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were open to every one, men, women, and children. They were held in 
any conveniently large wigwam, began and ended with feasting, and 
lasted, as a rule, throughout an entire night. The leading wabeno initiated 
the dancing by advancing into the centre of the wigwam and beating his 
tambourine, which differed in no way from a secular tambourine except 
that the deerskin membrane sometimes bore a painting of its owner’s 
manido. The people fell into line behind him, and danced and sang around 
the central fire. When the first wabeno ceased drumming and resumed 
his seat another stepped forward and led the throng. At intervals in the 
dances one of the medicine-men might drum and dance alone around the 
fire, then, stooping, pick up from the embers a hot stone; or he might 
dip his fingers into a boiling cauldron, extract a piece of meat, and swallow 
it without evidence of pain. Some Indians say that he derived these 
powers from the medicines he rubbed on his hands, and that although he 
neither ate nor drank for four days and four nights previously, his strength 
remained totally unimpaired. 
“ I have seen a wabeno swallow a knife that was a foot long. Only the handle 
protruded from his mouth. He walked around the fire four times that all who 
were present might see him, then slowly withdrew the knife” (James Walker). 
“ A wabeno knows instinctively, as it were, if his son has received a visit and 
blessing from a manido. He checks the lad from playing with other children, and 
makes him remain quietly at home or in a separate hut” (Pegalimagabow). 
The true medicine-man, whether wabeno, kusabindugeyu, or djiskiu , 
always used his power to help his fellow-men, and, consequently, one of 
his principal duties was to foil the machinations of sorcerers. The wabeno 
had reputedly more power than the members of the other two professions, 
more power, too, than any sorcerer or mede. Now a sorcerer often sought 
to compass the death of his enemy by magically shooting into his body a 
piece of bone, splinter of wood, or other object that only a medicine-man 
could discover and remove. When a man fell ill from this cause the 
wabeno diagnosed the seat of the malady and laid over it a piece of 
birch bark, or a leaf smeared with one of his composite herbal remedies. 
After drumming and singing he drew away the leaf, drawing away at 
the same time the stick or bone that caused the infection. At times he 
might even attack the sorcerer himself, " shooting ,5 him with sickness 
just as the sorcerer shot his victims. 
“ Once a wabeno and a mede held a contest to see who was the more powerful. 
They built their wigwams a few yards apart, and each man sat inside his lodge with 
the contents of his medicine-bag spread out in front of him. The mede had a large 
bag full of many medicines, the wabeno a small bag containing only a few. They 
sat and shot at one another. The magic feather, stick, or other missile sped 
through the air unseen and struck its victim in the chest; but the wounded man 
simply rubbed his body with medicine and extracted it. Thus they fought all 
through the day, shooting at each other alternately, until at last the wameno had but 
one medicine left. He called to the mede, ‘ I have but one medicine left ; if that 
fails you will kill me/ It was a pinch of sand about the size of an ordinary charge 
of powder. He shot, and the sand penetrated into every part of the mode’s body, 
rendering the counter-medicine useless. The man’s body and limbs swelled up until 
he died. Thus the wabeno proved his superiority” (Jonas King). 
KUSABINDUGEYU 
The kusabindugeyu 1 were primarily seers, gifted by their adolescent 
visions to discern what was normally hidden from human eyes. Most 
1 I omitted to obtain the etymology of this word. 
