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and feasted and danced until morning. A j:>leasino: ceremony accom- 
panied the naming’ of eacli child; when the relatives and friends had 
gathered for the feast, the grandfather (or another eldei'ly kinsman) 
took the child in his arms and called on all the great powers in the 
spiritual world to impart their blessing to its name. Neighbours 
joined in a feast over every bear laid low by a hunter’s club, and they 
partook of the first game a boy killed, even if it were no lai'ger than 
a rabbit. There was much jollity, too, in the sugar-making camps 
of early s])ring, and at the rice harvesting later in the summer, hood 
was generally plentiful at those seasons, giving leisure tor dances and 
other pastimes. The men played lacrosse or gambled with !)one dice, 
while the women either watched them or jdayed a special ball game of 
their own. 
The most notable event of the year, liowever, was the holding 
of the Midewiwin, or celebration of the Clraiid Medicine Society, a 
secret religious organization, oiien to both sexes, that exercised great 
influence among the Ojibwa, but existed nowhere else in Canada 
except among some of the neighbouring C’ree. Ihe full oi'ganization 
recognized foui’ grades of membei'shi]); ^ even the lowest reepured a 
long period of preliminary instruction and the payment ot heavy 
fees, and as the fees increased with each grade, only a few individuals 
ever attainerl the liigliest. The members, mede, were the principal 
doctors or medicine-men of the communities, and, like our own 
doctors, generally derived much profit and prestige from tlie pi’actice 
of their profession. In treating the sick tliey employed mainly herbal 
remedies, some of them undoubtedly beneficial, such as the apidication 
of balsam gum to wounds, the majority utterly useless. \ et they 
effected many cures, most often, it would seem, from psycliological 
causes, because the Ojibwa ascribed a soul and power to every tree and 
stone, and believed that their medicine-men, through the favour of 
the supernatural world, could attach this power to human l)eings. 
But they also believed that many supernatural spirits were unfriendly, 
and that by eidisting the aid of these hostile powers, or sometimes 
by purely sympathetic magic, the medicine-men could harm and even 
slay their fellowmen. So, a dread of witchcraft constantly infected 
their minds, converting into the grossest superstition what might 
have been a really beautiful religion. 
1 Some Potawatomi members of fhe society, now living in Parry Sound, recognize on'y one grade, 
and give an account of its ceremonies slightly different from the descriptions recorded from otlier 
bands. 
