ; if the illness is quite serious an entire society would 

 probably- be summoned. 



If one medicine man is to be called, the father of the patient makes 

 a prayer stick and praj's for the health of his child. Then lie places 

 the stick in the hands of the sick one, who prays. Then the father 

 takes the prayer stick to the doctor who has been chosen and asks 

 liim to come. 



The doctor visits the patient, bringing with him two eagle plumes 

 and a gourd rattle, and some buckskin bags of medicine. He sings, 

 prays, and smokes. He examines the jjatient to determine the 

 location of the objects which have been injected by the witch. He 



^" There is a feeling among the Indians, however, that witches do not, or can not, injure white people. 

 There is no reason why the Indians should prefer white physicians to their own, they say; each one treats 

 his own ailments— the white doctor for white diseases, the Indian for Indian; and witch diseases are peculiar 

 to Indians and can be treated only by native medicine men. 



'''* The first method seems to be more common than the second. I received one account of witchcraft at 

 Acoma that described another method of causing illness. There was an epidemic of whooping cough in the 

 pueblo. Persons walking about the village late at night heard a man walking around the houses. He 

 was beating a drum, making a gtisping sound which resembled coughing and gasping. He was a witch 

 who was responsible for the sickness in the pueblo. Perhaps this case may represent another category in 

 the etiology of disease which might he formulated as follows: A witch by simulating the symptoms of a 

 disease may spread sickness among the i^eople. This is, of coiu*se, a species of sympathetic mxigic. 



