e wing. At
intervals of two or three hours, the whole ceremony was repeated. The
doctor arrived at the lodge of the sick man about noon, and left the next
morning, having received for his services a saddle and two blankets."

"Listen, my dream--" This is the key to most of the Blackfoot medicine
practices. These doctors for the most part effect their cures by
prayer. Each one has his dream, or secret helper, to whom he prays for aid,
and it is by this help that he expects to restore his patient to health. No
doubt the doctors have the fullest confidence that their practices are
beneficial, and in some cases they undoubtedly do good because of the
implicit confidence felt in them by the patient.

Often, when a person is sick, he will ask some medicine man to unroll his
pipe. If able to dance, he will take part in the ceremony, but if not, the
medicine man paints him with the sacred symbols. In any case a fervent
prayer is offered by the medicine man for the sick person's recovery. The
medicine man administers no remedies; the ceremony is purely
religious. Being a priest of the Sun, it is thought that god will be more
likely to listen to him than he would to an ordinary man.

Although the majority of Blackfoot doctors are men, there are also many
women in the guild, and some of them are quite noted for their
success. Such a woman, named Wood Chief Woman, is now alive on the
Blackfoot reservation. She has effected many wonderful cures. Two Bear
Woman is a good doctor, and there are many others.

In the case of gunshot wounds a man's "dream," or "medicine," often acts
directly and speedily. Many cases are cited in which this charm, often the
stuffed skin of some bird or animal, belonging to the wounded man, becomes
alive, and by its power effects a cure. Many examples of this might be
given but for lack of space. Entirely honest Indians and white men have
seen such cures and believe in them.

THE BLACKFOOT OF TO-DAY

In the olden times the Blackfeet were very numerous, and it is said that
then they were a strong and hardy people, and few of them were ever
sick. Most of the men who died were killed in battle, or died of old
age. We may well enough believe that this was the case, because the
conditions of their life in those primitive times were such that the weakly
and those predisposed to any constitutional trouble would not survive early
childhood. Only the strongest of the children would grow up to become the
pa