Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [V.vu.. 09
plur, Dt"'Da'n9Wt'ski ("he cures anyone"; "he cures people") it is
more customary to call them by a name which is more discriminating
and descriptive of the specialty to which the medicine man referred
to devoted himself.
The overwhelndng majority of the practitioners are men; sporadi-
cally tliere is yet a medicine woman to be found, but there are indi-
cations that lead us to believe that formerly there were far more of
them tlian is now the case. An informant, when asked to account
for the fact that tliere were so few female disease curers, as compared
to males, told me that it was "because women do not take so much
interest in it (i. e., in the study of plants, of the formulas, etc.) as
men do."
Apart from midwives (see p. 122) there are now only two medicine
women wortli speaking of—an old person of about 80 years old,
called aGy-'ya (i.e., "it is being taken out of the liquid") and se''lt3'^€''ni
(Sally-Annie?), the wife of Og. (PL 8, 6.)
A couple of the regular nudwives will also occasionally go in for
some curing of ailments that do not quite fall within their compe-
tence, but this is not usual.
If a woman practices at all she does not limit herself to patients
of her own sex, nor to any set diseases; nor is the treatment by her
of any ailments, even in male patients, considered improper. She
exercises her profession on a par with her male congeners, enjoys tlie
same rights, and if her knowledge and her skill justifies it, she may
in time be held in the same reputation as one of the leading members
of the faculty.
As ^^dll be seen again and again in these pages, the medicine men
are the staunchest supporters of aboriginal faith, lore and custom,
and with the disintegration of Cherokee material culture and social
organization the medicine man has obtained a position of leadership
which in many instances practically amounts to that of political head
in another tribe.
Different Classes
However much the proverbial tooth of time has gnawed at Cherokee
organization and tradition, it is still possible to find in the present
body of medicine men traces of a difl"erentiation which must have
existed to an even greater extent at a more remote period.
It might as well be stressed right away that throughout this paper
the term "medicine man" is used to cover a rather broad concept;
it is used without distinction as to sex, and refers not only to those
members of the tribe that treat the sick and cure diseases, but also to
those tluit might be called "priests," "magicians," "divinators," etc.
A short discussion of these several varieties follows now, together
A\-ith the names given to these practitioners and the practices they