S. A. Barrett

“ The bear shamans can not only assume the form of bears, as they do in order to inflict vengeance on their enemies, but it is believed that they can be killed an indefinite number of times when in this form and each time return to life. In some regions, as among the Pomo and Yuki, the bear shaman was not thought as elsewhere to actually become a bear, but to remain a man who clothed himself in the skin of a bear to his complete disguisement, and by his malevolence, rapidity, fierceness, and resistance to wounds to be capable of inflicting greater injury than a true bear. ”

“ But finally, at a word from the prompter, the spearman makes a tremendous run at the woman and stabs her in the umbilicus. She falls over on the ground, quivering in every limb, and the blood jets forth in a purple stream. The Indians all rush around her quickly and hustle her away to another place, where they commence laying her out for the funeral pyre, but huddle around her so thickly all the while that the Americans cannot approach to see what is done. ”

“ In the midst of the ordinary dances there comes rushing upon the scene an ugly apparition in the shape of a man, wearing a feather mantle on his back reaching from the armpits down to the mid-thighs, zebra-painted on his breast and legs with black stripes, bearskin shako on his head, and his arms stretched out at full length along a staff passing behind his neck. Accoutered in this harlequin rig, he dashes at the squaws, capering, dancing, whooping; and they and the children flee for life, keeping several hundred yards between him and themselves. ”

“ Any bear doctor or person who knew all the secrets of bear doctoring usually took his relatives, or, at any rate, certain of them, to this hiding place and showed them enough of his secrets so that they would lose their fear of bear doctors and not be frightened when they heard of the death of some one through an attack by bears. Such partially initiated persons always mourned the loss of the victim as did the rest of the people, but were not, in reality, afraid of the bear doctors. ”

“ While serving, during the regular ghost dance, as messengers, sergeants-at-arms, and collectors of fines, the ash-devils were called katsa ́tala (E) , and were the special clowns who performed all manner of antics in their endeavors to provoke an outward expression of mirth from some unfortunate spectator. Should he so forget himself as to laugh or even smile at the antics, one of these katsa ́tala ran at him with his wand and levied tribute in the form of a payment of beads or some other commodity, or imposed a penalty requiring the offender to bring wood or water for the dancers. ”

“ A special class of shamans found to a greater or less extent among probably all the Central tribes, though they are wanting both in the Northwest and the South, are the so-called bear doctors, shamans who have received power from grizzly bears, often by being taken into the abode of these animals—which appear there in human form,—and who after their return to mankind possess many of the qualities of the grizzly bear, especially his apparent invulnerability to fatal attack. ”

“ They do not scruple to avow to Americans who are well acquainted with them, and in whose discretion they have confidence, that their object is simply to "raise the devil," as they express it, with whom they pretend to hold communication; and to carry on other demoniacal doings, accompanied by frightful whooping and yelling, in order to work on the imaginations of the erring squaws, no whit more guilty than themselves. ”

“ It is clear that the Miwok panther doctor is merely a shaman who has that animal as his personal guardian spirit, and that except for his power of transformation and the character of his guardian, the Miwok bear doctor does not essentially differ from an ordinary shaman.
It seems therefore that the institution of the bear doctor has attained its most extreme form among the Pomo.
SUMMARY
1. The origin of bear doctors is assigned by the Pomo to the mythical times before men existed, when birds and mammals possessed human attributes. ”

“ The chief ghost-dancer, upon arriving in front of the center pole, said, "mamūle ́" (E) , to which the spectators replied, "hehē ́...." Then he made a short speech in a more or less archaic language. Its purport was: "I do not come to do any one harm, but rather to take all sickness away and to make everybody strong." ”

“ It is said that a bear doctor always learned from an old person who was or had been one. The training for both men and women was precisely the same and they were on a par in every way. A female bear doctor could not operate during her menstrual period, but a male bear doctor was similarly restricted by the menstrual periods of both his wife and his female assistant or the other female members of his household. He was even prohibited from going near his bear hiding-place during his wife’s menstruation. ”

“ The dancers entered the village at the call of a crier stationed on top of the dance-house, performed an elaborate ceremony in front of the dance-house, and finally entered it backwards, groping their way, using an inverted style of speech, and in every other manner showing that the spirits of the departed were unaccustomed to the ways of mortals. The dancing was elaborate and was characterized by the occurrence of movements in cycles of four, followed by an elaborate ceremonial disrobing at the drum, and then by swimming. During the fire dance the ash-devils initiated novices. ”

“ The Miwok relate how a man was hunting in the chaparral south of the Stanislaus when a bear appeared and asked what he was doing. The Indian replied that he was seeking an arrow lost in a shot at a red-headed woodpecker. The bear led him into its cave, kept and taught him for four days, and sent him home with several bears as guides. A white man, married to an Indian woman, instigated the building of a dance-house to give the bear doctor an opportunity to show his alleged powers. ”

“ These are to personify the devils. A herald goes up to the top of the assembly-house and makes a speech to the multitude. At a signal agreed upon in the evening the masqueraders come in from the mountains, with the vessels of pitch flaming on their heads, and with all the frightful accessories of noise, motion, and costume which the savage mind can devise in representation of demons. ”

“ She, herself, had acquired great quantities of property—beads, food, and other commodities—which she stored in her hiding place.
A bear doctor was not permitted to kill more than four people in one year, upon penalty of the loss of his magic power and consequent capture upon his attempt to kill the fifth.
ASSISTANTS
A bear doctor must always be assisted by some one. He usually hired some female relative who could be trusted to secrecy. She wove for him the water baskets which formed part of his costume and cooked for him the special food which he must eat while operating as a bear doctor. ”

“ As a rule, fire-eating and fire-handling were only incidental to the ghost dance proper. However, if occasion arose, the ghost-dancers themselves might handle fire, though they could not eat it. This privilege was especially reserved to the ash-devils, nō' xahlūīgak (E) . In case something was done to offend the ghost-dancers, such as an inadequate provision of wood or some inattention on the part of the officials, they might attempt to show their displeasure by throwing fire about the dance-house. ”

“ A bear doctor might “catch” a man who was out in some lonely spot, particularly a solitary hunter, take him to his hiding place, and teach him his secrets. [16] Particularly was this the case if the bear doctor happened to be a man possessed of few friends, since it was thought necessary for him to will his paraphernalia to some one. Stories are told of specific instances in which persons have been thus made captive and instructed. Thus:
An old she-bear caught a young hunter from a village in the Santa Rosa Valley. ”

“ The officials particularly concerned with the ceremony were two head singers, an indefinite number of burden-singers, a drummer, two fire-tenders, and two masters of ceremonies. The village captains retained their full authority in this ceremony except when the ash-devils were performing. The audience consisted of initiated men only, and silence was the rule. Any exhibition of mirth was absolutely prohibited under penalty. The attire of the ghost-dancer consisted of several pieces of headgear, supplemented in some cases by a chaplet of leaves, a girdle, and sometimes a neck-ring of leaves. ”

“ Each bear doctor acted independently and knew no restrictions of any sort so far as his fellows were concerned, nor had he or his relatives any immunity from the attacks of other bear doctors, for one bear doctor might become enraged at another and cause his death or that of some of his relatives. ”