Page:The Red Man and the White Man in North America.djvu/171

Rh jealously watched over by its owner, which the whites and the Indians now alike called the “medicine-bag,” combines all the qualities of a Jewish phylactery, a New Zealander's fetich, and the amulet or charm of a superstitious devotee. The “bag” is generally made in the form of a pouch, of the skin of some small animal, carefully prepared, and its contents are the secrets of its owner. Among these contents may be the usual miscellaneous articles of a pocket; with scraps of tobacco, the pipe, and the materials for kindling a fire. But the sacred thing in the receptacle is some scrap or relic — it may be a tooth, a bone, a claw, a stone, or some rude device with the totem or tribal designation of the owner — which is to him as a protecting amulet, a medium of prayer or worship, connected with his private superstitions or dreams. The Indian communes with this mysterious symbol when alone; he trusts to its protection on a journey and in emergencies, and he clings to it in all the frenzies of the battle. To lose this special treasure of his “medicine-bag” would cause to its owner inexpressible and overwhelming sorrow and dismay; he would apprehend all possible calamities as likely to befall him. Sometimes when the whites have pried into these secret bags, the contents have been found hideous and disgusting. To the owner they are his most sacred possession. Not more fondly and devoutly did the Spanish marauder cling to his amulet of the Holy Virgin, than did the savage to this guardian of his spirit.

The concentrated and sharpened use of a few of the mental faculties threw the whole force of mind of an Indian into the directions most engaged in the restricted exigencies of his condition. He had less volume and less range of mind than a civilized man, but more sagacity, skill, and directness in the use of what he possessed, — as a man deprived of one or more of his senses stimulates those left to him. It was soon noticed, however, that the white man, with a larger active-fund and capital of brain than the