There are no acquirements, so far as I know, deemed essential to qualify a person for the office of a tla-quill-augh. In all Indian tribes there are three or four characters of this description. The tla-quill-aughs are men generally past the meridian of life; in their habits grave and sedate, with a certain shyness and cunning about them. Like most Indians, they possess a good knowledge of herbs and roots, and their virtues. All classes stand in awe of the tla-quill-aughs’ power or ill will, and their opinions have much influence in most matters. They are consulted in all cases of sickness. All classes avoid, as much as possible, giving them offence, from a belief that they have the power of throwing, as they express it, their bad medicine at them, whether far or near, present or absent. The people believe they can converse with the good and the bad spirits; and the tla-quill-aughs, on their part, make it their chiefest study to impose on popular credulity, leading others to credit what they do not believe themselves.
During our stay among these people, it sometimes happened that the tla-quill-aughs were offended with us for our want of faith. On such occasions, the other Indians, seeing us act with so much unconcern in matters which they considered so hazardous to ourselves, would stare at our ignorance, and look on us as the barbarians of old did on St. Paul when the {304} viper fastened on his hand, expecting every moment to see us fall down dead!
From what has now been said on the subject, the reader will no doubt at once conclude that the tla-quill-aughs are of all men the most happy. Let him not, however, be deceived, but look upon them as of all men the most miserable. Every misfortune, sudden death, mishap, or unexpected disaster that happens to any of the people, is immediately attributed to some tla-quill-augh, and he, however innocent, pays with his life for the calamity. On whomsoever the imagination fixes, be he far or near, he is secretly hunted out, waylaid, and put to death; and this is generally the fate of all of them!
When any person is dangerously ill, a tla-quill-augh is consulted, and the price of his services fixed, without his ever seeing the patient. As soon, therefore, as this preliminary part of the business is arranged, the price agreed upon is forthwith sent to his abode, and he repairs to the sick person and begins his operations. He is always paid beforehand—that payment being according to the quality of the sick person; and it is believed that the more is given the sooner and the better will be the case. It is no wonder, therefore, that they should be liberal on such occasions; but if the patient dies the fee is all returned again.
When the tla-quill-augh enters the wigwam or lodge, he views the patient with an air of affected gravity, such as we see some of our own doctors assume on entering the dwelling of a sick person, and {305} tells the bystanders, with a shake of the head and a groan, that the case is a very bad one, and that without him the patient would have surely died. The first thing he then does is to paint himself; and while this is going on he keeps constantly eyeing the patient, ties up his head with a leather strap and his waist with a thong, then lays the patient on his back, takes a piece of strong line, and girds him round the waist as tight as possible; in which position he is not allowed to stir, or to receive any kind of nourishment, until the whole ceremony is ended, which lasts for upwards of three hours every morning and evening until there is a change; and I have known them for weeks together to continue the business without intermission, when it would be hard to tell whether the doctor or the patient was most exhausted.
After the patient is thus placed, the tla-quill-augh, standing over him in a stooping position, bends down, and with his whole force presses him with his two fists in the pit of the stomach, as if intending to push through his body; then, suddenly standing up again, he opens his fists, and keeps blowing through his fingers, every now and then ejaculating a short prayer in a loud and frantic manner, stamping with his feet, blowing with his mouth, and making various gesticulations with his body and arms, always ending the last sentence, in a tremulous voice and quaver of the lips, in these words—“Ho! ho! ho! ho! oh! oh!” All this, the doctor says, is necessary to drive away the evil spirit, for he must be expelled before a cure {306} can be effected! The moment the bad spirit is gone out of the sick person, the tla-quill-augh sucks the part affected with his mouth to extract the bad blood through the pores of the skin, which, to all appearance, he does effectually. How he manages to do it I know not; but I have often watched him, and seen him throw out whole mouthfuls of blood, and yet not the least mark would appear on the skin. I have also examined the tla-quill-augh’s mouth, supposing he might have cut it, but I could never discover anything of the kind. By the colour and quantity of the blood he announces the character of the disease. He goes through the same ceremony with various parts of the body till he expels the evil spirit altogether; or if he fails to do so, and the patient dies, he fixes the death on some rival in the profession.
Having now detailed the course pursued by the honest and zealous tla-quill-augh himself, we next come to describe the accompaniment performed by his assistants. The moment the tla-quill-augh commences his operations, four other persons, men and women indiscriminately, are placed in the same wigwam with the doctor and the sick person, two and two, face to face—that is, opposite to each other, and sitting tailor fashion, with a small stick in each hand. Between these four persons is then laid, flat on the ground, a piece of wood about eight feet long, and on this they keep beating time with their sticks in a loud and noisy manner, singing all the while; but the moment the tla-quill-augh comes to the words {307} “Ho, ho, ho!” the assistants who keep drumming on the piece of wood stop singing, and with their sticks beat one, two, three, for three successive times, by way of an amen to the doctor’s invocations. Then silence ensues for about two minutes, when the whole commences anew, and so on to the end of the ceremony, which, as I have already said, continues every morning and evening about three hours.
The noise made by drumming on the stick, in conjunction with the tla-quill-augh’s hallooing, is intended to frighten away the evil spirit, and prepare the patient for medicine; so that, between the doctor’s bawling and stamping, and the drummer’s beating and singing, the noise may be heard a quarter of a mile round. With all this absurdity, many extraordinary cures are performed by these people. They have a profound knowledge of all simples, and if the complaint be manifest, as in cases of cuts and wounds, or the like, their skill is really astonishing. I once saw an Indian who had been nearly devoured by a grizzly bear, and had his skull split open in several places, and several pieces of the bone taken out just above the brain, and measuring three-fourths of an inch in length, cured so effectually by one of these jugglers, that in less than two months after he was riding on his horse again at the chase. I have also seen them cut open the belly with a knife, extract a large quantity of fat from the inside, sew up the part again, and the patient soon after perfectly recovered. The bite of the rattlesnake {308} they cure effectually; and as to vomits, purges, decoctions, and the knowledge of phlebotomy, none can be more expert and successful than the tla-quill-aughs; and I have witnessed two or three cases, which baffled the skill of a regular surgeon, cured by them.
The diseases most frequent among these people, are indigestion, fluxes, asthmas, and consumptions. Instances of longevity are here and there to be found among them, but not very often.
From the doctor we now turn to the gambler. Play or gambling is a favourite pastime among all classes of the Oakinackens. The principal game is called tsill-all-a-come, differing but little from the chall-chall played by the Chinooks or Indians along the sea-coast. This game is played with two small, oblong, polished bones, each two inches long, and half an inch in diameter, with twenty small sticks of the same diameter as the bones, but about nine inches long.