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
Unawa´stĭ, “that which chills one,” is a generic name for
intermittent fever, otherwise known as fever and ague. It is much
dreaded by the Indian doctors, who recognize several varieties of
the disease, and have various theories to account for them. The above
formula was obtained from A‘yû´[n]ni (Swimmer), who described the
symptoms of this variety, the “Great Chill,” as blackness in the face,
with alternate high fever and shaking chills. The disease generally
appeared in spring or summer, and might return year after year. In the
first stages the chill usually came on early in the morning, but came
on later in the day as the disease progressed. There might be more
than one chill during the day. There was no rule as to appetite, but
the fever always produced an excessive thirst. In one instance the
patient fainted from the heat and would even lie down in a stream to
cool himself. The doctor believed the disease was caused by malicious
tsgâ´ya, a general name for all small insects and worms, excepting
intestinal worms. These tsgâ´ya--that is, the disease tsgâ´ya, not
the real insects and worms--are held responsible for a large number
of diseases, and in fact the tsgâ´ya doctrine is to the Cherokee
practitioner what the microbe theory is to some modern scientists. The
tsgâ´ya live in the earth, in the water, in the air, in the foliage
of trees, in decaying wood, or wherever else insects lodge, and as
they are constantly being crushed, burned or otherwise destroyed
through the unthinking carelessness of the human race, they are
continually actuated by a spirit of revenge. To accomplish their
vengeance, according to the doctors, they “establish towns” under the
skin of their victims, thus producing an irritation which results in
fevers, boils, scrofula and other diseases.
The formula begins with a song of four verses, in which the doctor
invokes in succession the spirits of the air, of the mountain, of
the forest, and of the water. Galû[n]latĭ, the word used in the
first verse, signifies, as has been already explained, “on high” or
“above everything,” and has been used by translators to mean heaven.
Û[n]wadâ´hĭ in the second verse is the name of a bald mountain
east of Webster, North Carolina, and is used figuratively to denote
any mountains of bold outline. The Cherokees have a tradition
to account for the name, which is derived from Û[n]wadâ´lĭ,
“provision house.” Nâ´tsihĭ´ in the third verse signifies
“pinery,” from nâ´‘tsĭ, “pine,” but is figuratively used to denote
a forest of any kind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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