Seventh Annual Report Part 71

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A rest or pause.

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I, seeing, follow your example.

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You see my body, you see my body, you see my nails are worn off in grasping the stone.

[The Bear manido is represented as the type now a.s.sumed by the Mide. He has a stone within his grasp, from which magic remedies are extracted.]

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You, to whom I am speaking.

[A powerful Manido, the panther, is in an inclosure and to him the Mide addresses his request.]

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I am swimming--floating--down smoothly.

[The two pairs of serpentine lines indicate the river banks, while the character between them is the Otter, here personated by the Mide.]

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Bars denoting a pause.

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I have finished my drum.

[The Mide is shown holding a Mide drum which he is making for use in a ceremony.]

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My body is like unto you.

[The migis sh.e.l.l, the symbol of purity and the Midewiwin.]

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Hear me, you who are talking to me!

[The speaker extends his arms to the right and left indicating persons who are talking to him from their respective places. The lines denoting speech--or hearing--pa.s.s through the speakers head to exclaim as above.]

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See what I am taking.

[The Mide has pulled up a medicinal root. This denotes his possessing a wonderful medicine and appears in the order of an advertis.e.m.e.nt.]

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See me, whose head is out of water.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate XXII.

Mnemonic Songs.]

On Pl. XXII, B, is presented an ill.u.s.tration reproduced from a piece of birch bark owned by the preceptor of Little Frenchman, of the import of which the latter was ignorant. His idea of the signification of the characters is based upon general information which he has received, and not upon any pertaining directly to the record. From general appearances the song seems to be a private record pertaining to the Ghost Society, the means through which the recorder attained his first degree of the Midewiwin, as well as to his abilities, which appear to be boastfully referred to:

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I am sitting with my pipe.

[Mide sitting, holding his pipe. He has been called upon to visit a patient, and the filled pipe is handed to him to smoke preparatory to his commencing the ceremony of exorcism.]

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I employ the spirit, the spirit of the owl.

[This evidently indicates the Owl Manido, which has been referred to in connection with the Red Lake Mide chart, Pl. III, No. 113.

The Owl manido is there represented as pa.s.sing from the Midewign to the Dzhibai Midewign, and the drawings in that record and in this are sufficiently alike to convey the idea that the maker of this song had obtained his suggestion from the old Mide chart.]

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It stands, that which I am going after.

[The Mide, impersonating the Bear Manido, is seeking a medicinal tree of which he has knowledge, and certain parts of which he employs in his profession. The two footprints indicate the direction the animal is taking.]

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I, who fly.

[This is the outline of a Thunder bird, who appears to grasp in his talons some medical plants.]

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Ki-bi-nan pi-zan. Kibinan is what I use, it flies like an arrow.

[The Mides arm is seen grasping a magic arrow, to symbolize the velocity of action of the remedy.]

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I am coming to the earth.

[A Manido is represented upon a circle, and in the act of descending toward the earth, which is indicated by the horizontal line, upon which is an Indian habitation. The character to denote the sky is usually drawn as a curved line with the convexity above, but in this instance the ends of the lines are continued below, so as to unite and to complete the ring; the intention being, as suggested by several Mide priests, to denote great alt.i.tude above the earth, i.e., higher than the visible azure sky, which is designated by curved lines only.]

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I am feeling for it.

[The Mide is reaching into holes in the earth in search of hidden medicines.]

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I am talking to it.

[The Mide is communing with the medicine Manido with the Mide sack, which he holds in his hand. The voice lines extend from his mouth to the sack, which appears to be made of the skin of an Owl, as before noted in connection with the second character in this song.]

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They are sitting round the interior in a row.

[This evidently signifies the Ghost Lodge, as the structure is drawn at right angles to that usually made to represent the Midewign, and also because it seems to be reproduced from the Red Lake chart already alluded to and figured in Pl. III, No. 112. The spirits or shadows, as the dead are termed, are also indicated by crosses in like manner.]

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You who are newly hung; you have reached half, and you are now full.

[The allusion is to three phases of the moon, probably having reference to certain periods at which some important ceremonies or events are to occur.]

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I am going for my dish.

[The speaker intimates that he is going to make a feast, the dish being shown at the top in the form of a circle; the footprints are directed toward, it and signify, by their shape, that he likens himself to the Bear manido, one of the guardians of the Midewiwin.]

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I go through the medicine lodge.

[The footprints within the parallel lines denote his having pa.s.sed through an unnamed number of degrees. Although the structure is indicated as being erected like the Ghost Lodge, i.e., north and south, it is stated that Midewiwin is intended. This appears to be an instance of the non-systematic manner of objective ideagraphic delineation.]

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Let us commune with one another.

[The speaker is desirous of communing with his favorite manidos, with whom he considers himself on an equality, as is indicated by the anthropomorphic form of one between whom and himself the voice lines extend.]

On Figs. 36-39, are reproduced several series of pictographs from birch-bark songs found among the effects of a deceased Mide priest, at Leech Lake. Reference to other relics belonging to the same collection has been made in connection with effigies and beads employed by Mide in the endeavor to prove the genuineness of their religion and profession.