Chapter 4 Tribal People 137This all takes a very long time. For two and a half hours the shaman chants
and gallops, his bare feet pounding the hard earthen floor, until a groove is
gouged in it. Once he stops briefly, throws the “bones” (the tips of water buf-
falo horns) four or five times, and makes a report to the household. He smokes
a pipe of tobacco and then resumes his journey. The old grandmother waits
with a chicken, its feet tied, under her arm. Two more are in a basket waiting.
One is taken outside and killed in hopes that the evil spirit will go outside to get
it. Apparently it doesn’t work. Another hour passes.
Suddenly there is a flurry of excitement. The shaman is thrown violently
from the bench into the hearth, knocking over a pot of boiling water and filling
the whole room with hissing steam and ash. As it clears we see the shaman roll-
ing in the coals, fighting with the nearly visible spirit. Then he leaps up and hurls
the spear in the direction of the door, as simultaneously the door is slammed shut.
The spear stabs into the door with a thud. The evil spirit is defeated and gone.
There is still a bit more work to do in the spirit world; the exhausted, ash-
covered shaman gets back on the “horse” and chants longer, thanking the
household spirits for their assistance and restoring their authority. The tension
is clearly relieved; the patient looks dazed but happy. The daughter-in-law and
a neighbor stretch a chicken’s neck and cut its throat. Blood drains into a cup.
Because the coal pot is broken, this chicken, a reward to the household spirits,
has to be boiled at a neighbor’s house.A chicken’s neck is cut as an offering to the spirits to protect the patient. The spirit gets the life
force of the chicken and the family eats the flesh.