Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

132 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
patient and his friends. According to the sufferer's personal outlook
on life, his attitude may be one of utter listlessness and resignation or
one of hope and confidence.
In the first case he will repeatedly express to those who attend to
him that they need not go to any further trouble; that he feels he is
"going out west," u'so'*fyi', or to the settlements where the dead
people live, tsu'sGmo'!i. At this stage, and with this kind of patients,
dreams are frecpient, in which he sees some departed friend or relative,
a deceased wife, his mother, etc., beckoning him to come and join
them in the ghost land.
With those who have been Christianized to some extent, of whom
there are only a few, this vision is often modeled on a Christian
pattern: They see "our Father" calling them and telling them it is
time for them to come and join Him.
Reference should also be made to visions, which the people emphaticall}^
deny to be dreams or hallucinations, but which they
pronounce to be "real happenings," where the moribund sees himself
setting out upon the journey toward the ghosts' country, but, upon
arrival there, finds his presence undesired by the ghosts, and is sent
back to his people. This vision is invariably interpreted as an omen
of recovery. (See p. 142.)
As stated before, the sick man's attitude may, however, be com-
pletely different; he may feel loath to quit his settlement and his
people, and will tell them very outspokenly that he does not yet
want to leave them. He will liiiuself entice them to double their
efforts, to try some other means, some difl"erent methods of curing.
If he is a medicine man, he will himself take charge and direction of
the treatment, will send messengers to medicine men of his acquaintance,
asking them to send along formulas and directions wdth which
to cure him.
The people themselves do not attach any value or meaning to this
state of mind, as is often done in some priiuitive and even in civilized
communities, where it is considered an axiom that a man does not
die as long as ho gives proof of pronounced vitality, of interest in life,
of attachment to all things earthly, such as are described above.
Definite and certain data as to the outcome of the illness, as to
whether the patient will live or die, can always be obtained by means
of divinatory methods, the most usual in this case being the "examina-
tion vdth the beads."
The medicine man holds a black bead between thumb and index
finger of the left hand, a white or red bead between forefinger and
thumb of the right hand, and, reciting an appropriate formula, examines
what are the chances of the sick man. The more vitality the
.bead in the right hand shows, the greater are the chances for recovery.