146 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth.ann.14 



du poteau qui sortait de terre, disant que cesob jets £taient lesrestes du "Madaodo" 

 qu'il venait <le dotruire. Les sauvages, ignorant que le jongleur avait lui-nieme 

 prealablement fixe ces objets au poteau, admiraient ce grand prodige. 



Si la maladie ne diminuait pas a la suite de ce sortilege, lejongleur annoncait que 

 le malade niourrait dans trois ou quatre jours. Alors, le pauvre malade, effraye 

 par cette prediction, et convaincu desormais qu'il allait mourir, refusait de prendre 

 nourriture, et mourait d'inanitiou, a pen pres au terups fixe par lejongleur. 



Mr Hiram Calkins 1 mentions the performance of an Ojibwa who lived 

 on Wisconsin river, near the Menomini country, which apparently 

 embraced the pretensions of both the tshi'saqka and the wa'beno: 



The chief medicine man or conjurer is Mali-ca-da-o-gnng, or The Black Nail, who 

 performed the feat of descending the Long Falls in his canoe, and is represented by 

 the other Indians as being a great medicine man. Ho is always called upon, far and 

 near, in cases of sickness, or in the absence of relatives, to foretell whether the sick- 

 ness will prove fatal or whether the friends will return in safety, and at what time. 

 He is also consulted by the Indians when they go out to hunt the bear, to foretell 

 whether success will crown their efforts. Before performing these services, he is 

 always paid by the Indians with such articles as they have, which generally consist 

 of tobacco, steel-traps, kettles, broadcloth, calico, and a variety of other commod- 

 ities. He usually performs after dark, in a wigwam just large enough to admit of 

 his standing erect. Thislodge or wigwam is tightly covered with mats, so as entirely 

 to exclude all light and the prying curiosity of all outsiders. Having no light within 

 the lodge, the acts and utterances of the medicine man or conjurer are regarded as 

 mysterious, and credulously received by the wondering crowd surrounding the tent. 

 He first prepares himself in his family wigwam by stripping oft' all his clothing, 

 when he emerges singiug, and the Indians outside join him in the song with their 

 drums, and accompany him to the lodge, which he enters alone. Upon entering, the 

 lodge commences shaking violently, which is supposed by the Indians outside to be 

 caused by the spirits. The shaking of the lodge produces a great noise by the rat- 

 tling of bells and deers' hoofs fastened to the poles of the lodge at the top, and at 

 the same time three voices are distinctly heard intermingled with this noise. One is 

 a very heavy hoarse voice, which the Indians are made to believe is that of the Great 

 Spirit; another is a very fine voice, represented to be that of a Small Spirit, while 

 the third is that of the medicine man himself. He pretends that the Great Spirit 

 converses in the heavy voice to the lesser spirit, unintelligibly to the conjurer, and 

 the lesser spirit interprets it to him, and he communicates the intelligence to his 

 brethren without. The ceremony lasts about three hours, when he comes out in a 

 high state of perspiration, supposed by the superstitions Indians to be produced by 

 mental excitement. 



The structure described by the Reverend Peter Jones, 2 which he saw 

 occupied by a juggler while the latter was engaged in consulting the 

 ma'nidos, was "made by putting seven poles in the ground to the depth 

 of about a cubit, in a circle of about 3 or 4 feet in diameter, and about 

 6 feet high, with one or more hoops tied fast to the poles to keep them 

 in a circle. The sides were covered with birch bark, but the top was 

 left open. Into this the pow-wow had entered, and was chanting a song 

 to the spirit with whom he wished to converse. The jeesuhkon began 

 to shake as if filled with wind.'' 



The Menomini structure is about the same size as that above named, 

 but not so large as the jugglery usually erected by the. Ojibwa of north- 



i Coll. Hist, Soc. of Wisconsin for 1851, vol. i, pp. 123, 121, 1855. 2 0p. lit., p. 115. 



