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
As in this case the cause of the trouble is evident, the Indians have
no theory to account for it. It may be remarked, however, that when
one dreams of being bitten, the same treatment and ceremonies must
be used as for the actual bite; otherwise, although perhaps years
afterward, a similar inflammation will appear on the spot indicated
in the dream, and will be followed by the same fatal consequences. The
rattlesnake is regarded as a supernatural being or ada´wehi, whose
favor must be propitiated, and great pains are taken not to offend
him. In consonance with this idea it is never said among the people
that a person has been bitten by a snake, but that he has been
“scratched by a brier.” In the same way, when an eagle has been shot
for a ceremonial dance, it is announced that “a snowbird has been
killed,” the purpose being to deceive the rattlesnake or eagle spirits
which might be listening.
The assertion that it is “only a common frog” or “only an Usu´‘gĭ”
brings out another characteristic idea of these formulas. Whenever the
ailment is of a serious character, or, according to the Indian theory,
whenever it is due to the influence of some powerful disease spirit
the doctor always endeavors to throw contempt upon the intruder, and
convince it of his own superior power by asserting the sickness to
be the work of some inferior being, just as a white physician might
encourage a patient far gone with consumption by telling him that the
illness was only a slight cold. Sometimes there is a regular scale of
depreciation, the doctor first ascribing the disease to a rabbit or
groundhog or some other weak animal, then in succeeding paragraphs
mentioning other still less important animals and finally declaring it
to be the work of a mouse, a small fish, or some other insignificant
creature. In this instance an ailment caused by the rattlesnake, the
most dreaded of the animal spirits, is ascribed to a frog, one of the
least importance.
In applying the remedy the song is probably sung while rubbing the
tobacco juice around the wound. Then the short recitation is repeated
and the doctor blows four times in a circle about the spot. The whole
ceremony is repeated four times. The curious directions for uncoiling
the snake have parallels in European folk medicine.
GÛ[n]WĂNI´GIST´Ǐ ADANU´[n]WÂTǏ.
Sgĕ! Ha-tsida´wĕiyu, gahus´tĭ aginúl‘tĭ nige´sû[n]na.
Gû[n]gwădag´anad‘diyû´ tsida´wĕi´yu. Ha-Wăhuhu´-gwû
hitagu´sgastanĕ‘hĕĭ. Ha-nâ´gwa hŭ‘kikahû[n]û´
ha-dusŭ´‘gahĭ digesû´[n]ĭ, iyû´[n]ta
wû[n]‘kidâ´hĭstani´ga.
Sgĕ! Ha-tsida´wĕi´yu, gahu´stĭ aginu´l‘tĭ nige´sû[n]na.
Gû[n]gwădaga´nad’diyû´ tsida´wĕi´yu. Ha-Uguku´-gwû
hitagu´sgastanĕ´heĭ´ udâhi´yu tag´u´sgastanĕ´hĕĭ´.
Ha-na´gwadi´na hû[n]kikahû[n]nû´. Ha-nânâ´hĭ digesŭ´[n]ĭ
iyû´[n]ta wû[n]‘kidâ´hĭstani´ga.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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