Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 29.djvu/672

654 implores, and commands the spirit to abjure the mortal clay and assume his own proper form, alternately humoring, coaxing, and threatening, as circumstances seem to demand, at the same time using set songs whose significance is unknown outside of his own mystic calling. In the mean time a running accompaniment is kept up by means of drums, bells, and gourd and parchment rattles. By-and-by the song waxes louder and more violent; the drums are pounded harder and faster, and the rattles and bells are shaken more forcibly. Higher and higher the sounds rise; shriller and shriller his voice is pitched; and faster and fiercer the accompaniment sounds, until the one becomes a frantic shriek, the other a pandemonium of most fiendish character, together crazing, piercing, and excruciating beyond computation; and, finally, exhausted by the violence of his efforts, fairly black in the face, with perspiration streaming from every pore, he pauses and— A starved wolf is a miracle of satiety by comparison; and he is ably seconded in his gormandizing feats by the assembled and admiring audience.

Over and over again is this performance repeated, while the smoke and fumes of burning gunpowder, fish-entrails, human excreta, buffalo chips, and animal hair, fill the interior of the lodge to suffocation, producing stinks that may fairly be felt. And, finally, when the excessively tormented and vexed spirit is sufficiently placated or frightened, and on the point of departure, his exit is facilitated by rapidly recurring discharges of musketry in and about the dwelling and over the body of the sufferer. When the friends are sufficiently wealthy, the fusillades are frequently prolonged for hours or days, to prevent a return of the (demon) malady.

But the spirit does oftentimes return in spite of every precaution; for naturally a relapse is coincident with the cessation of the incantations and the departure of the "medicine-man," or rather with the subsidence of the nervous excitement induced by such extraordinary procedures. Such unfavorable result matters little, however, as the superstitions inculcated render the officiating conjurer practically unassailable. It is to be expected that a demon or spirit imbued with a proper amount of pride and self-respect will return with the first opportunity, requiring new and perhaps varied incantations. The stronger and more persistent the demon, the greater evidence of power on the part of the medicine-man. Everything is made to redound to his credit; consequently, the spirit is effectually disposed of only when sufficiently bribed, thoroughly overreached, or utterly annihilated—only when Nature comes to the aid of the unfortunate and affords the necessary