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oi°R^cHTs] THE SWIMMER MANUSCRIPT 83
based on mythological reasons; as, for instance, when rabbit's meat is
prohibited because rabbits are believed to be responsible for the disease.
Nor is the injunction of fasting of a nature that could be called
hygienic; whereas the patient may stubbornly fast, and refuse to take
even a particle of food all day long, immediately after sunset he will
eat voraciously and gorge himself with quantities of food that might
very well ruin the stomach of a perfectly healthy mdividual.
As for the so-called seclusion of patients, this is a taboo of the same
tragico-comical nature: A visitor coming from the outside v/ill be
curtly refused admittance to the patient's bedside, or will only be
allowed to enter after a most scrutinizing interrogation as to the
condition of his wife, etc.; women when pregnant, or "under restric-
tions" for other reasons (see p. 34) are rigorously excluded. But the
peace and the quietness around the patient that might thus be
obtained, and that might be of benefit to him, are of no moment at all;
inside the children may be carrying on as if bedlam were let loose, and
I have witnessed cases of grown-up sons who would practice on a
guitar in a most distracting and irritating manner for hours at a
stretch within three yards of their very sick father.
Nor is the Cherokee way of purging by vomiting as efficacious a
practice as we would at first be inclined to believe. Vomiting is
resorted to far too frequently, and in eight cases out of ten without
any plausible reason, and therefore without any beneficial result.
In many cases patients take no food all day, yet force themselves to
this painful procedure of vomiting several times before sunset,
quite an alarming state of exhaustion often being the result.
This should be no cause of surprise to us, since we know that
vomiting is practiced not so much to eliminate unwholesome or
indigestible foodstuffs, but merely to "throw off our spoiled saliva"
(see p. 15), or for similar reasons.
To come to a conclusion: If we marvel at it that ever a Cherokee
patient recovers, we feel that we have to give the credit to his strong
constitution, to the invigorating mountain air, and to the simple
food he takes—lacking all spices and stimulants—much more than
to the medicine man and his simples.
THE MEDICINE MAN
Having devoted the previous chapter to a fairly comprehensive
survey of aboriginal beliefs concerning disease and its treatment, we
will now give our attention to a most commanding figure in Cherokee
life; a figure not only dominating the community in cases of disease
and death but exercising its influence in almost all aspects of everyday
life—the medicine man. (PI. 8, a.)
Medicine men do not have special names, nor are they grouped in
any society. Although they are sometimes referred to as ana^'ngwi'ski,