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to “ shoot ” someone, imitating the actions of the priests who had initiated 
him a little earlier. At the thrust of his medicine-bag his “ adversary ” 
fell forward, but presently sat up again. The novice then returned to his 
seat and all the priests rose to their feet. Those on one side marched 
four times round the lodge to the beating of a drum, and at the fourth 
circuit “ shot ” the adversaries facing them. The opposite side went 
through the same farce, and all sat down again. 
The next act in the play was a pantomine with the sacred shells. The 
priests removed them from their bags, pretended to swallow them, coughed 
them into their hands, and displayed them furtively to their associates 
with low mutterings of ho ho ho. Then they concealed them in their bags 
again and resumed their seats. This ended the play, and the medes pro- 
ceeded to regale themselves with the food that their families now brought 
to the lodge entrance. 
At the conclusion of the meal some of the leading priests related the 
traditions concerning the Grand Medicine Society, and told stories about 
medes who had been unusually powerful or successful. Finally the new 
member borrowed a drum and chanted one or more songs that his preceptor 
had helped him to compose before his initiation. The gathering then dis- 
persed; but after dark the preceptor and another priest w*ent back to 
remove the four posts and the four images. The latter they returned to 
their keeper; but the four posts they planted in front of the new member’s 
wigwam, placing tw T o stones at the foot of each post for some purpose no 
longer remembered. Every mede who had taken part in the initiation had 
subsequently to teach the new member one medicine, either a remedy for 
sickness, a method of witchcraft, or a hunting or love charm. 
So many years had elapsed since the last celebration of the Grand 
Medicine Society on Parry island, and the recounting of the traditions 
connected with it, that the two ex-members, Jonas and Tom King, could no 
longer recite the songs and speeches, or explain the significance of the cere- 
monial details. They recognized most of the “ First Degree ” speeches and 
songs recorded by Hoffman in his comprehensive account of the society 
as it existed among the Ojibwa of the Red Lake and White Earth Reserva- 
tions in Minnesota , 1 and said that their own songs and speeches closely 
resembled them; but they stated, quite positively, that their Medicine 
Society recognized one degree only, and claimed other differences which 
may be listed as follows: 
(1) Only one degree of membership, not four. 
(2) The arrangements inside the lodge, as described above, differ from those given 
by Hoffman; for example, there was no sacred stone or any reference thereto. 
(3) Members did not paint their faces in fixed patterns, but followed their own 
fancies. Some painted a red stripe from forehead to chin over the nose, and 
another stripe across the forehead; others blackened their faces with charcoal. 
(4) Only one priest hung the presents in the lodge, under the direction of the 
messenger, 
(5) The conjuring tricks in the sweat-house described by Hoffman were not known. 
The King brothers could recall only one trick, the transformation of a stick 
into a snake. 
(6) The head priest displayed the shell that dropped from the candidate’s mouth 
to all the members instead of to the cardinal points. 
1 Hoffman, W. J.: The Midewiwin or "Grand Medicine Society” of the Ojibwa; Seventh Ann. Rept., Bur. 
of Ethn., pp, 149-299. (Washington, 1891.) 
