CRAZY-MEDICINE
If an Indian seeks revenge on an enemy, he may select an incantation known as crazy-medicine. He will carve a cedar image of his foe as large as a man's finger, and on a string suspend it from an arched willow switch so that the image spins in the wind. Touching its head with vermilion medicine-paint, he will address it as if it were his enemy in the flesh. The poem expresses the mood of the incantation.
Blow winds, winds blow,
North, East, South, West,
Make my foe, the cedar man,
Drunk with crazy dances;
Shake his skull until his brains
Rattle up and rattle down—
Pebbles in a gourd.
North, East, South, West,
Make my foe, the cedar man,
Drunk with crazy dances;
Shake his skull until his brains
Rattle up and rattle down—
Pebbles in a gourd.
Roar winds, winds roar,
Flapping winds, jumping winds,
Winds that crush and winds that split,
Winds like copper lances;
Whistle through the crazy man,
Fling him up, fling him down—
A rag upon a cord.
Flapping winds, jumping winds,
Winds that crush and winds that split,
Winds like copper lances;
Whistle through the crazy man,
Fling him up, fling him down—
A rag upon a cord.
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