affording instruction to the most able of their white confrères;[1] and to be a medicine-man at all demands that the individual be not only a shrewd student of human nature capable of drawing deductions from matters seemingly most trifling, but also an expert conjurer and wizard. I have repeatedly known events in the far future to be predicted with scrupulous fidelity to details, exactly as they subsequently occurred; the movements of persons and individuals to be described in minutiae who had never been seen, and were hundreds of miles away, without a single error as to time, place, or act; and I have witnessed feats of legerdemain and necromancy that would appall a Houdin or a Heller, executed in broad daylight, without mystic aids or surroundings. I have seen guns, manifestly in perfect order, fail to execute their mission while in the hands of most expert marksmen, merely through a look, a touch, a word, or a bit of incantation; and yet again restored by a like process.[2] But here, as may readily be surmised, the trouble was not with the weapon, but with the man behind it, whose will-power was not equal to the task of overcoming his native and inherent superstition. Again, it has been my fortune to witness feats so astounding that I dare not place them upon record lest I be accused of romancing; some, to be sure, susceptible of explanation under physical and psychical laws; others not so easily or satisfactorily disposed of, except perhaps as tricks of the imagination, "optical delusions," etc.; and even as to these few would be willing to admit that, of an audience numbering some scores, all could be successfully deluded.
Having already intimated that the Indian relies chiefly on incantation and conjuration to produce specific effects, it is readily understood that success is due to the impressions produced upon the great nerve-centers. Just as the ancients esteemed the ear and nose the highways and emunctories of the brain, the special senses of hearing and smell become the foundation of all savage physiology, and consequently are appealed to in the most emphatic and comprehensive manner. Noise and odor are ever the prime factors in the armamentarium therapeuticum of the medicine-man, and it is no exaggeration
- ↑ The Indian recognizes the fact that clairvoyant and psychic power may be inculcated and developed de novo; that it may be brought about by certain conditions that stimulate, or disarrange and disorganize certain nerve-centers, and he consequently prepares for more formal and eventful measures by fa-sting, long vigils, and other acts that develop extreme nerve-sensibility. A white man I once knew always developed extraordinary psychic and clairvoyant powers during or just subsequent to a prolonged alcoholic debauch that had been accompanied by excessive sexual indulgence, and at no other time!
- ↑ Horses and men have been known to lose control of their limbs through the machinations, incantations, etc., of a medicine-man. One case known to me was that of a famous Indian runner, who was deprived of all save ordinary use of his legs. Another case was that of a stallion invaluable to its owner as a buffalo-hunter, which became practically useless until it passed into the hands of a hard-headed, non-superstitious Scot, when it suddenly regained its powers!
