SORCERY AND JUGGLERY.
§ 306. As among the Omaha and other Siouan tribes, so among the Dakota do we find traces of the practice of sorcery, and there is a special word in the Dakota dictionary: “ḣmuŋġa, to cause sickness or death, as the Dakotas pretend to be able to do, in a supernatural way—to bewitch—kill by enchantment.” The syllable “ḣmuŋ” seems to convey the idea of humming, buzzing, or muttering.
Jugglery or sleight-of-hand performances are resorted to by the mysterious men and women. (See §§ 64-66, 291-4.) Some of these practitioners claim to possess the art of making love-charms, such potions being sold to women who desire to attract particular men of their acquaintance. When a woman obtains such a medicine, she uses it in one of two ways. Sometimes she touches the man on his blanket with the medicine, at others she persuades the man to give her a piece of chewing gum, which she touches with the medicine. Then she seizes him, and he can not escape from her, even should he wish to leave her. So he is obliged to marry her.