Old hunters are said to have obtained
medicine from the Miwok which would put deer to sleep. Today this medicine
is a subject of esoteric humor between my informant and his son-in-law.
The latter insists that the bear has a medicine which will put his
father-in-law to sleep because he came upon the old man asleep under a
tree one day when he should have been hunting. Although the Washo depended
on ritual to assist them in hunting, it is clear that they considered a
successful hunter the possessor of power beyond simple magic. Like curers
or dreamers, certain hunters obviously had been blessed by spirits and
were able to outthink and outsmart animals and therefore were particularly
good hunters. At least some of the Washo who hunt today attempt to give
the impression that their success is based on something more than luck or
skill.

_Antelope_ (27a-75).--There are no Washo alive today who can remember
antelope surrounds. It appears that most of the Washo territory was not
inhabited by antelope, lying as it does between the northern and southern
ranges of the Nevada herds. However, small herds did range in the eastern
portion of Washo country, but the appearance of firearms and livestock
eliminated the antelope completely in this area. One informant, himself
seventy-five, remembers stories about the hunts, told to him by a very old
brother-in-law who remembered the antelope songs.

Another informant, generally a good source of hunting information,
admitted that he did not know anything about the subject. He had never
hunted antelope, nor had his father or uncles.

The signal to hunt was a dream announcing the presence of antelope to a
dreamer, who acted as leader of the hunt. The entire process was
considered to be magical by this informant who said:

"There was really no corral. Mebbe just a few piles of brush. The
people just danced around and sang, and that kept them antelope
there like they was hypnotized. They could keep them right there
all night that way. After they held them all night they'd start to
slaughter at sunrise. They'd sing: 'We aren't doing this for
meanness or for fun but we want you for fine food,' or something
like that. I heard the song once but I never learned it all. I
wish I had, now."

This informant was certain that the Washo did not expect a person to die
as a result of the exercise of antelope charming. He had heard of other
tribes which believed this,