83 
The present-day Indians of Parry island still retain a firm faith in 
these old medicines, and purchase them from one another at high prices. 
Jonas King values at about $200 the receipt of a medicine for catching 
beaver which he learned from his father, who himself had purchased it 
from another Indian. He concocts the medicine from certain roots and 
stores it in a bottle. When he sets his trap he smears a little on the end 
of a stick, which he ties to the trap and plants in the ground. The stick 
infallibly attracts a beaver, the trap catches it, and both stick and trap 
are dragged into the water. There the medicine is washed away, for 
otherwise it would attract all the remaining beaver in the district. The 
same man has another medicine, also compounded of different roots, for 
hunting deer. If he smears it on each cheek before setting out he is cer- 
tain to see and kill a deer the same day. 
Pegahmagabow's deer medicine is the root of the shingoakwansiwan 
(“pine-shaped herb,” probably the mugwort, Artemisia dracunuloides) . 
He must find the plant to his right, for if it lies on his left it has no virtue. 
He buries its stem in the ground with a little tobacco, chews the root, and 
rubs the mingled juice and saliva over his eyes. Then he can approach 
a deer close enough to kill it with a tomahawk. 
Other hunters rub their medicines over their hands, their clothes, and 
their weapons; and they chant over them medicine songs learned in most 
cases from their fathers. Certain deer medicines “poison” 1 the animal's 
blood, which the hunter must throw away. He, therefore, flings it towards 
the four cardinal points as an offering to the manidos in those regions 
for any help they may have given. 
The dried root of the plant called migizowininsh , “ eagle's paw,” cut 
into small pieces and tied to hook, line, or spear, ensures success in fishing. 
Medicines to give protection in warfare have long since gone out of 
use. Some were thought to render their owners invulnerable, but the 
receipts for making them are no longer remembered. During the wars 
with the Iroquois certain warriors wore necklaces of coloured yarn woven 
into the pattern of a snake. 
There is still a wide demand for medicines and charms to inspire 
love. They are kept (or were kept, for no one will admit their possession) 
in small buckskin bags, and employed in various ways according to their 
supposed virtues. Some were smeared on the cheeks; others inserted in 
the moccasin to excite affection in the youth or maiden who walked in the 
same trail. There are certain kinds of rotten wood which are thought to 
render their carrier attractive to the opposite sex; and the wife of John 
Manatuwaba is suspected of selling little figurines with love charms 
attached to them. If a man pricks the eyes of a garter snake with the 
thorn of a certain shrub (species not ascertained), and afterwards pricks 
a girl’s dress with the same thorn, she will feel attracted towards him. 
Among the miscellaneous medicines are the following: 
For protection against snakes: tie the shoulder-blade of the turtle to the garter, 
and wear part of its shell in the moccasin; or place in the moccasin bark of the 
white ash. 
To make a dog cross, but an excellent watch-dog, mix “swamp-root” with its 
food. This plant is brought from the south in little bundles about 4 inches long, 
and sold to the Parry Islanders at $1 a bundle. 
i Apparently they were imaginary poisons. 
