Once in, he carefully closed the hole and commenced his
incantations. Soon the lodge trembles, the strong poles shake and bend
as with the united strength of a dozen men, and strange, unearthly
sounds, now far aloft in the air, now deep in the ground, anon
approaching near and nearer, reach the ears of the spectators. At length
the priest announces that the spirit is present, and is prepared to
answer questions. An indispensable preliminary to any inquiry is to
insert a handful of tobacco, or a string of beads, or some such douceur
under the skins, ostensibly for the behoof of the celestial visitor, who
would seem not to be above earthly wants and vanities. The replies
received, though occasionally singularly clear and correct, are usually
of that profoundly ambiguous purport which leaves the anxious inquirer
little wiser than he was before. For all this, ventriloquism, trickery,
and shrewd knavery are sufficient explanations. Nor does it materially
interfere with this view, that converted Indians, on whose veracity we
can implicitly rely, have repeatedly averred that in performing this
rite they themselves did not move the medicine lodge; for nothing is
easier than in the state of nervous excitement they were then in to be
self-deceived, as the now familiar phenomenon of table-turning
illustrates.
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