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Show DBNSMORB] NORTHERN UTE MUSIC 129 be due to " poisoning." Thus it was said that " a person who had a bad plant could put it in a man's footprints and poison him." In that case it was the duty of the medicine man to learn who had poisoned his patient and to counteract it. Thus he would say to the sick man: " I dreamed so and so, and I know who or what has poisoned you." Pa'gitS said that throughout his treatments the little green man stayed outside the tent, and he could see him and hear what he said, every phase of the treatment being according to his direction. Nine " medicine songs" were recorded by Pa'gitS, who said that he sang them all when treating the sick. The relatives of those whom he frequently treated had learned these songs and sang them with him, continuing their singing when the method of treatment required that he place his head against the body of the patient. Pa'gitS' " specialty" was the treatment of acute pain, and he said that he could cure pain in any part of the body. He said that he took from the patient's body a " strange something," sucking it out through the skin. Then he took it from his mouth, held it in his hand, and showed it to all the people, after which he put it again in his mouth. As soon as this substance was removed from the patient's body he began to recover. Sometimes this substance is one of the little green man's arrows which he has shot into the person's body. In shape this " strange something" was said to be " like a carrot" and 1 or 2 inches in length. In color it was red, like blood, and in texture it was not unlike a fingernail. The " arrows " were always of the same kind, differing only in size. Pa'gitS said that he usually had to sing five times before he could extract this cause of the pain from his patient's body. He sings five times in one evening, cures the patient, and receives " about five or six dollars " as compensation. When he has sung for some time he says to the people around him, " Sing harder, sing harder; I am going to take out what causes the pain." In a few moments he has it in his hand and shows it to them all. 22 In describing the treatment of general cases by medicine men, Pa'gitS said that it often took two or three weeks to cure a sick person, the medicine man singing at first every evening and then less often as the condition of the patient improved. Sometimes he sang two hours at a time, and if the person were very ill the medicine man would continue his singing until daylight. " If the medicine men are afraid a person will die, they pray and talk a great deal to his spirit." The second group of songs in this section were recorded by a woman known as Mrs. Washington, who considered that she treated » Fred Mart, the writer's interpreter, stated that he once saw a treatment similar to that described by Pa'gitS and saw the substance apparently removed from the person's body. It was red, about an inch long, and shaped like an arrow point. 25043°- 22 9 |