102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



condition or whenever touching any object that she may have used, 

 chew either the inner bark of ats^-qi' (Betula lenta L.; cherry birch; 

 sweet birch; black bircli), spitting the juice at regular intervals on the 

 "place where his soul is," or even occasionally moistening his fingers 

 and putting his saliva, under his clothes, on his breast. 



Also the root of come-'ldo" {Zizia aurea (L.) Koch; Golden Alex- 

 ander) is chewed as a preventive. The name of this plant means "it 

 is pregnant." This is no doubt the reason why it is used in this 

 connection; on the other hand, the plant owes its name to the peculiar 

 shape of its fruit. 



If then the candidate has used some or all of these potent means 

 to make his hold on the knowledge acquired a permanent one, he will 

 soon be ready for the last and most important communication his 

 master has to make him. Prior to this, however, he must repair to 

 a secluded place in the mountains or in the forest, and there prepare 

 a decoction of all the plants mentioned above, only this time they are 

 to bo boiled simultaneously ,°^ and the decoction is taken at intervals 

 all day long; no other food or drink whatsoever is to be taken until 

 sundown. 



This is continued for four or seven days, according to the fervor 

 and the intentions of the applicant: if he stays in the wilderness for 

 four consecutive days and nights he will be a skillful medicine man 

 and a priest of high repute and capacity. But if he can stand the 

 ordeal for seven days "he will be a most powerful wizard; he will be 

 able to fly in the air and to dive under the ground." 



During this seclusion the solicitant has no dreams or visions that 

 would seem to be specifically related to the ceremony, although this 

 was undoubtedly the object of this four or seven days' fasting and 

 contemplation until a few generations ago. 



Before the invention of the Sequoya syllabary the instruction of the 

 candidate must of course have been purely oral, but the possibility of 

 conunitting to paper their sacred and medicmal literature has un- 

 doubtedly contributed as much to the survival of aborigmal religion 

 and science as to the propagation of the tracts and books of the 

 American Bible Society and to the veneer of white culture, 



A medicine man may sell outright. some of his WTitten formulas to 

 a candidate, but this is very rarely done, the usual course being that 

 the latter be allowed to copy them. Even then a pretty high price 

 is charged. ISlooney records that Ay. told him that hunters would 

 pay as much as $5 for a hunting song (SFC, p. 311), and W. told me 

 that he once paid for being allowed to copj^ part of the formulas of 

 Wil. an overcoat and a trunk (total value about $25), and that he sold 



^ In olden times they also added some others, Og. told me, but he did not 

 know which ones. 



