Eagle Feather was one of the oldest of the tribe of Onondagas who lived
on the reservation, and though he usually spoke fairly good English,
sometimes he talked as his grandfather had done when he was a boy and
the early settlers first had to do with the Indians.
And when Eagle Feather called the children's toys "heap big medicine,"
he did not mean exactly the kind of medicine you have to take when you
are sick.
The Indians have two kinds of medicine, as they call it. One is made of
the roots and barks of trees, berries and bushes which they take, and
some of which we still use, like witch hazel and sassafras. But they
also have another kind of medicine, which is like what might be called a
charm; as some pretty stone, a feather, a bone or two, or anything they
might have picked up in the woods as it took their fancy. These things
they wear around their necks or arms and think they keep away sickness
and bad luck.
So when Eagle Feather called the toy train and the Teddy bear of Bunny
Brown and his sister Sue, "heap big medicine," he meant they would be
good not only to cure sickness without medicine, but also keep bad luck
away from whoever had them.
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