olbrechts] the swimmer manuscript 133 



This ceremony need not necessarily be performed at the patient's 

 bedside, as may be seen from the description given of the typical cur- 

 ing procedure, page 67. 



It is furthermore alleged of some powerful medicine men that they 

 can prophesy the exact day of their death, and that they will take 

 care themselves of the preparation of all objects that will be needed to 

 lay out their corpse. This was reputed to have been done by old 

 man Ax (see p. 88), and also Mooney cites a case of it in his Myths. 

 This ability of foretelling their death these medicine men are said to 

 possess by virtue of their keeping the i;15°'*sudo°' stone. 



Apart from the divination methods proper, wliere the future is 

 being inquired into by active means, and apart from the very rare 

 cases where a medicine man foretells his own death, there are some 

 signs and omens of death which are common knowledge. Some of 

 these have without doubt been borrowed from the whites. (See p. 

 37.) 



When you are fishing, and you see a small fish rolling over and over 

 in the water, dying, it is a sign one of your relatives is going to die. 



If a tree is falling over near you, without any apparent cause, as a 

 storm, lightning, etc. 



If you hear something in the graveyard. 



If you hear a dog howling dismally. 



If one of your hens crows. 



If at night a screech owl comes and perches near the house. 



As it becomes apparent that no recovery is to be expected the 

 relatives are summoned, not only those living at the settlement 

 where the man is dying, but also those from other localities, even if 

 they be two or three days distant. Also friends, whom the moribund 

 may express a desire to see, are summoned. 



As the end approaches the medicine man may make a last effort to 

 turn the scales, by trying the cure for the illness generally referred 

 to as Ga'kw€'no°"ski, "if it wraps them up" (apoplexy). As it 

 becomes clear that all hope is to be abandoned the moribund is made 

 to partake of as square a meal as possible, "to strengthen him for 

 the long journey he is about to undertake toward the Night Land." 



One informant who had often been present at the decease of old 

 people said that it was a custom for them, as they felt their end 

 approaching, "to talk to their people, and tell them to love one 

 another, and to love even their enemies," 



Nothing that is needed to lay out the corpse should be prepared 

 before the man has breathed his last, as "by doing this we would 

 show that we are anxious for him to go." 



As soon as the breathing stops the sufferer is pronounced dead, 

 feeUng the pulse or listening for the beating of the heart being un- 



