The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees Part 9

In some cases the disease is caused by the conjurations of an enemy, through which the patient becomes subject to an inordinate appet.i.te, causing him to eat until his abdomen is unnaturally distended. By the same magic spells tobacco may be conveyed into the mans body, causing him to be affected by faintness and languor. The enemy, if bitterly revengeful, may even put into the body of his victim a worm or insect (tsgya), or a sharpened stick of black locust or fat pine, which will result in death if not removed by a good doctor. Sometimes a weed stalk is in some occult manner conveyed into the patients stomach, where it is transformed into a worm. As this disease is very common, owing to constant quarrels and rival jealousies, there are a number of specialists who devote their attention to it.

The prayer is addressed to the Black, Red, Blue, and White Ravens, their location at the four cardinal points not being specified, excepting in the case of the white raven of Wahili, which, as already stated, is said to be a mountain in the south, and hence is used figuratively to mean the south. The ravens are each in turn declared to have put the disease into a crevice in Sanigalagi--the Cherokee name of Whiteside Mountain, at the head of Tuckasegee River, in North Carolina, and used figuratively for any high precipitous mountain--and to have left no more than a trace upon the ground where it has been. The adjective translated evolute (udanhi) is of frequent occurrence in the formulas, but has no exact equivalent in English. It signifies springing into being or life from an embryonic condition. In this instance it would imply that whatever object the enemy has put into the body of the sick man has there developed into a ghost to trouble him.

The directions are expressed in a rather vague manner, as is the case with most of Ay[n]inis attempts at original composition. The disease is here called by another name, agiliya unitl[n]g[n]i, signifying when they are painfully sick. The treatment consists in sucking the part most affected, the doctor having in his mouth during the operation the blossoms of Tsl-agay[n]li (Nicotiana rustica), Kanasla (wild parsnip,) and Tsliyusti Usdiga (Lobelia inflata.) The first and last of these names signify tobacco and tobacco-like, while the other seems to contain the same word, tsla, and the original idea may have been to counteract the witchcraft by the use of the various species of tobacco, the herb commonly used to drive away a witch or wizard. During the sucking process four red beads lie near upon a piece of (white) cloth, which afterward becomes the perquisite of the doctor. Though not explicitly stated, it is probable that the doctor holds in his mouth a decoction of the blossoms named, rather than the blossoms themselves. On withdrawing his mouth from the spot and ejecting the liquid into a bowl, it is expected that there will be found mixed with it a small stick, a pebble, an insect, or something of the kind, and this the shaman then holds up to view as the cause of the disease. It is afterward buried a hands length (awhil)[12] deep in the mud. No directions were given as to diet or tabu.

[Footnote 12: This word, like the expression seven days, frequently has a figurative meaning. Thus the sun is said to be seven awhil above the earth.]

HUNTING.

GN'HIL[n]TA UG[n]WALI.

Unalelu eskiskaltasi. Iskwalelu eskiskaltasi.

Y! Ela-Kanati tsldahist[n], tswatsila ast[n]

detsatasiga. Tsskwli udanisatesti, ugwalaga uduyahetidegesti. Sunsiya-gw udanisatesti, tssulti-gw niges[n]na.

Hikay[n]li Gigage-gg, tsinetsi ges[n]

awst.i.tegesti. _Tsast utatiyi_, ngwa _tsast gas.h.i.+sati atisgesti_. Ha-ngwa n[n]n tsusdi tutanawa-teg _diganawat[n]ta_ atisgesti.

Utali udanhi ugwalaga g[n]watuyahit.i.tegesti, hilahiy[n]ta-gw [w]uststi niges[n]na. Dstiskwli deudnisatesti. Y!

_Translation._

CONCERNING HUNTING.

Give me the wind. Give me the breeze. Y! O Great Terrestrial Hunter, I come to the edge of your spittle where you repose. Let your stomach cover itself; let it be covered with leaves. Let it cover itself at a single bend, and may you never be satisfied.

And you, O Ancient Red, may you hover above my breast while I sleep.

Now let good (dreams?) develop; let my experiences be propitious.

Ha! Now let my little trails be directed, as they lie down in various directions(?). Let the leaves be covered with the clotted blood, and may it never cease to be so. You two (the Water and the Fire) shall bury it in your stomachs. Y!

_Explanation._

This is a hunting formula, addressed to the two great G.o.ds of the hunter, Fire and Water. The evening before starting the hunter goes to water, as already explained, and recites the appropriate formula.

In the morning he sets out, while still fasting, and travels without eating or drinking until nightfall. At sunset he again goes to water, reciting this formula during the ceremony, after which he builds his camp fire, eats his supper and lies down for the night, first rubbing his breast with ashes from the fire. In the morning he starts out to look for game.

Give me the wind, is a prayer that the wind may be in his favor, so that the game may not scent him. The word rendered here Great Terrestrial Hunter, is in the original Ela-Kanati. In this _ela_ is the earth and _kanati_ is a term applied to a successful hunter. The great Kanati, who, according to the myth, formerly kept all the game shut up in his underground caverns, now dwells above the sky, and is frequently invoked by hunters. The raven also is often addressed as Kanati in these hunting formulas. Ela-Kanati, the Great Terrestrial Hunter--as distinguished from the other two--signifies the river, the name referring to the way in which the tiny streams and rivulets search out and bring down to the great river the leaves and dbris of the mountain forests. In formulas for medicine, love, the ball play, etc., the river is always addressed as the Long Person (Y[n]wi Gnahita). The spittle referred to is the foam at the edge of the water. Let your stomach be covered with leaves means, let the blood-stained leaves where the stricken game shall fall be so numerous as to cover the surface of the water.

The hunter prays also that sufficient game may be found in a single bend of the river to accomplish this result without the necessity of searching through the whole forest, and to that end he further prays that the river may never be satisfied, but continually longing for more. The same idea is repeated in the second paragraph. The hunter is supposed to feed the river with blood washed from the game. In like manner he feeds the fire, addressed in the second paragraph as the Ancient Red, with a piece of meat cut from the tongue of the deer.

The prayer that the fire may hover above his breast while he sleeps and brings him favorable dreams, refers to his rubbing his breast with ashes from his camp fire before lying down to sleep, in order that the fire may bring him dream omens of success for the morrow. The Fire is addressed either as the Ancient White or the Ancient Red, the allusion in the first case being to the light or the ashes of the fire; in the other case, to the color of the burning coals. You two shall bury it in your stomachs refers to the blood-stained leaves and the piece of meat which are cast respectively into the river and the fire. The formula was obtained from Ay[n]ini, who explained it in detail.

HIA TSISKWA GANHILIDASTI YI.

Tsige! Hikay[n]l-Unega, tslthist[n]

glithistaniga. Ngwa tsdant talehisaniga.

Sgwa ignsiya tsskwli udnisatesti, tssulti niges[n]na. Wane(i) tigigage(i) talikaneliga.

[U][n]tali udanhi tsagistati.

Hikay[n]l-Unega, _anuya uwtatgi agisti tatsiskltanelhi_. [U][n]tali udan _tetlskewsiga_.

Hikay[n]l-Unega, n[n]na(hi) kanati skwatetstaniga. Unigwal[n]gi tegat[n]tsiga.

N[n](hi) kanati tatikiy[n]gwitawatisesti.

Unigwal[n]gi tig[n]wattsanhi.

Hikay[n]l-Unega, Kanati, sksalatt.i.tegesti, sakani ginutti niges[n]na. Sge!

_Translation._

THIS IS FOR HUNTING BIRDS.

Listen! O Ancient White, where you dwell in peace I have come to rest.

Now let your spirit arise. Let it (the game brought down) be buried in your stomach, and may your appet.i.te never be satisfied. The red hickories have tied themselves together. The clotted blood is your recompense.

O Ancient White, * * * Accept the clotted blood (?)

O Ancient White, put me in the successful hunting trail. Hang the mangled things upon me. Let me come along the successful trail with them doubled up (under my belt). It (the road) is clothed with the mangled things.

O Ancient White, O Kanati, support me continually, that I may never become blue. Listen!

_Explanation._

This formula, from Ay[n]inis ma.n.u.script, is recited by the bird-hunter in the morning while standing over the fire at his hunting camp before starting out for the days hunt. Ay[n]ini stated that seven blowgun arrows are first prepared, including a small one only a hand-length (awhil) long. On rising in the morning the hunter, standing over the fire, addresses it as the Ancient White. rubbing his hands together while repeating the prayer. He then sets out for the hunting ground, where he expects to spend the day, and on reaching it he shoots away the short arrow at random, without attempting to trace its flight. There is of course some significance attached to this action and perhaps an accompanying prayer, but no further information upon this point was obtainable. Having shot away the magic arrow, the hunter utters a peculiar hissing sound, intended to call up the birds, and then goes to work with his remaining arrows. On all hunting expeditions it is the regular practice, religiously enforced, to abstain from food until sunset.

A favorite method with the bird-hunter during the summer season is to climb a gum tree, which is much frequented by the smaller birds on account of its berries, where, taking up a convenient position amid the branches with his noiseless blowgun and arrows, he deliberately shoots down one bird after another until his shafts are exhausted, when he climbs down, draws out the arrows from the bodies of the birds killed, and climbs up again to repeat the operation. As the light darts used make no sound, the birds seldom take the alarm, and are too busily engaged with the berries to notice their comrades dropping to the ground from time to time, and pay but slight attention even to the movements of the hunter.

The prayer is addressed to the Ancient White (the Fire), the spirit most frequently invoked by the hunter, who, as before stated, rubs his hands together over the fire while repeating the words. The expressions used are obscure when taken alone, but are full of meaning when explained in the light of the hunting customs. The clotted blood refers to the bloodstained leaves upon which the fallen game has lain. The expression occurs constantly in the hunting formulas.

The hunter gathers up these b.l.o.o.d.y leaves and casts them upon the fire, in order to draw omens for the morrow from the manner in which they burn. A part of the tongue, or some other portion of the animal, is usually cast upon the coals also for the same purpose. This subject will be treated at length in a future account of the hunting ceremonies.

Let it be buried in your stomach refers also to the offering made the fire. By the red hickories are meant the strings of hickory bark which the bird hunter twists about his waist for a belt. The dead birds are carried by inserting their heads under this belt.

Red is, of course, symbolic of his success. The mangled things (unigwal[n]gi) are the wounded birds. Kanati is here used to designate the fire, on account of its connection with the hunting ceremonies.

INAGEHI AYSTI[n]YI.

Usinuliyu Selagwtsi Gigagei gets[n]neliga tsdandgihi ayeliyu, usinuliyu. Y!

_Translation._

TO SHOOT DWELLERS IN THE WILDERNESS.

Instantly the Red Selagwtsi strike you in the very center of your soul--instantly. Y!

_Explanation._