Pow-Wows, or Long Lost Friend, by John George Hoffman, [1820], at sacred-texts.com
TO COMPEL A THIEF TO RETURN STOLEN GOODS.
Walk out early in the morning before sunrise, to a juniper-tree, and bend it with the left hand toward the rising sun, while you are saying: Juniper-tree, I shall bend and squeeze thee, until the thief has returned the stolen goods to the place from which he took them. Then you must take a stone and put it on the bush, and under the bush and the stone you must place the skull of a malefactor. + + + Yet you must be careful, in case the thief returns the stolen goods, to unloose the bush and replace the stone where it was before.