medicine dance

a ritual dance performed by some North American Indians to invoke supernatural assistance as for driving out disease.

Origin of medicine dance

First recorded in 1800–10

I have also indicated the closest of all known parallels to the Eleusinian in a medicine-dance and legend of the Pawnees.

The Homeric Hymns |Andrew Lang
One speaks of the medicine-dance with respect; another smiles at the name.

The Origin of Man and of his Superstitions |Carveth Read
The tune they sung to the Medicine-dance of the Loucheux, struck me as being soft and pretty.

Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea |John Franklin
It was but the "medicine-dance" of a very old Greek tribal settlement, perhaps from the first with an ethical element.

Myth, Ritual And Religion, Vol. 2 (of 2) |Andrew Lang