siOBX; - Smithsonian Institution

238 BUKEAU OF AMERICAN" ETHNOLOGY [Bdll.103
The wild cherry (Choctaw, iti alikchi) is looked upon as one of
the best medicines for young girls. In winter, if cherry wine has
not been put up, a tea may be made of the leaves which is given
internally to stop pain and cause perspiration. If enough is taken
it will purify the blood. If the leaves are gone, the outside bark may
be peeled away and the inside bark used in the same way and for
the same purposes. It was an axiom never to kill a cherry tree if
it could be helped.
The prickly ash (Choctaw, nuti alikchi) is good in cases of tooth-
ache. A piece of bark may be cut off to hold in the cavity of the
tooth, or it may be powdered and made into a poultice.
Modoc weed (Choctaw, akshish lakna, " yellow root ") was used
for a weak stomach, in cases of fainting or when the nerves give
way. The roots were boiled in water and taken along with whisky.
Golden rod (Choctaw, okhi"sh balali) and the puccoon root were
sold to the whites for medicinal purposes but not employed by the
Choctaw.
The pottage pea (Choctaw, balongtiachi tapachi) is an onion-
like root with a sweetish taste used in cases of diarrhea.
The butterfly root (Choctaw, hatapushik okhi°sh, " butterfly
medicine ") was used for human beings in cases of colds. The tops
could be employed as well as the roots. However, it seems to have
been more often employed as a medicine for horses, being given when
they had the blind staggers or seemed phj^sically broken down. It
was also given them in the fall to protect them from such sickness
the following spring.
Wlien they gave up their old out-of-doors life and came to live in
poorly ventilated houses of poles and split logs daubed with mud the
Choctaw were attacked by tuberculosis and suffered severely. It was
suggested that they move out into the forest until they got well and
those who did so saved a part of their families but most of the others
died. Some white families were no better off. While the white peo-
ple remained in one place and kept cleaning that, the Indians waited
until the house became too filthy for them and then moved and put
up another.
The following experience with a medicine man was given me by
Simpson Tubby and is illustrative of the nature of later Choctaw
practice. Simpson was once sick and sent for a native practitioner.
When the latter came in where Simpson was lying, head to the
east, he stood on the north side of him, passed along to his head,
fanning him all the way and then round to the south side in the same
manner. After that he doubled up his hands and blew through
them three times, looking north and toward the top of the house.
Then he said to the people in the house, "This man was dreaded