49 
closely. As soon as they judged the proper period was at hand the father 
built a small hut some distance from the camp, and there the boy slept 
alone, fixing all his thoughts on the prospective vision and praying for 
what he wanted . 1 Sometimes he remained in this hut throughout the 
day; sometimes he fished or hunted, or resumed his usual occupations 
around his parent’s wigwam. In either case, however, he refrained from 
meat and drink entirely, or ate and drank but sparingly, and in the 
mornings only, so that he might be fasting at night when he slept. If 
no vision came and his strength began to fail his parents supplied him 
with a greater measure of food, but he fasted again as soon as he recovered. 
Some boys blackened their faces during this period, but the Indians 
today are uncertain whether this was to awaken the pity of the Great 
Spirit or merely to warn passers-by that the lads were fasting. 
A boy who fasted at too early an age, before his soul and shadow 
had become fully “ awake,” obtained only an imperfect dream which, 
being not fully intelligible, left him a prey to sickness. His parents then 
consulted a conjurer {djiskiu ) , who interpreted the dream through the 
spirits of the shaking lodge 1 and restored the boy to health. A boy who 
passed the critical stage without fasting and obtaining a vision became 
ill likewise, for his soul and shadow lacked guidance and could not work 
harmoniously with his body, so that the blood failed to flow freely through 
his veins. A tonic brewed wdth poplar bark would then stimulate the 
flow of blood, and attune the boy to receive his vision. 
Some children obtained their visions quickly, others only after num- 
erous fastings extending through several months. Hence although the 
usual season for commencing the quest was summer, when the weather 
was mild and food plentiful, it sometimes continued into the winter. If 
a boy seemed to fail in his quest the parents might deliberately starve 
him, hoping in this way to facilitate the manido’ s visit; and tradition 
states that lads have even died from too prolonged fasting. 
“The partridge was originally a boy whose parents placed him in a separate 
hut to obtain a blessing. He fasted for nine days, but the period was too long, and 
when his parents visited him on the morning of the tenth day he changed to a 
partridge and flew away. The black bar that now crosses the tail of the partridge is 
the darkness of the ninth night, which seemed so much longer than the earlier 
nights; and the yellow band at the extreme tip of the tail is the dawn of the tenth 
morning” (Jim Nanibush). 
A boy who failed to obtain a visit and blessing from a manido some- 
times slept for several nights on the grave of some notable warrior or medi- 
cine-man, whose shadow might appear to him and give him power to render 
himself invisible; for the shadows of the dead are really manidos, though 
they belong to a separate class. Such a lad, in after life, could approach 
game or enemies unseen, being wrapped, as it were, in a mantle of invisi- 
bility. 
The father generally instructed his son as to the kind of vision he 
should seek. If he himself had been successful all his days, thus proving 
that the vision and blessing he had received in his youth had been good, he 
naturally desired his son to obtain a visitation from the same manido and 
receive a similar blessing. He could not, of course, apply force to the super- 
1 This period of fasting is called makadeke. 
* See p. 66 
