Book Reviews 627

headings “Characteristics of Crow Indian Beadwork,” “Symbolism in Crow Bead- work,” and “History of Crow Beadwork,” the type of analysis of art style and history that will become a point of departure for other studies of a similar nature for surround- ing tribes. He stresses the need to supplement the study of museum collections with detailed search of literature and illustration as well as intensive field work. From a series of such studies principles of primitive art can be established on much firmer ground.

Crow Ind ian Medicine Bundles. WILLIAM WILDSCHUT. Edited by JOHN C. EWERS. (Contributions from the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Vol. XVII.) New York: Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, 1960. ix, 178 pp., bibliography, 3 color plates, 68 figures, frontispiece. $6.50.

Reviewed by J. ALDEN MASON, University Museum, University of Pennsylvania William Wildschut, a businessman of Billings, Montana, spent much of his time

from 1918 to 1927 with the Crow Indians, gathering data and purchasing objects which he sent to the Museum of the American Indian. He was especially interested in religion, and by the latter year had secured more than 260 medicine bundles. He then wrote a long manuscript on the tribe in which the medicine bundles, with their his- tories, legends, functions, and descriptions, played a large part. Shortly after Wild- schut’s death in 1955, John C. Ewers was asked to read this and to edit for publication the parts that treated of the bundles; the present publication is the result. With such excellent original material, an enormous collection of bundles, and his unexcelled knowledge of the region, Ewers has produced an admirable monograph on his sub- ject, supplementing Wildschut’s data with much personal information, in text or in footnotes, and writing a final chapter on “Historical and Comparative Survey.”

As Ewers says, “The medicine bundles of the Crow Indians provide a key to the better understanding of some of the basic beliefs and practices of the most conservative tribe of the Upper Missouri.” This conservatism is due to their relative isolation. And, as the basic beliefs regarding medicine bundles are common to most of the other tribes of the Upper Missouri, the study has much more than tribal importance. The subject of the bundles naturally brings in such topics as religious concepts, leader- ship, war honors and insignia, and much other important ethnological information. In 1920 Wildschut had many old men as informants who had been very slightly affected by White acculturation.

Crow medicine bundles are typed into ten classes: Sun Dance, War Medicine, Shields, Skull Medicine, Rock Medicine, Medicine Pipe, Love Medicine, Witchcraft, Healing Medicine, and Hunting. Several of these are not mentioned by Lowie, and a t least one, the Skull Medicine, was heretofore unknown. All are fully treated, with their histories, origin myths, and other data. Shields are “medicine” and are treated the same as bundles, for their protection is purely magical.

The majority of the bundles are, of course, War Medicine, or some other types of medicine that were carried for supernatural protection of men on war parties. These were made as a result of dreams or sought visions. To secure the latter, the man, generally a t about adolescence, retired to a spot for up to 4 days without food or water; self-torture also sometimes played a part. A supernatural helper having appeared and given him instructions, he then made his bundle that incorporated symbolic representations of the beings and forces seen in the vision or dream. The medicine might be transferred from a successful warrior to a young and inexperienced one.

628 A mer ican Anthropologist [63, 19611

Ewers presents good evidence that medicine bundles-or a t least their basic con- cepts-were known in prehistoric days, as well as certainly in early historic ones. Personal war medicines were common to all the tribes of the northern plains, as well as the securing of a supernatural protector by means of dreams or visions, and some medicines of all 10 types are known among these other tribes.

The study is amply provided with photographic illustrations, 4 of them in color. It is a welcome companion to its predecessor in this series, Crow Ind ian Beadwork, by the same authors. In these days when material culture and technology tend to be neglected, it is refreshing-to this reviewer a t least-to see museum objects utilized as a basis for a sound and valuable ethnological study.

The People Are Coming Soon: Analyses of Clackamas Chinook Mybhs and Tales. MEL- VILLE JACOBS. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1960. xii, 359 pp., frontis- piece, notes. $4.50.

Reviewed by ANN CHOWNING, Barnard College This is the fourth volume devoted to the texts which Jacobs obtained in 1929-30

from Victoria Howard, one of the last speakers of Clackamas Chinook. Two voiumes of Clackamas Chinook Texts contained transcriptions and translations. In The Contenl and Style of a n Oral Literature, Jacobs analyzed 8 myths in detail and discussed general features of the whole body of material. In this volume, he retells and analyzes the content of the 56 remaining myths and tales, one by one. The absence here 01 litcral translations, a summary, or conclusions, and the presence of numerous refermces to the earlier works, make it necessary to read all 4 books together. Only then can one appreciate the magnitude of Jacobs’ task and the degree of his success. C nnparison also reveals interesting features, such as possible alternative interpretations (Te- t 15) and variations in Jacobs’ own treatment of the material (motives attributed to Tongue in Text 42). This discussion, however, will refer only to the last volume.

Jacobs is well aware of the problems inherent in his data, though he occasionally loses sight of them. All of the texts were obtained from one highly acculturated female informant who had learned the tales long before, and they cannot be assumed to represent the whole of Clackamas literature. Little is known about the culture, which has completely disappeared. The picture of it which emerges from this analysis is con- sistent, fascinating, and often persuasive, but cannot, under the circumstances, be thoroughly convincing. Furthermore, the assumptions which underlie the analysis are subject to question. One is that the stories “really express the dominant anxieties and tensions in the lives of the Indians” (p. x). Another is that, if so, an outsider can accurately identify and label such tensions, even though “a recitalist never once verbalized a motivation, feeling, or mood of the actors.” Another is that the actors, despite their frequent animal names, all represent human types: “Blue Jay is a clumsy and sadistic juvenile who represents feelings about youths and older persons who suffer from character disorders.” Finally, a high degree of psychic unity is assumed so that the interpretation can be based on a mixture of intuition and Freudian psychology. Jacobs expresses occasional doubts about the validity of this method, but more often uses it without comment, speaking of the “feelings which they felt were present in siblings and co-wives” (p. 217), and saying that “in each myth which presents a grandmother in the role of villainness . . . an Oedipal basis of the plot must be as- sumed” (pp. 142-43). The frequent use of such words as “romantic” and “sadistic”