DKNSMORE] 



PLANTS AS MEDICINE 



327 



enough for identification.) She said, " The plant has a very long root 

 and the leaves come up from joints of the root, not from the knuckle, 

 of the root which projects above the ground and is bare. I look for 

 the knuckle or knob of the root and then look about 3 or 4 inches away 

 for the leaves. The plant grows in soft ground, like that near a lake." 



Medicinal barks were so generally available that they were usually 

 gathered when they were needed. The barks of chokecherry and 

 wild cherry, in quantity for one decoction, are shown in Plate 43, d, as 

 they would be prepared for a patient. 



As already stated, the roots and herbs were usually stored in bags. 

 Some men used the square bags woven of yarn ; others preferred bags 

 woven of the inner bark of cedar. One old medicine man had a bag 

 peculiarly adapted for holding medicinal roots. It was made of 

 leather and was smaller at the top than at the bottom to preclude 

 the possibility of dampness. The prepared pulverized roots could 

 be kept in either birch bark or leather, the latter being preferred. 

 A bag used for this purpose is shown in Plate 45. A packet of 

 medicine tied in cloth ready to be delivered to a sick person is 

 shown in Plate 43, a. This contains four vegetable substances 

 pounded together and was said to be a sufficient quantity to make 

 four liquid preparations of the remedy. This has no distinguishing 

 mark, the ingredients being known only to the medicine man who 

 prescribed the remedy. A medicine man, however, has various means 

 of marking his herbs. One man identifies his prepared herbs by the 

 knot in the string with which the packet is tied, the identification 

 and use of the herbs being known only to himself. 93 - 



The storing of roots in bags has already been noted and refers to 

 a man's supply of roots and herbs for an entire' season. Apart from 

 this stored supply a member of the Mide usually carried a large 

 number of medicines in his Mide bag. Sometimes he carried a 

 small quantity of some particularly strong medicine in a buckskin 

 bag, which was placed in the skull of the animal which formed his 

 Mide bag. Poisons were not infrequently carried by the' Mide, and 

 they were instructed in their use. An instance was related of an 

 aged man, a member of the Mide, who came to a lodge one winter 

 night tired and cold. He said, "Never mind, I have some medicine 

 which will soon warm me." He then took a packet from the skull 

 of his Mide bag, put a little of the contents in water and drank it. 

 A few moments later he said, "I have taken the wrong medicine; I 

 shall die." And in a few hours he was dead. 



In addition to the vegetable substances believed to have an effect 

 when administered internally or externally there were herbs and 

 roots believed to act by their presence independent of actual contact. 



0a See Bull. S6, Bur. Amer. Ethn., PI. 78, &„ 



