The suit of the bear doctor, called _gawī_, was made as follows:
First, an openwork basket was woven of white oak twigs to fit the
head and with openings for eyes, nose, and mouth. Disks of abalone
shell with small openings to permit actual vision were fitted into
the eye openings in the basket. This basket served as a foundation
over which to place the skin of the bear’s head. It was made so that
it exactly fitted the wearer’s head and remained in place even when
he moved violently. The covering of this helmet, as also the outer
covering for the rest of the body, was usually made of real grizzly
bear skin, though a net covered with soaproot fiber was sometimes
used. The skin of the bear’s head was shaped, but not stuffed, so as
to retain its proper form, the eye-holes of the skin being made to fit
the shell-filled eye-holes in the basket. The remainder of the bearskin
was fitted exactly to the body, arms, and legs so as to perfectly hide
every part of the body and give the wearer the appearance of a grizzly.
When soaproot fiber was used in making the bear doctor’s suit, a fine
net was first woven and thickly covered with shredded soaproot fiber
(_ap tsida_). This was woven entirely in one piece and so arranged
as to completely cover the wearer from head to foot, including the
basketry helmet just mentioned. It laced in front.
A low shoe, with the sole rounded and shaped somewhat like that of
a bear’s foot, was worn. This shoe was made of woven basketry held
between two hoops and so arranged that the foot went between the two
sections, which were attached directly to the costume. It was said that
sometimes, also, similarly shaped shoes were placed upon the hands. At
other times nothing was worn on either hands or feet.
Before donning the suit an “armor” of shell beads was put on. Four
belts covered the abdomen. Each was about six inches wide and made of
a different size and form of beads. One, called _hmūkī_, covered the
umbilicus. The other three, which were placed one above the other,
completely covered the remainder of the abdomen, chest, and back up to
the armpits, and were called respectively _kibūkal_, _catanī kūtsa_,
and _tadatada_. The last protected the heart, and was made of very
large, discoidal beads. Ordinarily these bead belts were woven in the
usual way. Sometimes, however, one or more of the four was covered
without by a layer of woodpecker scalps. Strings of shell beads were
wound closely about the arms from wrist to shoulder and the legs were
similarly covered. All these beads served as a protection against
arrows in case the bear doctor was attacked by hunters.
A type of body armor, made of wooden rods and used in open warfare,
is said to have been sometimes used by bear doctors. This consisted
of two layers of rods obtained from the snowdrop bush (_bakol_), each
rod being about the size of a lead pencil. These were bound together
with string, one layer of rods being placed vertically and the other
horizontally, in such a manner as to make a very close and effective
armor.
Two globose, three-rod foundation baskets, called _kūtc tcadōtcadoī_,
and each about three inches in diameter, were half filled with water
and each encased tightly in a closely woven fabric made of milkweed
fiber cord, or in a casing of rawhide. One was then tied, inside
the bearskin suit, just under each jaw or under each armpit. In the
soaproot fiber suit, small pockets were woven on its inner surface
for their reception. The swashing of the water made a sound (pluk,
pluk, pluk, pluk) resembling that of the viscera of a bear as he moves
along. Sometimes, instead of these baskets, a slightly larger pair
of plain-twining were tied one at each side at the waist. The doctor
never wore more than one pair at a time and never wore a single basket
alone. Canoe-form baskets ten or twelve inches long and with unusually
small openings were sometimes carried in place of the small, globose
baskets above mentioned. They were sometimes filled with water, as were
the small baskets, and at other times were used as receptacles for
beads, berries, or other commodities.
Plate 7 (frontispiece) shows a Pomo bear doctor suit, in the Peabody
Museum of Harvard University, reproduced by courtesy of Mr. C. C.
Willoughby. This is a model. While differing in some details from the
explanations received from informants, it confirms them in substance.