132 
The Medicine Man. 
of demons with which, so to speak, he is in continual rapport, makes 
them dependent upon him and slaves to his forms of exorcism. The 
Piai is also priest, doctor, and sorcerer at one and the same time, a pow- 
erful and feared individual who has it within his control whether to al- 
low the persecution of his subject spirits to run a free course, or to 
grant protection from their influences. 
455. If a person in the village is sick, one immediately calls in the 
Tiai: he begins his exorcism in the evening for during the day he is 
powerless and may only call upon the demon at night. The chief instru- 
ment for this purpose consists of a sacred rattle (Haepu-masaro)t wdiich 
no profane hand dare touch without robbing it of its supernatural pow- 
ers and making a child’s toy of it. It consists of the cleaned-out gourd* 
like fruit of the Crescentia Cujcte Linn, in which small round but there- 
with dissimilar openings are cut, while the whole is painted with differ- 
ent colours. A long piece of wood which is run through the emptied 
fruit and projects abou't a foot on either side, serves at one end as a han- 
dle : the other is wound round with an accurately prescribed number of 
wing-feathers of the Psittacus aestivus, the tips of which are turned to- 
wards the calabash. In the cavity itself are to be found several small 
stones, bits of agate, and some variously coloured seeds. 
456. Immediately after sundown the Piai commences his incantation 
with this magic rattle, after having previously carefully quenched every 
glowing ember inside the house, and removed its occupants. In varied 
time, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, he now swings his rattle round 
his head in a circle to the accompaniment of a monotonous song the 
tune of which is regulated by the rapidity of the swinging. These in- 
troductory incantation-formulae one can often hear for more than an 
hour. It is not to be denied that the sorcerer thereby seeks in many var- 
ious ways to make the spirit subservient. The voice is soon raised and 
seems to give an imperious order to the demon. It soon sounds softer 
and sinks into a light almost inaudible whisper to soothe with soft 
speech and entreaty the disfavour of the stubborn sprite, and along with 
this the Tiai puffs tobacco smoke out of a consecrated cigar and blows 
it at fixed intervals into the patient’s face. If rain falls during the 
ceremony, the medicine-man immediately ceases from his labours, and 
resumes them again on the following night. When finally the strength 
of the incantation-form/ulae has succeeded in forcing the spirit’s pres- 
ence into the house which according to the pow r er possessed by the 
Yawahu [Helm] happens sooner or later, then the second act of the work 
of deliverance begins, the Piai transacting business with the refractory 
demon. During this procedure two different voices are always to be dis- 
tinguished, though the contracting parties take care that the particular 
words are unintelligible to the invalid. The strange voice is stilled, and 
the medicine man is able to give the anxious patient an account of the 
cause of the Yawahu’s [Helm's] anger and the nature of the 'sickness. 
This explanation is at the beginning of the illness very confused and am- 
biguous, like the most profound of the Pythian oracles. If the symptoms 
of the disease increase, if they assume a dangerous character, so is the 
f i.e. the Evil Spirit's Rattle,' See Section 453. (Ed), 
