America North of Mexico_, p. 39.)
[Illustration: Fig. 20.--Wâbeno destroying an Enemy]
Fig. 20 records the destruction of an enemy by an Ojibwa wâbeno or
bad medicine-man. The box-like objects represent the four degrees
of the cult society to which the wâbeno belonged, the number of
posts indicating the series. The figure next to these is that of the
assistant to the wâbeno, who is shown with a waving line extending from
his mouth to the oval-like object intended to represent a lake upon an
island in which the victim lives. He is shown prostrate beneath the
wâbeno with a spot upon his breast, the small oblong figure between the
two being the sacred drum. (See 2 in the foregoing illustration.) The
meaning of the pictograph is that the wâbeno was employed to work black
magic on the man. He took a piece of birch bark and cut upon it the
effigy of the victim, then, after beating the drum to the chanting of
incantations, he pierced the breast of the effigy, applying red paint
to the puncture. This, under the principle of "sympathetic magic," was
believed to bring about the death of the victim, whom, through his
living on the island, the wâbeno could not reach.
[Illustration: Fig. 21.--Etching on Innuit Drill-bow]
White magic, in which the beneficent powers are at work, is illustrated
by the Innuit pictograph on an ivory drill-bow (fig. 21), on the right
of which are two huts, nearest to which stands the medicine-man who
has been called in to exorcise the disease from a couple of sufferers.
He is catching hold of the animal by whose help the disease-demon is
expelled, or to whom, mayhap, as a sort of scapegoat, the disease is
transferred. In the second exorcism, the medicine-man is grasping the
patient by the arm, while he chants the formulæ wherewith to cast out
the demon. The figure on the left is making a gesture of surprise at
his relief, while beyond him are two demons struggling to escape beyond
the power of the medicine man.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.--Ojibwa Hunting Record]
3. _The Chase._--Fig. 22 records a hunting expedition. The two lines
represent a wave-tossed river, on which floats a bark canoe, guided by
the owner. In the bow a piece of birch bark shields a fire of pine
knots to light up the course taken by the steersman. By this means the
game, as it comes to the water to drink, can be seen from the shaded
part of the canoe, in front of which two deer are shown. Next to these
is a circle representing a lake, from which peep the head and horns
of a third deer. To the right of the lake a doe appears, and beyond
her the two wigwams of the hunter. The four animals may represent the
quarry secured.
[Illustration: Fig. 23.--Hidatsa Pictograph on a Buffalo Shoulder-blade]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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