an
association composed of shamans, whose supposed powers are much in
request among these Indians of the northwest. Two other classes of
medicine-men exist among them to a very limited extent, the Wâbeno,
"Men of the Dawn," and the Jessakid or "revealers of hidden things."
The members of this latter class, who operate singly, are regarded as
very dangerous and generally malevolent sorcerers, having the power to
call evil spirits to their aid, and are even believed to practise the
fearful art of drawing a man's soul out of his body, so that he either
becomes insane or dies. The turtle is regarded by the Jessakids as the
abode or symbol of the mightiest spirit. However, the Midês, members of
the Midêwiwin, are far the most numerous, and it is to them that the
Indian looks for help and health. While they usually "treat" their
patients in their own abodes, when the disease fails to yield to the
might of ordinary incantations and spells, the assistance of the great
magic stone in the Medicine Lodge or Midêwigen must be resorted to. For
this purpose the sick person is carried thither and is laid on the
ground constituting the floor of the lodge, so that the diseased part
of his body may touch the stone. In addition to this magic stone, which
is set in the ground near the entrance, three magic wooden posts rise
up, one behind the other, and at the end opposite the entrance is set a
painted wooden cross, the base of which is cut four-square, each side
having a different coloring, namely, white, for the East, the source of
light; green, for the South, the source of rain which brings the
verdure ; red, for the West, where the red glow of the sunset appears
and whither the spirits of the departed wend their way after death,
and, lastly, black, for the cold and pitiless North, the origin of
disease, famine and death.9
•
W. J. Hoffman, " The Midêwiwin, or Grand Medicine Society of the
Ojibway "; 7th Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1885-86, Washington,
1891, pp. 149-300, with many illustrations.
