Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

OLBRECHTs] THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 73
to Cherokee standards. The instrument used (i;'yo''no° "horn" when
off the aninial; of. vtluGa', ''horn," when still attached) used to be
made out of a buffalo horn: yansa' y^yo'-no'' it is still often called in
the medicinal prescriptions. Nowadays a cow horn provides the raw
material.
The top and the base of the horn are cut off, leaving a slightly
tapering tube about 4 centuneters long which is shaved off on the out-
side and on the inside. The top opening, which is the narrower, is
covered by the tightly stretched skin of a turkey's gizzard. The
whole has the appearance of a small liqueur goblet. (PI. 7, g.)
This contrivance is used very much as the cupping glass of the white
physician is used, with this difference, that the oxygen-absorbing role
of combustion being unknown, the air is eliminated by sucking. The
horn is placed on the part of the body that is to be operated upon,
and by setting it slightly at an angle, the medicine man manages to
eliminate the air out of the cavity by sucking at the bottom of the
horn. Although the cupping glass and the sucking horn have a very
v/ide distribution, this is, as far as I am aware, a unique way of using
this instrument.
It often happened that at the end of the operation some small object,
a small pebble, a worm, an insect, was found in the horn. This the
medicine man claimed had been extracted from the body and was the
disease agent. The horn was used especially in ailments where a
swelling was noticeable, such as toothache, boils, etc. Nowadays it
is seldom used. As a matter of fact there was not one specimen to
be found while I stayed with the Cherokee, and I had to have one
made by Del. (see p. 115; pi. 7, g), one of the few medicine men who
still remembered their use and who knew how to make them.
Whenever there is now any sucking to be done the horn is simply
dispensed with, the medicine man merely applying his lips to the
swelling.
Prophylaxis
Neither the utter neglect of hygienic precautions nor the total
ignorance of measures to prevent and avert disease which we find
prevailing in primitive communities should cause us any surprise.
These conditions are to be explained by the proverbial lack of fore-
sight which seems to be the appanage of all less civilized groups.
The problem of the day is enough for the mind of these happy-golucky
people, "Let us enjoy health while we have it, and if anything
goes wrong there is the medicine man to look after it.
It is explained also by the existence of a kind of prophylaxis which
by ethnologists is not generally considered as such; it might be called
a "mythological prophylaxis," viz, the careful observance of all in-
junctions and restrictions governing tribal life. If a Cherokee does
not expectorate into the fire, he consciously or unconsciously observes
"