The above manner of disposing of the hollow bones is a clever trick and not readily detected, and it is only by such acts of jugglery and other delusions that he maintains his influence and importance among the credulous.
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Fig. 31.—Jĕs´sakkīd´ curing woman. | Fig. 32.—Jĕs´sakkīd´ curing man. |
[Fig. 31] represents a Jĕs´sakkīd´ curing a sick woman by sucking the demon through a bone tube. The pictograph was drawn upon a piece of birch bark which was carried in the owner’s Midē´ sack, and was intended to record an event of importance.
No. 1 represents the actor, holding a rattle in hand. Around his head is an additional circle, denoting quantity (literally, more than an ordinary amount of knowledge), the short line projecting to the right indicating the tube used.
No. 2 is the woman operated upon.
[Fig. 32] represents an exhibition by a Jĕs´sakkīd´, a resident of White Earth, Minnesota. The priest is shown in No. 1 holding his rattle, the line extending from his eye to the patient’s abdomen signifying that he has located the demon and is about to begin his exorcism. No. 2 is the patient lying before the operator.
[ FOURTH DEGREE.]
Fig. 33.—Diagram of Midē´wigân of the fourth degree.