PUBERTY FASTING AMONG THE OJIBWA. 
75 
fasting, which began after that. After the child has fasted for 
a few days, the parents or grandparents build a little wigwam 
in a lonely spot of the woods. In this wigwam the faster then 
stays and sleeps. He is not allowed to eat or take even a drop 
of water. Generally he keeps a small piece of lead in his mouth 
and swallows the saliva that gathers. Every morning the 
parents or grandparents visit the person who is fasting, and 
inquire about his dreams, and if the faster dreams that he has 
been in trouble, lost in the woods, or eaten up by some wild 
animal, then he is taken home and given something to eat for a 
few days, after which he must start his fast again. His first 
experience is regarded as bad. Thus it continues for some 
time. The faster generally does not get his dream until the 
sixth to the tenth night. Sometimes a dream obtained even 
then is regarded as of bad omen, and the faster must start 
again. He is encouraged to have patience and wait until the 
right spirit comes. Sometimes this takes two to three months. 
The dream that is to benefit him generally comes in the following 
form. The faster, in his dream, finds himself in great trouble or, 
at times, he believes he is killed, and some animal comes to his 
rescue. This animal, he believes, will come to his rescue in 
similar situations throughout his life. 
DISCUSSION. 
We will discuss first the contents of the preceding experiences 
and then the relation of the fasting experience to the faster, 
on the one hand, and to his cultural environment, on the other, 
as it is embodied especially in the person of his parents and 
grandparents. 
Even a cursory perusal of the experiences shows that, as one 
would have been led to expect, all are cast in a definite mould. 
An animal appears to the faster in a dream, and promising him 
certain blessings, leads him far away to some place where he 
meets the one who is actually to bless him. He is then led 
back to his little fasting-lodge and told to watch carefully the 
disappearing figure of the one who has come to him. It is only 
when the “person” is about to pass out of sight that he takes 
