Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lx\ (191 6), No. 4. 5 



original people. The sacred emblem — the money cowry — 

 is shown to him and he is told how it came into the 

 possession of the medicine men through the hero-god, 

 Ma'nabush or Ml'nabo'zho. Much dancing and tobacco 

 smoking 7 is indulged in, and each medicine man in turn 

 breathes on his medicine bag and pretends to shoot it at 

 the candidate's breast. The magic influence contained in 

 the medicine bag having been shot into the candidate's 

 heart, and, being too powerful for him to bear, he becomes 

 unconscious and falls forward on his face. It is believed 

 that if the small sacred shell be swallowed by the medicine 

 man, all he is obliged to do to transfer his power to the 

 medicine bag is to breathe on it, the mysterious power 

 and influence being then transmitted by merely thrusting 

 the bag toward the desired object or person. The whole 

 number of assisting medicine men gather round the pros- 

 trate body of the candidate and lay their medicine bags 

 on his back, where they remain during the chanting of 

 certain phrases by the chief medicine man. Each man 

 then stoops to get his bag and the chief then places his 

 hand under the candidate's forehead and raises it slightly 

 from the ground, when a sacred cowry drops from the 

 candidate's mouth. 



The whole of the ceremonies are carried out in a 

 specially constructed medicine tent, which must always 

 be built so as to extend from the direction of the rising 

 sun to the direction of the setting thereof. 



Amongst the Menomini the sacred shell appears 

 always to be the money cowry, Cyprcea moneta* but 

 according to Hoffman, amongst the Ojibwa, it consists of 



7 The tobacco smoking among N. A. Indians seems to be connected 

 with the idea of sacrifice and propitiation. 



8 The example figured by Hoffman, op. at. } is interesting, as it is per- 

 forated at one end as if for suspension. 



