Superstitions in regard to Most of the Indian races of the North American continent had a peculiar superstitious fear of animals, which they believed exercised a strong influence over their lives, their well being and their ill-being. There were a num ber of ways in which this animal power might be contravened. Incantations and prayers, charms and other shamanic medicines were often effective and a piece of the animal feared carried about the person was generally strong medicine in warding off the threatened danger. This belief, which was not peculiarly Ameri can, survives among white people in the cus tom of carrying a rabbit's foot or similar charms against ill luck. And we talk about working a rabbit's foot on some one. Among certain of the Algonquin tribes the rabbit's foot was looked upon as very strong medicine. The Indian hunter carried a rabbit's foot in his hunting bag and with it parts of the ani mals he expected to hunt. This he believed was an effective way of preventing the spirits of the animals he killed from troubling him or doing him harm. This Indian dread of animals is well illustrated in an Algonquin myth, which is found in various forms among other Indian tribes. As man became more and more powerful through the knowledge he had acquired and the weapons he had invented or secured, his power over the animal creation became more and more dominant. For this reason he was greatly hated by them. At last he slaughtered so many of them that, fearing extinction, they called a meeting of all their kind, with a view to devising some means to curtail man's power over them. Among the animals there were as great or greater medicine men than among men; and they finally decided to visit upon the human race all the plagues known to their combined enchantments. Each animal medicine man was called upon to do his worst in this direction. The deer agreed to visit man with rheumatism, lumbago and all like muscular diseases; the reptiles offered to trouble him with fearful dreams; the poisonous animals agreed to pes ter him with their stings and bites; the birds contracted to affect him with lung troubles, coughs and colds; while the insects agreed to inject into his system all sorts of malarial fevers. Thus came disease into the world. As this myth was ever present in the mind of the Indian hunter he was scrupulously exact in the observance of the means offered him to avoid such evil effects as were likely to come to him from the enmity of the animals he killed- in the chase. Many Indians would not kill the animal represented by the totem of their clan, while others were in the habit of begging the pardon of the animals they were about to slay, explaining to them, at the same time, that the killing was done only as an act of necessity. It was the firm belief of the Algonquin and other tribes that the deer had the power of visiting his slayer with lumbago, rheumatism and other similar diseases. This belief was no doubt largely influenced by the disease myth already related. The Crees and other Rocky Mountain tribes held the same belief with respect to the bear; and they also begged his pardon and addressed him as broth er before killing him. Western tribes and the Plains Indians believed that certain of the bird tribe had the power of bringing trouble upon mankind; and numerous myths deal with the means used to divert the danger. Some of these gradually became elaborate ceremo nials.
How a Knowledge of Medicine Came to is good to have the chipmunk near the home because he has always been the friend of man and brings good luck with him. He rode with Hiawatha on the bow of his self-moving, wonder-made canoe, and the In dian prophet called him his °very good friend)) The Indian will never kill a chipmunk because, after man had been visited with a plague of diseases by the animal council, the chipmunk alone among all the animal creation was sorry for him; so he went among the trees and plants, told them what had happened, represented vividly the wretched plight of his good friend man and obtained their help to fight the new plagues. The pines, the balsams and the
spruces gave their gums and balsams, the slip pery elm its bark, the sassafras its roots, the mandrake its apples, the wintergreen its ber ries and the catnip and bonset their teas to cure colds. Ginger, gentian, sarsaparilla, pep permint and all the medicinal plants each helped in his own way; and the little chip munk or ground squirrel it was who brought all these remedies to suffering mankind. So it is quite natural that he should take a quite peculiar and proprietary interest in the human race; and it is only reasonable that humanity should remember its debt to him.
Fetishea.—The fear of the secret power of animals exhibited by the American Indian; his belief in their superhuman attributes and his conviction that these powers can, under proper control, be used to his own advantages, are embodied in the use of amulets or fetishes, which are thought to be the seat of magical power, actually or symbolically. The eagle, the most powerful member of the feathered tribe known to the Indian, was supposed, un der certain conditions, to possess magical powers. He was the representative of the Great Thunder Bird to the Plains people; and as such was held in great respect. His feathers constituted the badge of honor most highly esteemed by the Indian chief over a wide ex tent of United States and Canadian territory. It is quite natural, therefore, that his talons, the symbols of his power, should constitute powerful fetishes; and as such they were carried by many a brave on his war expedi tions. The fetish, which nearly always con sisted of some object, could be transferred, bought or sold. It therefore formed an article of some considerable importance in Indian commerce. According to a Zuni myth, in the early days, the animals of prey were possessed of great strength and cunning; and as they were at eternal enmity with the human race it was in great danger of disappearing from the earth. So the Two Gods struck many ani mals with lightning from their magic shields and turned them into stones. They allowed them to preserve, in their new condition, all their former qualities, attributes, powers and virtues in a quiescent state, without the power to exercise them for harm to man; but they were permitted to use these powers for his benefit when they felt so disposed. This is why a fetish of one of these transformed animals is often very efficient in bringing luck to the possessor. This luck, however, depends upon the will of the spirit enclosed within the fetish itself, whose attitude can only be learned by experiment. So the Indians were constantly experimenting with fetishes; and those which were found not to be well dis posed to help their possessors were discarded, sold, traded or exchanged for others. This fate happened to tribal as well as personal fetishes; for one of the most precious posses sions of the tribe or clan was its traditional fetishes, handed down for generations and having attached to them wonderful myths and stories of their origin, history and magical powers together with many folk-tales of the help they had brought, from time to time, when their aid was urgently needed and solic ited. Thus it will readily be inferred that a fetish which was not disposed to help one per son or tribe might be all powerful when in the possession of another; since it was only a question of willingness on its part.