Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

OlZechts] 1'HE swimmer MANUSCllIP'r 85
specialize in. I want to warn, however, against thinking of this divi-
sion as quite so rigid as it nnght appear to be at first: one individual
may, at the same time, be a disease ciirer and a rain maker; or a
disease curer and a divinator; or a divinator and an incantator; etc.
Di*'Da'n9Wt'ski, he cures them (indef. ; habit.); a curer.
This name, as already stated (p. 84), is given first to any person
belonging to any of the several groups here discussed, and might
therefore be considered as an equivalent of the term "medicine
man" as used in this paper.
It is, however, only by a generalization that it has come to bo bestowed
also on such people as priests and incantators, as its meaning
clearly shows that it must originally have been used to refer to dis-
ease curers only.
These are the people, men or wonic]i, that are called upon in cases
of sickness to diagnose the nature of the disease, prescribe treatment,
the injunctions and the restrictions, collect the plniits and weeds, or
wjiatever other kind of materia niedica is to efl'ect the cure.
Usually they proclaim to be proficient in all ailments, whatever
their nature, but in some cases an individual may acquire quite a
reputation for his skill in treating some particular disease. There
was hardly any such case duiing my stay with the tribe but the
names of two medicine men, lately deceased, were still fresh in
everyone's memory—one, Wil., the writer of Ms. II (see p. 9)
having been held in high esteem on account of his successful treatment
of Du'le-'dzi (scrofula), and another, tsanu-'si (Leech), owing
his reputation chiefly to his skill in curing imak'o'N'y yvDcyo-Vela
(swollen testicles).
There is one man now, yo''ni;G()-'"ski (bear coming out of the
water) (sec p. 136 and pi. 10, b), who might in a way be called a
specialist, in that he only attends to cutaneous wounds, but this, I
found, was merely due to the fact that he had never been able to
acquire any further knowledge.
Apart from exercising the profession of disease curer this class of
medicine men will often also take patients to the river; they almost
invariably perform this rite for their own family, instead of paying
a regular priest to do it; they moreover generally claim some divina-
tory knowledge. These two qualifications, however, usually pertain
to the domain of the "priest".
This class is usually called ama''yi Dt'-Dadzo°.stf'sGi, he takes
them (indef.) to, and brings them back from, the water.
The medicine men })elonging to this class usually specialize in the
ritual which consists in taking a client, not necessarily a sick person,
to the river or the stream, and there reciting a prayer, conjuration,
or incantation for the benefit of the client; for the latter's success in
the ball game, in love, in hujoting, for his long life, for his personal.
,