Sometimes a number engage in it
together and unite their prayers and songs." _Tahkoo Wakan_, p. 83.
Father Hennepin was subjected to the vapor-bath at Mille Lacs by Chief
_Aqui-pa-que-tin_, two hundred years ago. After describing the method,
Hennepin says: "When he had made me sweat thus three times in a week, I
felt as strong as ever." Shea's Hennepin, p. 228. For a very full and
accurate account of the Medicine-men of the Dakotas, and their rites,
etc., see Chap. II, Neill's Hist. Minnesota.
[82] The sacred _O-zu-ha_--or Medicine sack must be made of the skin of
the otter, the coon, the weasel, the squirrel, the loon, a certain kind
of fish or the skins of serpents. It must contain four kinds of medicine
(or magic) representing birds, beasts, herbs and trees, viz.: The down
of the female swan colored red, the roots of certain grasses, bark from
the roots of cedar trees, and hair of the buffalo. "From this
combination proceeds a Wakan influence so powerful that no human being,
unassisted, can resist it." Wonderful indeed must be the magic power of
these Dakota Druids to lead such a man as the Rev. S.R. Riggs to say of
them: "By great shrewdness, untiring industry, and more or less of
_actual demoniacal possession_, they convince great numbers of their
fellows, and in the process are convinced themselves of their sacred
character and office.
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