Stirring scenes in savage lands : $b An account of the manners, customs, habits and recreations, peaceful and warlike, of the uncivilised worldGreenwood, James
History
Stirring scenes in savage lands : $b An account of the manners, customs, habits and recreations, peaceful and warlike, of the uncivilised world
Greenwood, James
Anthropology
“That moment conferred an honour on me which you, as yet, do not
understand. I took the degree (not of Doctor of Law, nor Bachelor
of Arts) of Master of Arts--of mysteries, of magic, and of hocus
pocus. I was recognized in that short sentence as a great _medicine
white man_, and since that time have been regularly installed
_medicine_, or mystery,--which is the most honourable degree that
could be conferred upon me here, and I now hold a place amongst the
most eminent and envied personages, the doctors and conjurati of this
titled community.
“Te-ho-pe-nee Wash-ee--pronounced ‘tup’penny’--is the name I now go by,
and it will prove to me no doubt of more value than gold, for I have
been called upon and feasted by the doctors, who are all mystery-men,
and it has been an easy and successful passport already to many
strange and mysterious places, and has put me in possession of a vast
deal of curious and interesting information which I am sure I never
should have otherwise learned. I am daily growing in the estimation
of the medicine-men and the chiefs, and by assuming all the gravity
and circumspection due from so high a dignity (and even considerably
more), and endeavouring to perform now and then some art or trick that
is unfathomable, I am in hopes of supporting my standing until the
great annual ceremony commences, on which occasion I may possibly be
allowed a seat in the _medicine_ lodge by the doctors, who are the
sole conductors of this great source and fountain of all priestcraft
and conjuration in this country. After I had finished the portraits of
the two chiefs and they had returned to their wigwams and deliberately
seated themselves by their respective firesides and silently smoked a
pipe or two (according to an universal custom), they gradually began
to tell what had taken place; and at length crowds of gaping listeners,
with mouths wide open, thronged their lodges, and a throng of women
and girls were about my house, and through every crack and crevice I
could see their glistening eyes which were piercing my hut in a hundred
places, from a natural and restless propensity--a curiosity to see what
was going on within. An hour or more passed in this way and the soft
and silken throng continually increased until some hundreds of them
were clung and piled about my wigwam like a swarm of bees hanging on
the front and sides of their hive. During this time not a man made his
appearance about the premises; after awhile, however, they could be
seen folded in their robes gradually sidling up towards the lodge with
a silly look upon their faces, which confessed at once that curiosity
was leading them reluctantly where their pride checked and forbade
them to go. The rush soon after became general, and the chiefs and
medicine-men took possession of my room, placing soldiers (braves,
with spears in their hands) at the door, admitting no one but such as
were allowed by the chiefs to come in. The likenesses were instantly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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