M. R. HARRINGTON — SACRED BUNDLES OF THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS. 223

his war bundles (p. 189). Angelica root, he said, would “hold the enemy spellbound” if chewed and rubbed on the person of the warrior. But to calamus, although used the same way, he only ascribed the property of stopping bleeding. Differ- ences in recording the names of these herbs may He for dia- lectic reasons in the names themselves (Co'kwiwa being a Sac and the former owner of the present bundle a Fox) or it may lie in my imperfect hearing of the same words spoken by two different persons. There is a larger black cloth package of calamus in the bundle.
Three small packages of “curing medicine,” powdered vegetable mixtures in which Bee ki buk (a prairie plant with a thimble-shaped head) and sassafras bark, Tha la ja bi Id, figure, were found in the bundle. These are used to counteract the bad effect of using other magic medicines.
The last outfit in the bundle, a red leather bag, contains medicine for foot racing. It consists of the tail of a new- born colt to tie on the hair for power and endurance in running, two rabbits’ feet to tie on the necklace for speed, a pawpaw seed to hold in the mouth, and two cylindrical magic stones, one of them artificially shaped, to hold in the hands while running.
Bundle 2/7812.
A third general “medicine bundle” was bought from the Sac and Fox woman known as Laura Carter, which consists of two distinct parts, each of which might be almost called a bundle in itself, their only relation to each other being that they were kept in the same cover, a woven sack 8* x 1 1 ,
made of ravelings of woolen fabrics in soft colors and artistic geometrical patterns.
(A) The first part is called No ca wus kw*, and is sup- posed to facifitate delivery in childbirth. It contains a piece of fossil tooth, apparently that of a mastodon, five pi&4l of fossil bone, a fresh-water mussel shell, a little woodUft and a common store-bought file. These things tiekt
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224 UNIVERSITY MUSEUM — ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS VOL. IV.
wrapped in three pieces of cotton cloth, the inner one purple, the next red and the outside a square piece of blue with a lining of figured red calico and hemmed edges.
According to Mrs. Carter the medicine originated with her grandfather’s grandmother, “Mecanokw',” one of the greatest “dreamers” known to the tribe, who was a noted lodge woman of the Me da, her name being still heard in some of the songs of that order, and whose fame as a doctor has lived to this day. It is said that one time she fasted ten days, during which time this medicine and other medicines and powers were revealed to her. In her vision she was taken to the abode of the Great Spirit (Ge' tci Ma' ni to wl ga' nik), where the Manito Under Water Animals are said to have appeared to her and to have given her this medicine, with which she was able to establish a record of one hundred cures. At the same time she received a white weasel skin which she afterwards used as a “medicine bag” in the rites of the Me da/ win. The medicine has descended directly from this old lady to Laura Carter, but inspection makes it evident that certain parts have been renewed.
The use of the medicine was given as follows: If a woman has a hard time in giving birth to a child, and wishes to try this medicine, she sends tobacco to the woman' having the bundle in charge, with a present, such as ponies or goods of some kind. Then, if the practitioner wishes to take the case, she accepts the tobacco and throws it into some running stream, praying to the Manito Under Water Animals, and begging them to help the suffering woman. In order to get water for the doctoring, she then dips the shell into the same stream, dipping with the current, which is supposed to make the discharges run freely from the patient.
Taking the shell to the patient’s home, she empties the water from it until it does not come above a natural mark in the shell, then sets it down with point to the east. With the file each of the fossil bones is scratched a few times, begin- ning with the small black one which is considered the best,
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