218 DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND ETHNOGRAPHY. 
ity required its abandonment. It was for them, with their knowledge of 
the teachings of the Bible, and the requirements of Christ’s religion, to 
decide on the character of this custom of their fathers. 
There were twelve elders. Very deliberately each one arose and stated 
his opinion. ‘Two thought the circumstances were such that they could 
not altogether give up this, their ancestral method of curing disease. They 
were shut up to it. But Artemas and nine others agreed in saying that 
the practice of conjuring was wrong, and inconsistent with a profession of 
the Christian religion. They said the notion entertained by the Dakotas, 
that disease was caused by spirits, they believed to be erroneous; that 
sickness and death, they now understand, come not out of the ground, but 
by the appointment of the Great Spirit; and that the system of conjuring 
brings men into contact with the evil spirits and tends to lead them away 
from Christ. 
This decision was regarded as a finality in the prison on that point, 
and is accepted throughout the mission churches. 
When the prisoners were released, Artemas met his wife and family 
with great gladness of heart; and as soon thereafter as possible he was 
married according to the Christian form. For he said that, when a heathen 
he thought she was his wife, but the Bible had taught him that he had not 
truly taken her. 
A few months after this he was licensed to preach the gospel, and in 
the next year was ordained as one of the pastors of the Pilgrim church. 
In the autumn of 1868, he attended a large gathering of ministers at Min- 
neapolis, and was cordially received by all classes of Christians. The 
Congregational and Methodist Sunday Schools were entertained with the 
story of his turning from the warpath to the “strait and narrow way;” and 
from seeking after a chaplet of eagle’s feathers as the reward of prowess 
on the battlefield, to his reaching forth for the prize of the high calling in 
Christ—even the crown of Life. 
poe, See 
