39- 



NA TURE 



[February 26, 190^ 



AMERICAN MAGICAL CEREMONIES. 



THE Dwamish Indians of Cedar River, Washington 

 Co., U.S.A., believe that when a man is seriously 

 ill in the winter his spirit departs to the under-world, 

 which is an exceedingly attractive place in cold weather. 

 It is only at that season that the spirit of a sick man 

 leaves the body for the nether world ; during the summer- 

 time, the spirit travels from place to place on earth, and 

 even when a man dies in the summer his spirit waits until 

 the winter is well advanced before it retires under- 

 ground. One of the favourite methods in the summer 

 of compelling the spirit of a sick man to return to the 

 body is by singing, but in the winter, the spirits of the 

 officiating shamans have to journey to the under-world 

 in order to bring back the recalcitrant spirit, and even 

 they find it hard to tear themselves away from the 

 pleasant home of the dead. 



The ceremony takes place in the dance-house. A 

 rectangular space, measuring about 10 feet by 20 feet, is 

 marked off by vertical slabs. This is called the canoe, 

 and inside are placed, in an upright position, small 



Fig. 1. — Painted slabs of wood for sides of spirit boat. 



painted human effigies ; these very materially assist the 

 shamans to compel the spirit to return. The shamans, 

 each of whom has a long pole, enter the canoe and 

 begin by singing, which is accompanied by the beating 

 of rattles and drums by the friends of the invalid ; at 

 the same time, the shamans make paddling movements 

 with the poles. This is kept up all night ; by noon of the 

 next day, they are supposed to have entered the under- 

 world, where the struggle for the possession of the spirit 

 of the sick man begins and lasts for a day and a half. 

 At the end of the fourth day, one of the shamans inti- 

 mates to the friends of the sick man that they have 

 been successful, and, as a matter of fact, in the instance 

 specified the sick man mended speedily. 



Two of the painted boards that form the spirit boat 

 are shown in the accompanying figure ; the snout-like 

 projection and a single eye, or a pair of eyes, are on all 

 of them, but the decoration of the body of each board 

 varies. In the first figure, a cetacean is drawn, and the 

 shape of each board suggests that it is also a cetacean. 

 Dr. G. A. Dorsey's account of this ceremony is the first 



NO. 1739, VOL. 67] 



that has been published, and as it is now almost extinct, 

 it is fortunate that he was able to record this vanishing 

 magical rite. The paper from which this abstract was 

 taken was published, along with other original articles 

 and various notes of ethnographical interest, in vol. iii. 

 of the Bulletin of the Free Museum of Science and Art 

 of the University of Pennsylvania. 



Also to Dr. Dorsey, but in this case in collaboration 

 with Mr. H. R. Yoth, are we indebted for a very interest- 

 ing and exceedingly well illustrated account of the Soyal 

 ceremony of the Oraibi, one of the six Hopi villages in 

 Arizona. On the first day of the ritual, feather standards 

 are erected, cornmeal is spread over them, and a small 

 pinch of the meal is thrown towards the rising sun. The 

 performers smoke ceremonially during the whole day, 

 and card and spin cotton. The second and third days 

 are employed in a similar manner. On the fourth day, 

 various sacred objects are exhibited and certain feathers 

 are provided. These are tied on sticks to construct 

 what are termed bahos ; the bahos are prayed and 

 smoked over, and holy water is obtained from a spring ; 

 nine songs are sung at ceremonies which combine 



Fig. 2. — Case in tbe Field Columbian Museum illustrating tbe Soyal altar 

 and the sun ritual. 



prayer with the offering of cornmeal. On the fifth and 

 three following days, the people fast. A considerable 

 part of the fifth day is spent in practising various katcina 

 dances. The Hawk priest' screeches and performs most 

 fatiguing dances. On the sixth day, the rite of offering 

 cornmeal to the dawn is again performed ; there are no 

 important ceremonies on this day, but many prepara- 

 tions are made. All the men begin the seventh day by 

 making prayer offerings (bahos) and objects composed of 

 maize husks, to which feathers are fastened ; these are 

 termed kihzkwisfit, or "something breathed upon." On 

 the following day, each performer takes his hihikiuispi, 

 holds it to the rising sun and says, " I breathe on 

 this" ; he then runs to his house, where all breathe on 

 it, and so the hihikwispi are carried from house to house ; 

 this ceremony is a charm for the protection against sick- 

 ness of the respiratory organs. Later a shrine is decor- 

 ated before which smoke is "planted," and rain clouds 

 are represented by six black semicircles ; a fertility cere- 

 mony is performed before, and more particularly after, 

 the fetching of water from a spring. Masks are worn 



