Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
condition or whenever touching any object that she may have used,
chew either the inner bark of ats^-qi' (Betula lenta L.; cherry birch;
sweet birch; black bircli), spitting the juice at regular intervals on the
"place where his soul is," or even occasionally moistening his fingers
and putting his saliva, under his clothes, on his breast.
Also the root of come-'ldo" {Zizia aurea (L.) Koch; Golden Alex-
ander) is chewed as a preventive. The name of this plant means "it
is pregnant." This is no doubt the reason why it is used in this
connection; on the other hand, the plant owes its name to the peculiar
shape of its fruit.
If then the candidate has used some or all of these potent means
to make his hold on the knowledge acquired a permanent one, he will
soon be ready for the last and most important communication his
master has to make him. Prior to this, however, he must repair to
a secluded place in the mountains or in the forest, and there prepare
a decoction of all the plants mentioned above, only this time they are
to bo boiled simultaneously ,°^ and the decoction is taken at intervals
all day long; no other food or drink whatsoever is to be taken until
sundown.
This is continued for four or seven days, according to the fervor
and the intentions of the applicant: if he stays in the wilderness for
four consecutive days and nights he will be a skillful medicine man
and a priest of high repute and capacity. But if he can stand the
ordeal for seven days "he will be a most powerful wizard; he will be
able to fly in the air and to dive under the ground."
During this seclusion the solicitant has no dreams or visions that
would seem to be specifically related to the ceremony, although this
was undoubtedly the object of this four or seven days' fasting and
contemplation until a few generations ago.
Before the invention of the Sequoya syllabary the instruction of the
candidate must of course have been purely oral, but the possibility of
conunitting to paper their sacred and medicmal literature has undoubtedly
contributed as much to the survival of aborigmal religion
and science as to the propagation of the tracts and books of the
American Bible Society and to the veneer of white culture,
A medicine man may sell outright. some of his WTitten formulas to
a candidate, but this is very rarely done, the usual course being that
the latter be allowed to copy them. Even then a pretty high price
is charged. ISlooney records that Ay. told him that hunters would
pay as much as $5 for a hunting song (SFC, p. 311), and W. told me
that he once paid for being allowed to copj^ part of the formulas of
Wil. an overcoat and a trunk (total value about $25), and that he sold
^ In olden times they also added some others, Og. told me, but he did not
know which ones.