These men are the representatives of the gods on earth, to men. They
_are_ the gods in human form, though in diminished proportions. They are
essentially different from other men—wakan.
The original essence of these men and women, for they appear under both
sexes, first wakes into existence floating in ether. As the winged seed
of the thistle, or of the cottonwood, floats on the air, so they are
gently wafted by the “four winds”—“Taku-skan-skan”—through the regions
of space, until, in due time, they find themselves in the abode of some
one of the families of the superior gods, by whom they are received into
intimate fellowship. There the embryotic medicine-man remains till he
becomes familiar with the characters, abilities, desires, caprices, and
employments of the gods. He becomes essentially assimilated to them,
imbibing their spirit, and becoming acquainted with all the chants,
feasts, fasts, dances and sacrificial rites which it is deemed necessary
to impose on men.
Some of the more favored of these men are privileged to pass through a
succession of such inspirations, with various families of the divinities,
until they are completely _wakanized_, and prepared for human incarnation.
In particular, they are invested with the irresistable powers of the
gods to do good or evil, with their knowledge and cunning, and their
everywhere present influence over mind, instinct and passion. They are
instructed how to inflict diseases and to heal them, to discover things
concealed from common men, to foretell future events, to manufacture
implements of war, and infuse into them the missive virtue—the tonwan—of
the gods, and to perform all sorts of wonders.
Thus qualified for his mission, this germ of wakan, to become incarnate,
is again committed to the direction of the “four winds.” From his
elevated position, he selects a place which is to be the scene of his
service, and enters the body of an unborn infant. Thus he effects an
entrance into the world and into the sympathies of mortals.
When one of them dies, he returns to the abode of his gods, where
he receives a new inspiration and a new commission, to serve a new
generation of men in some other portion of the world. In this manner
he passes through four inspirations and incarnations, and then returns
to his primitive nothingness. These characters, however, do not always
appear in human form, but enter the bodies of beasts, as the wolf, the
bear, and the buffalo.
To establish their claims to inspiration, these characters must, of
course, perform things that are wakan, in a manner to satisfy those on
whom they purpose to impose their superstitions.
For this purpose, they artfully lay hold of all that is strange and
mysterious, and if possible turn it to their own advantage. To do this
is the one object and effort of their lives. It is their study day and
night, at all times and on all occasions. They think about it when awake,
and dream about it when asleep. They make use of all the means in their
power, and their zeal never grows cold.
They assume familiarity with whatever astonishes other people, with a
degree of self complacency, and an air of impudence and assurance which
strikes the observers with amazement. They foretell future events with a
degree of accuracy or of ambiguity which is sufficient for their purpose.
Those at one village affect to be familiar with what is transpiring
at another village leagues distant They predict the result of a war
expedition as if they had already been there; and if the prediction is
not fulfilled they find no difficulty in setting the failure to the
account of the sins of their followers.
They inflict diseases and heal them. They kill and make alive. When
occasion requires they seem to calm the tempest, or to raise the storm,
and converse with thunder and lightning, as with a familiar friend and
equal. In their devotional exercises, at times, they wrangle with the
gods, charge them with duplicity, and are defiant. If one of them is
killed by the electric fluid, which sometimes happens, it only proves the
truth, to the living, of all he had taught them concerning the Wakinyan,
and that he had provoked their anger by his sins.
The medicine man is not only familiar with the superior gods who are out
of him, but he also has inferior gods dwelling in him, to satisfy whose
cravings he frequently, and in the most public manner, tears off with his
teeth and eats the raw, quivering, bleeding flesh of newly-slaughtered
animals, like a starving beast or bird of prey, devouring parts of dogs
or fish entire, not excepting bones and scales.