Fig. 705.—Skokomish tamahnous.
Your figure of a shaman’s lodge in Alaska [Fig. [714] in this work] reminds me of a drawing made of the same character on this reservation by one of our best educated Indian boys. His description of it is as follows: “When I was at Dr. Charley’s house (the shaman or medicine man), they tamahnoused [performed incantations] over [my brother] Frank. They saw that he was under a kind of sickness. Dr. Charley took it, and just a little after that Frank shook and became stiff, and while I sat I heard my father say that his breath was gone. I went out, as I did not want to see my brother lay dead before me. When I came back he was breathing a little and his eyes were closed. Dr. Charley was taking care of his breath with his own tamahnous [guardian spirit] and waiting for more folks to come, so as to have enough folks to beat on sticks when he should tamahnous and see what was the matter with Frank. So he went on and saw that there was another kind of sickness besides the one he took first. The other one went over Frank and almost killed him. Dr. Charley took it again and went (travel) [in spirit] with another kind of tamahnous to see where Frank’s spirit was. He found him at Humahuma [18 or 20 miles distant], where they had camped [some time previous]. So Frank got better after a hard tamahnous. From the drawing you will see how Dr. Charley fixed the kind of sickness. b shows the first sickness which Dr. Charley took. It has tails, which, when they come close to the sick person, makes him worse. a is the way it goes when it kills a person and stays in his home. c is the second one and is hanging over Frank, d. e is another sickness which is in Frank.”
In Kingsborough (d) is the following: “In the year of Eleven Houses, or in 1529, Nuño de Guzman set out for Yalisco on his march to subdue that territory. They pretend that a serpent descended from the sky, exclaiming that troubles were preparing for the natives, since the Christians were directing their course hither.” The illustration for this account is presented as Fig. [1224], Chap. XX, on Special Comparisons.
SECTION 4.
CHARMS AND AMULETS.
The use of material objects for the magic purposes suggested by this title is well known. Their graphic representation is not so familiar, though it is to be supposed that the objects of this character would be pictorially represented in pictographs connected with religion. The following is an instance where the use of a charm or fetich in action was certainly portrayed in a pictograph.
Fig. 706.—Mdewakantawan fetich.