Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

96 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99
results: uGi'sto.tr, the technical name for what we could call the
doctor's fee or honorarium, does not seem to be etymologically con-
nected with the verb \/-Gt*- "to eat something solid" ("I eat it, sol.":
tsi'Gi*a') but with the rather siiiiilar sounding >/-Gr-, "to take some-
thing" ("I take it": tSi^Gf.a).
The literal and original meaning of nGt'sto.ti' would thus seem
to be "for hhn to take it with " (v- 3d sgl. objective pronominal prefix;
-Gi- (stem); -st-i- causative-instrujiiental (cf. aye'lsti "knife"; lit.
"something to cut with," stem -vZ-ye*!-); -ot- instrmnental sufRx.
The medicine men themselves liave now lost this original meaning
of the word, and when questioned about it usually render its mean-
ing as "reward"; they all emphatically deny that tlie uGt'sto.ti' is
the medicine man's pay; and this is true in so far that the value of
it, e. g., the quantity or the quality of the cloth, is no factor in the
cure. But they all agree tliat the uGt'sto.ti' is an indispensable
prerequisite to effect the cure.
By some expressions found in the formulas some more light is
thrown on the matter. A medicine man, going out to gather simples
(see p. 150), recites a formula in one of the first expressions of which
he says: "With the wldte cloth I have come to take away the medicine"
a^Njgwa'ci une-'co" n9-'"wo't'i' tstGt'sto.t'a'ufGa'
cloth white medicino I have come to tuko it away with
A fonnula for "when the ghosts have clianged their food," in
Ms. II, starts as follows: "Now then! Ila, quickly thou hast come
to listen, thou red Ot^er, thou art staying in the Sun Land . . . Now
thou hast come to rest on the white clotli,
away with it."
and wilt pull the disease
These two references go a long way toward proving that originally
the meaning of the expression here discussed must have been either
(1) That which is used by him (the medicine man) to take, to
gather the medicine with (see p. 55), or else
(2) That which is used by (the curing spirit) to take it (i. e., the
disease) away with.
I am inclined to consider the last version as the more probable,
as there is still other evidence, yet to be published, which corroborates
this feeling.
It is likely that in time, since the medicine man always took the
yGt'sto.ti' away as his fee, the true meaning of the word got lost,
and that it acquired that of "reward." Oidy after this semantic
development, I think, did the use of other articles than buckskin
become possible as uGt'sto.ti', such as (flint) knives, moccasins, etc.,
since these can be considered as reward, but could hardly be used to
be "spread out for the curing spirit to put his feet on, to pull the
disease away with."
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