a new supply of medicines, all carefully and mysteriously arranged by an invisible spirit." Each carries in his hand the empty skin of a snapping turtle, holding it by the neck, the chief badge of the medicine confraternity. The turtle contains some small water-worn pebbles, which they rattle as they come out, exhibiting the same gestures and movements as on entering the medicine hall on the preceding evening.
Then they proceed to the sick man's lodge or cabin, hopping and dancing around the dwelling, shaking their snapping turtle shells, and making hideous and unnatural sounds through the nostrils, in imitation of the owl - all this to frighten off the evil spirit and drive it out of the body of the patient. After having made several rounds, the chief medicine man throws open the entrance, falls his full length on the floor and drags himself along, in all sorts of antics, keeping up meanwhile his rattling and his gut tural sounds and cries. He goes under the bed, removes every object, searches and passes in every nook and crook, tumbles in the fire and handles the glowing coals," which he scatters around the sickroom. After this long performance and operation, they all join in a common dance, accompanied by the sharp rattling turtles and the guttural gibbering songs, and the scene closes, the evil spirit is put to flight and they receive their pay. Should the patient recover, the Indian medicine men have wrought a great new wonder, and they receive all the credit for the cure. On the contrary, if the sick man dies, to another more powerful spirit the death of the patient is cunningly attributed.
15 The renewal of the mysterious medicine bags is made by one of the confraternity under the dark veil of the night.-Author's Note.
16 The handling of the red-hot coals is attributed to the hands and other exposed parts of the body being besmeared with the sap of a certain weed, which protects against burns and renders them insensible to heat.-Author's Note.