The two above are the legends concerning the principal medicines used
among the Iroquois. The ancient manner of administering them, was to take
a small wooden goblet and go to a running stream, dipping toward the way
which the stream ran, fill the goblet and return, place it near the fire
with some tobacco near it; a prayer is offered while tobacco is thrown
upon the fire, that the words may ascend upon the smoke.
The medicine is placed on a piece of skin near the goblet, being very
finely pulverized, is taken up with a wooden spoon and dusted upon the
water in three spots, in the form of a triangle, thus--
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The medicine man then looks at it critically, if it spreads over the
surface of the water and whirls about, it is a sign that the invalid will
be healed; if it sinks directly in the places where it was put, there is
no hope, the sick person must die and the whole is thrown away.
Once in six months there is a great feast made, at the hunting season in
fall and spring. On the night of the feast as soon as it is dark, all who
are present assemble in one room, where no light or fire is allowed to
burn, and placing the medicine near the covered embers, the tobacco by
its side, they commence singing, which proclaims that the crows are
coming to their feast, and also many other birds and various animals,
the brains of whose species form part of their medicine. At the end of
the song some one imitates the caw of a crow, the songs of the birds, the
howls of the wolf, etc., as if the animals were present.
Three times in the course of the night they offer a prayer, while
throwing tobacco on the smothered flames, asking that the people may be
protected from all harm, and if they receive wounds that the medicine may
be effectual in healing them.
At the commencement of the ceremonies the doors are locked, and no one
is allowed to enter or leave the house while they continue; neither is
any one allowed to sleep, as that would spoil the medicine. The feast
begins just before the dawn of day. The master of ceremonies first takes
a deer's head, bites off a piece, imitates the cry of a crow and passes
the head of the animal to another, who does the same, till all have
tasted and imitated the peculiar note of some bird or animal.
As soon as it begins to be light the presiding officer takes a duck's
bill, and dipping it full of the medicine, gives it to each one present,
who puts it in a bit of skin and wraps it in several coverings, keeps it
carefully until the next semi-annual feast. The skin of a panther is
preferred for the first envelope if it can be obtained.
Those who take part in the ceremonies are medicine men. Chiefs are
allowed to be present; also, any who have been cured of any disease by
the medicine.
Without the building the young people gather for merriment, and the
fragments of the feast are given to them when it is finished.
When the medicine described in the second legend is used, the tune is
sung which was heard at its discovery, both at the ceremonies of the
feast and the time of administering it.
They seem to think the ceremonies effectual in making the medicinal
qualities of the compound imperishable. Each medicine man has a large
quantity which he keeps in a bag, and in order not to exhaust the whole,
now and then, adds pulverized corn roots, squash vines, etc., and
whenever it is administered several persons assemble and sing. Both kinds
are considered especially useful in healing wounds received in war.
In reading the first legend there will be seen very humorous allusions to
the habits of the pigeon, heron and crow, and there is a curious
invention inspiring faith in the means used in healing. I have seen many
who affirmed that they had tested the wonderful powers of each.
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