122 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The Otter woman will then say, " Hat gaii', niawe' ! " — meaning, 

 " Enough, I thank you! " She will then retire. 



The Otters are especially active during the Midwinter ceremony, 

 and when the water is thrown over their heads it very often freezes, 

 but this is something only to be enjoyed. When possessed with the 

 spirit of the otter, the women are said to be unaware of their actions, 

 and sometimes, when they are particularly zealous, the whistle of 

 the otter is heard. This greatly frightens the people, who regard it 

 as a manifestation of the presence of the " great medicine otter." 

 The women afterward deny having imitated the otter's call, saying 

 that they were possessed of the otter and had no knowledge of what 

 they did. 



The Otter Society has no songs and no dances. Its members 

 are organized simply to give thanks to the water animals and to 

 retain their favor. When one is ungrateful to the water animals, 

 as a wasteful fisherman, or a hunter who kills muskrats or beaver 

 without asking permission or offering tobacco to their spirits, he 

 becomes strangely ill, so it is believed. The Otters then go to a 

 spring and conduct a ceremony, after which they enter the sick 

 man's lodge and sprinkle him with spring water, hoping thereby to 

 cure him. 



i"D0S Oa'NO', SOCIETY OF MYSTIC ANIMALS 



The I'Mos Company is a band of " medicine " people whose ob- 

 ject is to preserve and perform the rites thought necessary to keep 

 the continued good will of the " medicine " animals. According 

 to the traditions of the company, these animals in ancient times 

 entered into a league with them. The animals taught them the 

 ceremonies necessary to please them, and said that, should these be 

 faithfully performed, they would continue to be of service to man- 

 kind. They would cure disease, banish pain, displace the causes of 

 disasters in nature, and overcome ill luck. 



Every member of the company has an individual song to sing in 

 the ceremonies, and thus the length of the ceremony depends on 

 the number of the members. When a person enters the TMos, he 

 is given a gourd rattle and a song. These he must keep with care, 

 not forgetting the song or losing the rattle. 



The head singers of the TMos are two men who chant the dance 

 song. This chant relates the marvels that the medicine man is able 

 to perform, and as they sing he proceeds to do as the song directs. 

 He lifts a red-hot stone from the lodge fire and tosses it like a ball 

 in his naked hands ; he demonstrates that he can see through a 



