siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

SwANTON] CHOCTAW SOCIAL, AND CEEEMONIAL LIFE 227
The reference to a " special revelation " in the forests suggests the
schools of training for doctors among the Creeks,^* and their ex-
istence among the Choctaw seems further indicated by a passage in
Cushman.
There was but little difference between the " Indian Magician " and tlie
Indian " Medicine Man," but when a warrior had attained to that high and
greatly desired point of communication with the Great and Good Spirit, and had
impressed that belief upon his tribe as well as himself, he at once became an
object of great veneration, and was henceforth regarded by all his tribe,
regardless of age or sex, as a great " Medicine Man," upon whom had been
conferred supernatural powers to foretell coming events, to exorcise evil spirits,
and to perform all kinds of marvellous works. But few attained the coveted
eminence; yet he who was so fortunate, at once reached the pinnacle of his
earthly aspirations. But before entering upon his high and responsible duties,
and assuming the authority of a diviner—a graduated Medicine Man, in other
words, with a recognized and accepted diploma,—he must have enlisted in his
service one or more lesser spirits, servants of the Great and Good Spirit, as his
allies or mediators, and to secure these important and indispensable auxiliaries,
he must subject himself to a severe and testing ordeal. He now retires alone
into the deep solitudes of his native forest and there engages in meditation,
self examination, fasting and praj'er during the coming and going of many
long and weary days, and even weeks. And all that for what end? That he
might, by his supernatural power thus attained, be enabled to gratify his ambition
in playing the tyrant over his people through fear of him? Or that he
might be enabled the better to gratify the spirit of avarice that rankled in his
heart? Neither, for both tyrant and avarice were utterly unknown among all
Indians [?].
What then? First, that he might ever be enabled, by his influence attained
with the Great and Good Spirit, to ward off the shafts of the Evil Spirit, and
thus protect himself from seen and unseen dangers, and also be successful in
the accomplishment of all his earthly hopes and wishes.
Second. That he might be a benefactor to his tribe, by being enabled to
divine future events, and thus forewarn them of approaching danger and the
proper steps to take to avoid it successfully; also to heal the sick, etc. True,
the fearful ordeal of hunger, thirst, fatigue wrought their part in causing his
imagination to usurp the place of reason, filling his fevered mind with the
wildest hallucinations and rendering him a fit subject to believe anything and
everything. Yet, no doubt, when he left his place of prayer and self-examination
and returned to his people, he sincerely believed that he had been admitted
to the special favor of the great and Good Spirit and was fully prepared to
exercise his newly acquired supernatural attainments for his own benefit and
to the interest of his tribe.'"
Cushman thus enumerates the attainments of the medicine man
as distinguished from those of the mere physic doctor.
" The Medicine Man," was a dignitary who swayed his scepter alike among
all Indians, but was altogether a very different personage from the common
physician. The Medicine Man professed an insight into the hidden laws of
Nature ; he professed a power over the elements, the fish of the waters and the
animals of the land ; he could cause the fish to suffer themselves to be caught
"* See Forty-second Ann. Rept. Bur. Amer. Ethn., pp. 617-620.
S6 Cushman, Hist. Inds., pp. 38-39.