It used to be that the medicine man was the most respected individual in the village.
A young Piute Indian medicine-man, known as Wovoka, and called Jack Wilson by the whites, proclaimed that he had had a revelation, and that, if this ghost dance and other ceremonies were duly performed, the Indians would be rid of the white men and restored to power.
Although it is usually present, faith in the medicine man is not essential for the efficacy of the method.
Sometimes the supposed magician or medicine man himself did the scrying; occasionally he enabled his client to see for himself; often a child was selected as the scryer.
Let the medicine man or magician pray that the fever may pass into the frog, and the frog be forthwith released, and the cure will be effected.
