170 



NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



sometimes they dream someone gets hurt and if they don't sing to 

 the medicine someone of the family will get hurt. 



Some members of the band keep it. Several bands keep it. Three 

 or four keep it. 



Animal and bird members of the medicine 



The animal and bird members of the medicine are the deer, 

 snipe, white heron, hawk, big crow, big deer (moose or elk), bear, 

 mud turtle, beaver, wolf, eagle, whip-poor-will, owl, crow and 

 otter. These accompanied the young men on their night journey. 



The f ruit members 



The fruit members are strawberries, blackberries, apples, huckle- 

 berries. 1 The tree is the maple because it yields the sweet water 

 for the drink. The plant is the tobacco only, its root is a deadly 

 poison. 



The ingredients of the medicine 



The ingredients of the medicine are supposed to be unknown but 

 tradition relates that it is composed of portions of all the birds, 

 animals, plants, trees, and fruits that are members of the Ni-gah- 

 ni-gah-ah, their brains and hearts, etc., etc. 



Duties of members 



Every member must be kind and forgiving. He must forgive his 

 enemy before he can sing. Must be pure. Must not ask for money 

 to take it for service. 



No one must sing the songs to learn them or even repeat them 

 to any one only in the lodge. 



Any one of good reputation can come in and sing in the outside 

 room if he believes in the medicine and those to whom it has been 

 administered, but only members of a band can hold it. 



After her initiation to the Medicine Society Mrs Converse pub- 

 lished in the St Louis Republic two accounts of her experience. 

 These are too valuable to become lost within the files of a newspaper 

 and should be placed on record. For this reason I have seen fit to 

 copy them entire. 



1 Jacket has forgotten to name the corn, beans and squashes as members of the medicine. 



