Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

oIbrechts] the swimmer MANUSCRIPT 99
But others are of a jealous and miserly nature and will pretend to
be ignorant and but ill-informed when they are asked for ad^dce or
counsel by a competitor. Yet I have not once heard of a case where
one of these less obliging fellows purposely led an inquirer astray, or
gave him information that might be deleterious to the patient under
treatment. Nor has any case of "dishonest competition" come to
my loiowledge.
To combat the influence of the white doctor and his medicine,
though, they will go to any pains, and use any means.
Initiation
There are still faint recollections of how the medicine men were
initiated until thi-ee or four generations ago. The description given
to James Mooney by John Ax (born about 1800) of the meetings of the
"myth-keepers and priests" in the o-'si (Mooney, Myths, p. 230)
contains a very interesting account of the initiation of new adepts
more than a century ago. The o-'si is now but a dim memoiy of a
hazy past and telling the myths is no longer the appanage of priests
and elders; if 50 years ago the scratching and the "going to water"
was still joldngly referred to, now it is no longer remembered that this
rite was ever performed in this connection.
At present if a man wants to become a medicine man he goes to one
well versed in the lore and skilled in the profession, informs him of his
intention, and asks liim if he is willing to teach him what he knows.
The answer of the old man depends a good deal on the character of the
candidate.
If he is known as a lazy individual he stands little chance of being
accepted as a candidate by a conscientious medicine man, as he would
be sure to neglect the care of his patients.
Nor is he likely to be favorably received if he has a reputation for
being quarrelsome and jealous, as in this case he might be too prone
to abuse of his occult knowledge to harm the people.
But even if the character of the candidate is without flaw or speck
he is not sure to meet with an enthusiastic welcome at the hand of
every medicine man, for some of these do not believe in propagating
the sacred and medical lore too much, nor in diffusing it too widely,
since according to those among them imbued with an idealistic out-
look on the profession, the more of the lore is divulged, the less
powerful every one of the adepts becomes; and again, according to
others, rather more utilitarian in their views, because, the more
practitioners, the less practice.
So as not to make an inveterate enemy out of an applicant by
turning him down, the medicine man "examines with the beads," to
find out whether the candidate is likely to make good in the profession;