The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 301-398 — John Shaqi
The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 301-398Mooney, James
Religion
The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees: Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-1886, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1891, pages 301-398
Mooney, James
Cherokee Indians -- Religion; Cherokee language -- Texts; Indians of North America -- Medicine
8. GÛ´NǏGWALǏ´SKǏ=“It becomes discolored when
bruised”--Scutellaria lateriflora--Skullcap. The name refers to
the red juice which comes out of the stalk when bruised or chewed.
A decoction of the four varieties of Gûnigwalĭ´skĭ--S. lateriflora,
S. pilosa, Hypericum corymbosum, and Stylosanthes elatior--is drunk to
promote menstruation, and the same decoction is also drunk and used
as a wash to counteract the ill effects of eating food prepared by a
woman in the menstrual condition, or when such a woman by chance comes
into a sick room or a house under the tabu; also drunk for diarrhea
and used with other herbs in decoction for breast pains. Dispensatory:
This plant “produces no very obvious effects,” but some doctors regard
it as possessed of nervine, antispasmodic and tonic properties. None
of the other three species are named.
9. K´GA SKÛ´[n]TAGǏ=“crow shin”--Adiantum pedatum--Maidenhair
Fern: Used either in decoction or poultice for rheumatism and chills,
generally in connection with some other fern. The doctors explain
that the fronds of the different varieties of fern are curled up
in the young plant, but unroll and straighten out as it grows, and
consequently a decoction of ferns causes the contracted muscles of
the rheumatic patient to unbend and straighten out in like manner. It
is also used in decoction for fever. Dispensatory: The leaves “have
been supposed to be useful in chronic catarrh and other pectoral
affections.”
10. ANDA´NKALAGI´SKǏ=“it removes things from the gums”--Geranium
maculatum--Wild Alum, Cranesbill: Used in decoction with Yânû
Unihye´stĭ (Vitis cordifolia) to wash the mouths of children in
thrush; also used alone for the same purpose by blowing the chewed
fiber into the mouth. Dispensatory: “One of our best indigenous
astringents. * * * Diarrhea, chronic dysentery, cholora infantum
in the latter stages, and the various hemorrhages are the forms of
disease in which it is most commonly used.” Also valuable as “an
application to indolent ulcers, an injection in gleet and leucorrhea,
a gargle in relaxation of the uvula and aphthous ulcerations of the
throat.” The other plant sometimes used with it is not mentioned.
11. Û´[n]LĚ UKǏ´LTǏ=“the locust frequents it”--Gillenia
trifoliata--Indian Physic. Two doctors state that it is good as a tea
for bowel complaints, with fever and yellow vomit; but another says
that it is poisonous and that no decoction is ever drunk, but that the
beaten root is a good poultice for swellings. Dispensatory: “Gillenia
is a mild and efficient emetic, and like most substances belonging to
the same class occasionally acts upon the bowels. In very small doses
it has been thought to be tonic.”
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