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Amulets of Primitive Peoples and Modern Times: Pueblo

A strange animal figure from the Pueblo Bonito ruins, rudely carved out of stone and having a band composed of pieces of turquoise set about the neck, was undoubtedly an amulet. Two depressions in the stone where the eyes should be indicate that these were of inlaid turquoise. In spite of the imperfect form of this object, it gives evidence in some of its details to the skill of the native artist who executed it, especially in the care he has taken to protect the soft stone from the attrition of the cord used for its suspension, a piece of bird-bone having been introduced into the perforation near the neck, and the ends of the hole countersunk and filled with gum into which a piece of turquoise was set; one of these caps still remains in place. Frog forms, entirely of turquoise, also appear in Pueblo Bonito, several tadpoles and frogs of this material having been found in the burial-room explored by Mr. Pepper. Sometimes the form is barely indicated by the protuberant eyes and a slight incising which marks the place of the neck. The Pueblo Bonito ruins in New Mexico have furnished some very effective examples of turquoise inlaying by the Indians of an earlier time who dwelt in this region. The symbolic forms, the precious material used for the inlays, and the labor and skill expended in the execution of certain of these works, indicate that they must have been regarded as amulets. Perhaps the finest inlaying-work is shown in the turquoise decoration of a fragment of bone of peculiar shape, having alternate bands of jet with a chevron-decoration of interlaced triangular pieces of jet and turquoise. Another of these jet and turquoise amulets is a frog, the body being of jet and the protruding eyes of turquoise; about the creature's neck runs a band of turquoise mosaic. Still another of these relics is a square plaque of jet with an inlaid turquoise at each of the four corners; two of these inlays have fallen out. The history of the turquoise, a stone which has been mined in Persia for thousands of years, and has long been prized as one of the most beautiful and attractive of the semi-precious stones, has been very fully and ably treated in an exceedingly comprehensive monograph recently published by Dr. Joseph E. Pogue. This valuable and interesting work contains extracts from all the older and more modern writers on the subject, and also describes the stone fully from a mineralogical point of view, besides discussing it from the historic standpoints.

So highly was the turquoise esteemed among the Pima Indians of southern Arizona, that the loss of one was looked upon as a most ominous event, portending for the owner a serious illness or physical disability, which could only be cured by the magic rites of a medicine-man. When one of those worthies is called in to avert the impending misfortune, his favorite remedy consists in placing a piece of slate, a turquoise and a crystal in a vessel filled with water, the liquid being administered in regular doses to the threatened victim. The threefold remedy, comprising a specimen of the lost stone, is supposed to outweigh and counteract the probable evil influences of the lost turquoise alone.

The magic power that dwelt in these Indian fetishes was named oyaron in the Iroquoian tongue, and each person or kindred was believed to have a special oyaron which exerted a controlling power over their good or evil fortune. The material object in which this entity would take up its abode was determined in a peculiar way. When a youth had attained maturity, he was intrusted to the charge of an old man who took him to a far-away lodge in the wilderness. Here he had his face, shoulders and breast blackened to symbolize his lack of spiritual or occult enlightenment. He was then compelled to fast for a considerable time and was instructed to carefully note his dreams, and if he should have an exceptionally vivid dream regarding any specific object, to tell his guardian of it. The fact was then duly reported to the wise men of the tribe, who decided whether the object was the chosen abiding place of his oyaron. This having been satisfactorily determined, an object of the kind was sought out and was preserved and treasured by the one to whom it had been assigned in the vision. Perhaps the familiar spirit might have elected to dwell in a calumet, a pipe or a knife, or else in some animal, plant, or mineral form.

The Midewiwin, or, as it is sometimes erroneously called, the "Grand Medicine Society" of the Ojibway Indians, is an association composed of shamans, whose supposed powers are much in request among these Indians of the northwest. Two other classes of medicine-men exist among them to a very limited extent, the Wabeno, " Men of the Dawn," and the Jessakid or "revealers of hidden things." The members of this latter class, who operate singly, are regarded as very dangerous and generally malevolent sorcerers, having the power to call evil spirits to their aid, and are even believed to practise the fearful art of drawing a man's soul out of his body, so that he either becomes insane or dies. The turtle is regarded by the Jessakids as the abode or symbol of the mightiest spirit. However, the Mides, members of the Midewiwin, are far the most numerous, and it is to them that the Indian looks for help and health. While they usually "treat" their patients in their own abodes, when the disease fails to yield to the might of ordinary incantations and spells, the assistance of the great magic stone in the Medicine Lodge or Midewigen must be resorted to. For this purpose the sick person is carried thither and is laid on the ground constituting the floor of the lodge, so that the diseased part of his body may touch the stone. In addition to this magic stone, which is set in the ground near the entrance, three magic wooden posts rise up, one behind the other, and at the end opposite the entrance is set a painted wooden cross, the base of which is cut four-square, each side having a different coloring, namely, white, for the East, the source of light; green, for the South, the source of rain which brings the verdure; red, for the West, where the red glow of the sunset appears and whither the spirits of the departed wend their way after death, and, lastly, black, for the cold and pitiless North, the origin of disease, famine and death.