M. R. HARRINGTON — SACRED BUNDLES OF THE SAC AND FOX INDIANS. 227

mg a strip of hide and hair on the breast. When this is cut loose and pulled back the blood inside is thrown to the four directions, in this order: E., S., W., N., after which the breast is given to the owner of the medicine to make a feast. After this everything becomes easy for the hunters. The breast, “o ka' kai ya,” is fat and good. When it is cooked with fat from the rump, for the feast, it is considered very fine. A piece of this is always burned as an offering to the “medicine.” Should the yearling doe be killed on the spring hunt, the milk- bag, or udder, is made into soup, but great care must be taken that no dogs eat any of this until four days have elasped. No one is allowed to waste the venison or make fun of - the deer at any time. Mrs. Carter said she had forgotten the songs used with this medicine, although she had often heard them.
Fetish Bundles.
Resembling the general bundles in that they may serve for several purposes, yet forming a distinct class by them- selves, are those containing little human figures (of wood as a rule) usually accompanied by various packets of herbs, and passing under the general name of Mi thi' ni ni (rigid-man). Somewhat similar images are found among the Pottawattomi, Delaware and the Iroquois tribes to my certain knowledge, and perhaps among many others.
It will be seen on reading the following pages that these little “rigid men” fill very well the definition of “fetish” as given in the first part of this paper.
Bundle 2 / 6507 .
The best example secured was a bundle, the entire contents of which are shown in PI. XXXVIII, containing a very old image of this class, which was bought, after much trouble, from the same Laura Carter who sold us the general bundle just described. The ‘'rigid man” (A) measured 10§" in height, and was made
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228 UNIVERSITY MUSEUM — ANTHROPOLOGICAL PUBLICATIONS VOL. IV.
of some hard wood resembling maple. The head is a separate piece, and is furnished with a pivot which works loosely in a socket in the upper part of the trunk, giving the head a more or less lifelike motion when the image is picked up. On the back of the head is carved a roach or crest, painted red and provided with a hole for the reception of a feather, now miss- ing. The hair about the roach, supposed to be short, was represented by burning the wood until black. The eyes are long oval black glass beads. Each ear is pierced twice, once through the lobe and again near the top. From the upper perforations hang a pair of trade earrings of metal, from the lower hole in one ear three wampum beads and a smaller trade earring on a thread, but these are missing from the other ear. The image wears a fringed shirt and leggings of buckskin with moccasins of the same, while the breech cloth is of coarse cot- ton print. The legs are solid wood, and immovable, but the arms are merely the shirt sleeves, stuffed, the lower ends cut in the form of hands.
The image was kept wrapped in two pieces of figured calico, tied with strips of rag, together with the following objects, mostly magic medicines, which are lettered for identification on the photograph.
Contents (PI. XXXVIII). — Pouch of red trade cloth (N) 3J" square, ornamented with a few rude patterns in black stitching. It contained a buckskin package (B) enclosing a powder made of red paint and magic herbs ground fine called Mi ca' dus kwe (“high-toned medicine”), a very popular mixture. This medi- cine obtains for the user the good opinion of others and helps her to get what she wants. If a woman wants a husband, all she has to do is to say to the fetish, as she sprinkles tobacco upon it, “I want to meet so-and-so,” naming the man she has in mind, and then to paint a little of the medicine on her cheeks. Then her wish will come true.
Another use for “Mi ca' dus kwe” is in the “pony smoke” when the tribes visit each other and make presents of ponies. When the Sac and Fox visited another tribe this medicine
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