BENEDICT) THE GUARDIAN SPIRIT IN NORTH AMERICA 27

unsought, involuntary , a thing of predisposition . As among the

Koryak of the Asiatic tundras , no one of his own free will can
have the vision , 53 so among the Shasta , as we saw , it is predis
position that expresses itself in dreams , and among the Maidu
of the Sacramento Valley the trance is sudden while hunting . 54
It may among the Tlingit be against the individual 's will .55
The Wintun may not refuse however inconvenient.56 Among
the Bella Coola it is impossible to obtain the art of shamanism
by fasting and prayer ; it is a free gift from the deity . A person
who is to be a shaman will fall sick , and during his illness Snx
will give him song which must be kept a deep secret . After
a

this he is able to cure diseases .57 Among the Squalli , of Puget

Sound , predisposition is the entire requirement. 58 On the
Pit River of northern California “ , nobody makes you a doctor ,
you just become one . The spirits choose you . "'59
This distinction , while not absolute , is nevertheless significant
in connection with certain attitudes which have been assumed to
be characteristic of the guardian - spirit relationship . We have
seen that in the area where the vision is considered primarily
an inducible experience , the means employed are concentra
tion , hunger , thirst , purgatives , and self -laceration . This self
laceration may be carried very far indeed as among the Mandan
or Dakota or Cheyenne where the custom was to cut off finger
joints , or to insert skewers through the flesh and tie these to a
pole from which the suppliant attempted to tear himself free .
Or the fast might be prolonged beyond our ideas of endurance
as among the Central Algonkian . In this region the phrase
which described a supernatural experience was regularly “ to
be pitied by the spirits .” The phrase had travelled beyond the

63Jochelson : The Koryak , pt I, p. 47.

5 Dixon : The Maidu , p. 267 .
55Krause : Tlinkit - Indianer, p. 284 .
Die
56Curtin : CreationMyths of North America , p. 516 .
57Boas : Third Report on Northwest Tribes , p . 421 .
58Haeberlin : MSS . Puget Sound .
59De Angulo : MSS . Pit River Indians .