A Tlingit suspected of witchcraft was tied up for 8 or 10 days to extort a confession from him, and he was liberated at the end of that period if he were still alive. But, as confession secured immediate liberty and involved no unpleasant consequences except an obligation to remove the spell, few were probably found innocent. This, however, can hardly be considered as a real ordeal, since the guilt of the victim was practically assumed, and the test was in the nature of a torment to extract confession.

Also connected with ordeals of this class were contests between individuals and groups, for it was supposed that victory was determined more by supernatural than by natural powers. A case is recorded among the Comanche where two men whose ill will toward each other had become so great as to defy all attempts at reconciliation were allowed to fight a duel. Their left arms were tied together, a knife placed in the right hand of each, and they fought until both fell. A similar duel is recorded in a Teton myth and the Eskimo practiced similar contests.

In this culture, when two Eskimo groups met for the first time, each party selected a champion, and the two struck each other on the side of the head or the bared shoulders until one gave in. Champions of ancient Eskimo bands, Netchilirmiut and Aivilirmiut,  contested by pressing the points of their knives against each others cheeks. Such contests were also forced on persons wandering among strange people and were often matters of life and death. Chinook myths speak of similar tests of endurance between super natural beings, and perhaps they were shared by men. Differences between towns on the north Pacific coast were often settled by appointing a day for fighting, when the people of both sides arrayed themselves in their hide and wooden armor and engaged in a pitched battle, the issue being determined by the fall of one or two prominent men. Contests between strangers or representatives of different towns or social groups were also settled by playing a game. At a feast on the north Pacific coast one who had used careless or slighting words toward the people of his host was forced to devour a tray full of bad-tasting food, or perhaps to swallow a quantity of urine. Two persons often contested to see which could empty a tray the more expeditiously.

Ordeals of the second type covered the hardships placed upon a growing boy to make him strong, the fasts and regulations to which a girl was subjected at puberty, and those which a youth underwent in order to obtain supernatural helpers, as well as the solitary fasts of persons who desired to become priests or medicine men who desired greater supernatural power. These tests of endurance were especially applicable to the fasts and tortures undergone in preparation for ceremonies or during initiations into secret societies.