With the medicine men, suggestion had a great power for healing. Some of them practiced in good faith; others were frauds and quacks, in about the same proportion as in civilized communities. Many of them were inspired and had faith in their art. They relieved suffering and held positions of influence in their tribe. Thus modern science had its origin in the blind gropings of primitive doctors and medicine men.
Rattler and his wife stripped the patient to his waist. He lay on a couch, with his head against the back-rest. The woman doctored first, while Rattler and I sat together at the back of the lodge to help by our singing.
She took some roots and herbs from an old sack and brewed them over the fire for a hot drink. She burned sweet pine as incense, holding both hands in the rising smoke and praying to her helper, the Buffalo Spirit, that he would give her power to heal. She kneeled by the patient’s side, holding her hands in the sweet smoke and laying them on his body and feeling him gently with her fingers; she said the trouble was in his chest, and was bad on the left side. Then she took a hot stone from the fire, and placing it in a kettle of water, prayed:
“Sun, pity and help me.
Listen, Sun, to what I say.
Help this sick man, that he may live to old age.
Take heed and pity him, for the sake of wife and children.
May they live long.
May they all be happy and see many snows.”
[[271]]