ity in it. He told me how he got
that stone. He was walking to town [Genoa, Nevada] one day and he
heard something whistle. He kept on walking but it whistled again.
So he went looking for what was making that noise and he found
that stone setting by a fence post. I heard that stone whistle
sometimes when he was doctoring. He also had a tie made out of
beadwork. Lots of times a doctor would pay some woman to make him
a real fine basket or some bead work because that's what his power
told him to do."

Washo doctors often worked together on "tough" cases. One such was the
treatment of what seems to have been an infected elbow by my informant's
uncle and Blind Mike. The first step in the process was to blow smoke in a
circle around the painful area so that the sickness couldn't move. This
was followed by singing, rattling, and sucking until something bright
began to come out. It was, according to witnesses, as bright as a star, so
bright in fact that even Blind Mike could see it. The bright object proved
to be (if we can trust descriptions) the stone and setting of a cheap ring
which was removed from the sore arm. It is interesting to note that while
this process was successful my informant seemed to consider the cure less
than one-hundred-per-cent effective because the woman who was being
treated died two years later.

Doctors were privy to a number of secrets which were not common knowledge
among most Washo. Such a secret was the cave reputed to be inside Cave
Rock at Lake Tahoe. This cave was a retreat for shamans who went there to
commune with their spirits or to secrete a particularly important piece of
paraphernalia. The cave could be entered through a narrow opening on the
landward side, but most shamans preferred a more dramatic entrance. By
standing on a certain rock and singing a special song they were lowered
through the water and then lifted into the cave. The last doctor to
attempt this was Blind Mike. He was directed to go to the cave in a dream.
However, he permitted his wife to accompany him and when she saw him begin
to sink into the water she screamed with fear. The rock stopped sinking
with Mike only knee deep in the water. Since that time no one has
attempted to enter the room. This promontory is the center of Water Baby
habitation and is reported to be the upper end of a tunnel which extends
under the mountains to Genoa so that Water Babies can move freely from the
la