496 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
instances where one Indian attempts to inflict disease or suffering on another. A 
drawing or a little image is made to represent the man, the woman, or the animal on 
which the power of the medicine is to be tried; then the part representing the heart 
is punctured with a sharp instrument, if the design be to canse death, and a little 
of the medicine is applied. The drawing or image of an animal used in this case is 
-alled muzzin-ne-neen, and the same name is applicable to the little figures of a man 
or women, and is sometime rudely traced on birch bark, in other instances more care- 
fully carved of wood. These little images or drawings, for they are called by the 
same names, whether of carved wood or rags or only rudely sketched on birch 
bark, or even traced in sand, are much in use among several and probably all the 
Algonquin tribes. Their use is not confined to hunting, but extends to the making 
of love, and the gratification of hatred, revenge, and all malignant passions. 
It is a prevailing belief that the necromancers, men or women of medicine, or 
those who are acquainted with the hidden powers of their wusks, can, by practicing 
upon the muzzin-ne-neence, exercise an unlimited control over the body and mind 
of the person represented. Many asimple Indian girl gives to some crafty old squaw 
her most valued ornaments, or whatever property she may possess, to purchase from 
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her the love of the man she is most anxious to please. ‘The old woman, in a case of 
this kind, commonly makes up a little image of stained wood and rags, to which she 
gives the name of the person whose inclinations she is expected to control; and to 
the heart, the eyes, or to some other part of this she, from time to time, applies her 
medicines, or professes to have done so, as she may find necessary to dupe and en- 
courage her credulous employer. 
But the influence of these images and conjurations is more frequently tested in 
cases of an opposite character, where the inciting cause is not love, but hatred, and 
the object to be attained the gratification of a deadly revenge. In cases of this kind 
the practices are similar to those above mentioned, only different medicines are used 
Sometimes the muzzin ne-neence is pricked with a pin or needle in various parts, 
and pain or disease is supposed to be produced in the corresponding part of the per- 
son practiced upon. Sometimes they blacken the hands and mouth of the image, 
and the effect expected is the change which marks the near approach of death. 
The similarity, approaching identity, of these practices to those com- 
mon in Europe during the middle ages and continuing in some regions 
until the present time will be noticed. 
The same author, pp. 197, 198, gives an account of Ojibwa divination 
in the following address of a shaman, illustrated by Fig. 702. 
For you, my friends, who have been careful to regard and obey the injunctions of 
b 
Z 
Fic. 701.—Muzzin-ne-neen. Ojibwa. 
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