an aged informant, reputed to have "hunting medicine."

"We never had no poison arrow for bear or deer but had something
just as good. We took red paint and mixed it with marrow from a
deer leg and rubbed it on the shaft and point of the arrow.
Arrowheads for war were little but those for big game like deer or
bear were pretty big."

When I asked my informant the Washo word for this mixture he evaded the
question.

"I don't think they had a word for it. They didn't talk about it,
just used it. If you used it you had to carry some medicine to
work against it, 'cause if you got a scratch of that mixture and
didn't have this other stuff [the counter agent], you was a goner.

"A long time ago one man would hunt. Some of them fellas was
superstitious about using real deer horns, so they would make
horns of manzanita and then cover up with a deer hide. They'd move
along ... taking a long time, just like a deer. That old buck
would try to get to the side away from the wind to smell you, but
you kept circling around so he wouldn't smell you. Finally you
could get real close, maybe only three, four feet ... going around
making sounds just like a deer. Sometimes them bucks would really
believe you and want to fight and then it was dangerous. When you
was close you shot that arrow into the deer right behind the
shoulder blade. That way when he jumped, the shoulder blade comes
back and breaks off the shaft. The man would grab the shaft and
suck off the blood. Then he'd make a little fire on a flat stone
and when it was hot he'd sweep off the fire and spit that on the
stone and it would bubble up and disappear. Then you'd go after
the deer and you'd find him laying there with blood bubbling out
of his nose just like that blood bubbled on the stone."

Other rituals related to hunting dealt with the loss of hunting luck. To
regain one's luck in hunting, a sweat lodge was built, consisting of a
temporary brush shelter (688-759).

To insure luck it was common in the old days to bathe and rub the leaves
of a certain mountain plant over one's body. Other Washo carried a plant
on their persons while hunting, to insure luck. I was unable to get my
informant to give me the Washo name of this plant. Certain other special
medicines are reported. One man, it is hinted, has a medicine which he
rubs on his gun to insure good aim.