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defined, and their actions more consciously subject to supernatural guid- 
ance and control. It is true that henceforward they were released from 
some of the taboos associated with childhood; but their visions almost 
invariably prescribed for them new taboos that were restricted to them- 
selves alone. That the visions were real, and deeply affected the children, 
is apparent from the following statement: 
“Often a boy refused the food taken to him by his father in the morning, 
because the manido that visited him had supplied him with nourishment. It may 
have been bear or caribou meat into "which the manido had instilled special qualities; 
or some strange food the lad had never seen before. 
The Great Spirit watches every child. Sometimes the child is aware of it and 
fears the power of the Great Spirit. It is timid, and continually hides near its 
mother. But after it grows to youth and the Great Spirit sends a manido to bless 
it, it fears no longer, for it knows that the Great Spirit has it in its keeping ” 
(Pegahmagabow) . 
Throughout his whole career a man was subject to dreams and even 
visions, which for the Indian always held some significance. But the 
intense vision of childhood brought about by fasting and mental concen- 
tration was an experience he seldom duplicated, one that forced itself on 
his memory nearly every day of his life. It was represented in some 
way on his clothing, either painted on the leather, or, after the coming 
of Europeans, depicted in beadwork. Nearly every Indian, too, carried 
a “ dream object,” wadjigcm, a replica of something his manido had shown 
him in the vision and ordered him to duplicate. This dream-object might 
be anything from a knife to the head of a muskrat, and in itself possessed 
no more power than the crucifix that often replaces it today; but it 
constantly reminded the Indian of his vision and fortified him in danger 
and distress. Before a battle a man might lay his dream-object at his 
side and pray “May I kill my enemies and not be slain myself.” He 
knew that the object itself could not protect him, but it gave him a feeling 
of closer contact with his manido, 
“ A boy whom I knew had a stone — just a natural stone that had eyes, nose, and 
other features like a human being. Where he obtained it I do not know. But there 
were times when he would place it beside him and ask for a fair wind, or whatever 
else he happened to desire” (Pegahmagabow). 
Just as the power or blessing that came from contact with the super- 
natural world in visions could not be transferred to another individual, so, 
too, these dream-objects or amulets were of no value save to their original 
owners. The warrior who slew his enemy might strip him of his amulets, 
but derived no benefit therefrom because he himself had received a different 
vision. Yet the Ojibwa could not keep this doctrine pure. They felt, appar- 
ently, that an amulet or a medicine-bag transferred with the good-will of 
its owner carried some of the blessing with it. 
“ When I was at Rossport, on lake Superior, in 1914, some of us landed from our 
vessel to gather blueberries near an Ojibwa camp. An old Indian recognized me, and 
gave me a tiny medicine-bag to protect me, saying that I would shortly go into great 
danger. The bag was of skin, tightly bound with a leather thong. Sometimes it 
seemed to be as hard as rock, at other times it appeared to contain nothing. What 
really was inside it I do not know. I wore it in the trenches, but lost it when I was 
wounded and taken to a hospital” (Pegahmagabow). 
