between the loftiness and the idealizations often attained in Indian song and ceremony, and the commonplaceness and the realities of much of his extraceremonial, colloquial talk. Similarly, my desire to keep the characters in this book true to type, a type that is peculiar in its combination of idealism and materialism, the beautiful and the crass or vulgar, the primitive and the modern,—this desire accounts for many of the incongruities, the strange idioms, and the inelegant phrases in "Rain Song" and in certain other poems.
The "Rain Song" most clearly illustrates the philosophy and the practices of the medicine men. Many Indians, even in this day, have utter faith in the power of the medicine men to accomplish miracles of healing, jugglery, and wonder-working. I have already commented briefly upon their practices; by virtue of their rare medicines,—herbs, clays, skims, substances of all sorts having "power,"—and with the aid of their medicine songs which came to them in a dream from the spirits, these "mystery men" are powerful with the gods. In addition, every medicine man has a special "helper" and adviser, a spirit,—generally that of some bird or beast.—with whom he constantly communes, and of whom he is but the mouthpiece. To illustrate, the night preceding the day set for the ceremonial feast at which I was to be christened or blessed with a Chippewa name, my Indian godfather, Ah-zhay-waince, "Other-Side," had a dream in which his special spirit-guide advised him concerning the name that I should bear. And
