Payment was always made to the shaman. The amount was determined by the patient’s relatives. They would take the offering to the shaman when engaging him, but payment was not made at that time. The shaman looked over the proffered payment and might ask for more or for a different kind of payment. To give himself a foolproof alibi in case of failure to cure, and to increase his prestige if he did cure, he might reply to the effect that “The beads already have the smell of death on them, but I’ll see what I can do about it.” The payment was placed near the patient during healing treatment and was not actually collected by the shaman if the patient died within a few weeks or months. The shaman’s assistants were also paid, but in lesser amounts.
Maidu shaman ceremonial neck pendant knife of obsidian, nine and one half inches long (after Dixon)
Besides the main function of curing, other good powers of the shamans were the ability to foretell future events, to see what was going on at distant places, and to locate lost or stolen articles. Among certain tribes control of weather was also possible by Sucking Shamans—among others there were special shamans with weather power.
Evil powers of Sucking Shamans could cause illness or death. This was done by talking to the pain and sending it to the victim. The shaman might put it on the end of a willow stick and point it at the person while singing and smoking tobacco. This could go on all night. Transmission of the pain to the intended victim was facilitated by contact, such as sneaking up behind him and touching him, or by putting the disease pain in his food or under his doorstep. The bad pain might also be dispatched by blowing it through a pipe or putting it in the victim’s pipe, or by talking to the shaman’s own animal spirit, injecting the pain into it and then sending the animal to the victim. This power animal might just take it to the intended person, or it might actually attack and bite him. If the evil pain had been successfully sent, and the intended dire results occurred, the relatives of the victim had a moral right to kill the offending shaman, without fear of retaliation. It seems that the culprit was usually recognized—obviously often mistakenly. It follows that shamans’ lives were somewhat precarious, not knowing who was going to find damning evidence against them.
By somewhat the same means as described above shamans could steal a person’s spirit or soul, rendering that person liable to quick and sure death from the slightest accident or illness. Shamans could be hired to perform these evil powers.
Singing Shamans were dreamers foretelling the future and telling the living what their dead relatives wanted them to do. The Singing Shaman was always male among mountain Maidu. Our other tribes did not have this specialist, instead such powers were in the repertoire of the Sucking Shaman.
Among Yana and Yahi tribes, apparently, weather doctoring could be done by any shaman, and this was usually the case among Atsugewi. However, mountain Maidu had specialized Weather Shamans. These were men who were capable not only of producing rain, snow, or hail, but also fog and high winds, or ending any of these.
Rattlesnake Shamans were generally women among Atsugewi and men among mountain Maidu. They could protect people from rattlesnakes or cure bites. The latter was accomplished by sucking which removed snakes and snakes’ teeth from the wound.
Bear Shamans did not exist among Yana tribes. Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu these were not specialists, instead bear power was an additional skill of Sucking Shamans. They were almost always men and pertained not to Black Bear, but only to the California Grizzly. They wore bear skin, hair, teeth, and claws and simulated the bear’s actions in treating patients. Bear Shamans were called primarily to minister to bear wounded persons from whom they sucked out bear blood and teeth.