Note 24 — THE ETHNOLOGY OF PEYOTISM

Beals, Comparative Ethnology, 131 (Acaxee); Rouhier, Monographie, 12, fn. 3 (Tlaxcala). The Kiowa witch Tonakat fixed a fireplace in the form of a turtle, the source of his power, and used a meeting once for shamanistic display, being shot with a cartridge and remaining unharmed, etc. A Caddo-Delaware tells of a famous Kiowa doctor who used similar tricks in doctoring a woman. He held a black handkerchief over her to see the location of the disease, dipped a feather in water, cut the skin and removed two 1½″ bugs, the wound healing immediately. Both popped when thrown into the fire, thus prognosticating her recovery from a twenty years’ illness. Wild Horse (Caddo-Delaware) said doctors did “wizard sleight-of-hand tricks” in meetings; “some Indians can make you believe you see things.” Some Tonkawa who visited the Kiowa about 1890 performed tricks in meeting like eating fire (Mooney, Peyote Notebook).