OCR Text |
Show 252 BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ iSoo sistence, acquire one of these guardian spirits; while - in other regions comparatively few were favored, and the successful ones were proportionally feared and respected. \ In this communication with the spirits the shaman obtained by practice and piety great influence over them, and was therefore the person called in to expel a spirit of illness from an invalid or to conduct a ceremony of wider import. The procedure in the cure of sickness was much the same in all parts of the continent. The shaman danced and sang his particular songs, performed various manipulations of a special and symbolic character, and thus forced the spirit of the disease to leave the body of the sick person. The successes were surprisingly numerous, for the Indian is markedly hysterical in temperament, and suggestion has in him a most favorable soil on which to operate. Failures were easily explained by the counter influences of hostile spirits or shamans. A few striking cures would of course add to the effectiveness of all future suggestive treatments, and particular shamans in this way gained reputations which spread far beyond the borders of their own tribes. In most of these cases the shaman was guided and assisted by his own particular supernatural helper. Some shamans would acquire more than one guardian, and with time would come to stand in a particularly close relation with the spirit world in general. They would then possess rather the |