Indians of North America -- Medicine; Pomo Indians; Shamans
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.
WEAPONS AND THEIR USE
A bear doctor usually carried one and sometimes two elk-horn daggers,
called _bōō a_, literally “elk horn.” Such a dagger was from six to ten
inches in length and was made by pounding at its base and breaking off
the large end point of an elk antler and sharpening its tip. It was
rubbed on a grinding stone and smoothed throughout its length and a
hole was bored in its base through which a loop about two feet long was
passed for suspending it about the neck or from the belt. This loop was
always of string, as this is not affected by dampness.
Obsidian or flint knives, called _bat!_, were sometimes used in
addition to or in place of the elk-horn dagger. The blade of such a
knife was made by first striking the larger flakes from it with a
hammer stone and then chipping its edges with an antler chipping tool.
This blade was set into a split oak handle and bound securely with
string, but was not pitched. Both of these were thrusting weapons.
Other weapons were sometimes used, even the stone pestle being employed
as a weapon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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