HOFFMAN] 



MEDICAL JUGGLERY 149 



structure, when the Miqka'no takes it and stabs the conjurer's shade 

 to death. The bloody knife is then thrown out into the crowd, but it 

 falls on the ground without touching any one, no matter how large the 

 crowd may be. As the knife falls near one of the friends or relations 

 of the sick, the person is by this token called on to kill the conjurer. 

 In a short time, perhaps after a lapse of several weeks, the conjurer is 

 found in his own w r igwam stabbed to death. 



When the tutelary daimou of the conjurer reveals the nature of the 

 remedies used by him in having caused the illness of any one, he often 

 reveals the remedy necessary to cure him; then the tshi'saqka may 

 prepare it and give it himself. People always pay the tshi'saqka in 

 presents of cloth, robes, furs, or any other objects which they may pos- 

 sess and which may be regarded by the ishi'saqka as a satisfactory 

 return for his services. 



The method of removing disease by sucking the cause thereof 

 through bone tubes has been fully described in my paper on the 

 Ojibwa Mide'wiwin, before mentioned. The juggler, after taking a 

 vapor bath, returns to his everyday wigwam, seats himself upon a 

 blanket, and awaits the arrival of the patient, if the latter is in condi- 

 tion to be brought. 



When the patient is laid down near the juggler, the latter has also 

 before him a basin or bowl containing some, water, and several bone 

 tubes varying in length from 2 to 5 inches, and from one third to one- 

 half an inch in diameter. An assistant drums upon the tambourine 

 drum, as the juggler uses the rattle with one hand, while with the other 

 he grasps a tube which he places over the part of the patient's body 

 affected by the presence of a demon, or by some substance put there by 

 another sorcerer, juggler, or wa'beno. After chanting for a short time, 

 the operator places his mouth to the tube and sucks violently; tlieu 

 assuming his former position he strikes the bone, which projects from 

 his mouth, with the palm of his hand and apparently drives it down 

 his throat. Then he goes through a similar performance until the dis- 

 appearance of the second, the third, and every other tube that he 

 may have. After considerable contortion and retching, he pretends to 

 vomit into the basin the poison which had been extracted from the 

 patient, the bones also making their appearance. 



Alexander Henry, who was among the Ojibwa Indians at Mackinaw, 

 and also through the surrounding country, over one hundred years ago, 

 says : 



I was once present at a performance of this kind, in which the patient was a 

 female child of about 12 years of age. Several of the elder chiefs were invited to 

 the scene, and the same compliment was paid to myself on account of the medical 

 skill for which it was pleased to give me credit. 



The physician (so to call him) seated himself on the ground, and before him, on a 

 new stroud blanket, was placed a basin of water, in which were three bones, the 

 larger ones, as it appeared to me, of a swan's wing. In his hand he had his shishi- 

 quoi, or rattle, with which he beat time to his medicine-song. The sick child lay 



