those
worthies is called in to avert the impending misfortune, his favorite
remedy consists in placing a piece of slate, a turquoise and a crystal
in a vessel filled with water, the liquid being administered in regular
doses to the threatened victim. The threefold remedy, comprising a
specimen of the lost stone, is supposed to outweigh and counteract the
probable evil influences of the lost turquoise alone.7"
The magic power that dwelt in these Indian fetishes was named oyaron in the Iroquoian tongue, and each person or kindred was believed to have a special oyaron which
exerted a controlling power over their good or evil fortune. The
material object in which this entity would take up its abode was
determined in a peculiar way. When a youth had attained maturity, he
was intrusted to the charge of an old man who took him to a far-away
lodge in the wilderness. Here he had his face, shoulders and breast
blackened to symbolize his lack of spiritual or occult enlightenment.
He was then compelled to fast for a considerable time and was
instructed to carefully note his dreams, and if he should have an
exceptionally vivid dream regarding any specific object, to tell his
guardian of it. The fact was then duly reported to the wise men of the
tribe, who decided whether the object was the chosen abiding place of
his oyaron. This having been satisfactorily determined, an
object of the kind was sought out and was preserved and treasured by
the one to whom it had been assigned in the vision. Perhaps the
familiar spirit might have elected to dwell in a calumet, a pipe or a
knife, or else in some animal, plant, or mineral form.8
The Midêwiwin, or, as it is sometimes erroneously called, the "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibway Indians, is
'»
Pogue, " The Turquois," citing Russell, " The Pima Indians," in 26th
Annual Report of the Bureau of Amer. Ethnology, 1904-1905, p. 112.
""Handbook
of American Indians North of Mexico," ed. by Frederick Webb Hodge;
Smithsonian Inst., Bur. of Am. Ethn., Bull. 30, Pt. II, p. 178;
Washington, 1910.
